Good News Translation transforms the Greek passive structure (New English Bible “there appeared a man named John, sent from God”) into an active one, God sent his messenger, a man named John. The verb rendered “appeared” (New English Bible, Revised Standard Version “there was”; Jerusalem Bible “came”) is aorist, and the participle translated sent is perfect, and so both are in contrast with the imperfect tense (was) of verses 1,2,4 and present tense of verse 5 (shines). The significance in this change of tense is that the imperfect and the present point to something which exists outside the limits of time, while the aorist and the perfect suggest an event which took place in history. The Greek participle (“sent”) is rendered as a finite verb plus an object (sent his messenger).

A literal rendering of verse 6, such as “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John,” presents so many complications in translation that it is better to employ a rendering which clearly indicates God as the agent of the sending.

An appositional phrase, a man named John, can be placed after the expression his messenger. If one follows the Greek text literally, a reader in any one of several languages may seriously misunderstand the relation between the clause “whose name was John” and the immediately preceding referent, namely, “God.” In fact, in some languages this is precisely what people understand—that God’s name was John.

Though the Greek text does not have a noun meaning messenger, the verb translated sent really means “to send as a messenger” or “to send with a message.” Good News Translation simply restructures this expression, placing the meaning of “messenger” in a noun form, rather than inadequately translating it as a verb, such as “sent.”

A man named John may be rendered in some languages “a man whom people called John” or “a man who had the name John.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .