The first sentence of this verse is literally “Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about the sixth hour” (Revised Standard Version). Good News Translation inverts the order of the Greek sentence, placing the time (noon) before the day (the day before the Passover). It was then almost noon translates the same expression rendered It was about noon in 4.6 (see the comments there). The Greek word paraskeuō, translated the day before, means literally “preparation.” In the Synoptic Gospels (Matt 27.62; Mark 15.42; Luke 23.54) the word refers to the day before the Sabbath. Since no work could be done on the Sabbath, all the preparations had to be made the day before. In John also Jesus died on the day before the Sabbath (19.31,42). However, for him this particular Sabbath was also the Passover, and therefore in 19.14 paraskeuō is used in the phrase “Day of Preparation for Passover.”

In Greek Pilate said is simply “he says.” Since Jesus (verse 13) was the last proper name mentioned, Good News Translation makes reference to Pilate explicit, in order to avoid confusion on the part of the reader.

Here is your king! (so most translations; Moffatt and Goodspeed have “there is your king”) is translated “Look at your king!” by New American Bible, and “Look, here’s your king!” by Phillips. In Greek this sentence has no verb; it begins with the particle ide (see 19.4 and 18.21), which has the force of drawing attention to the subject that follows.

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 .