In Greek knew is actually a participle (Revised Standard Version “knowing”) dependent on the two main verbs stepped forward and asked. John is always careful to indicate that Jesus knows what is going to happen to him (see 13.1) and so is master of his own fate. Here Jesus takes the initiative in stepping out and speaking to the people who come to arrest him.

Rather than the generic expression everything that was going to happen to him, it may be necessary in some languages to use a more specific description of the impending events, for example, “all that they were going to do to him” or “how they were going to treat him.”

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 .