After this is literally “but after these things,” a generalizing temporal marker often used by John to introduce new sections in his narrative.

Joseph, who was from the town of Arimathea is literally “Joseph from Arimathea.” Since the name Arimathea is not widely known, it is important to identify it as a town, Joseph from Arimathea is mentioned in all four Gospels in connection with Jesus’ burial, but nowhere else in the New Testament. The location of the town of Arimathea is not definitely known, but none of the suggestions for its location place it in Galilee. Joseph was evidently from Judea.

Rather than saying, take Jesus’ body, it may be necessary to say “take the body of Jesus to bury it” or “… to place it in a tomb.” Otherwise such an expression as “take a body” could suggest some evil intention.

Follower translates the Greek word mathētēs, which elsewhere in John’s Gospel is rendered disciple. Good News Translation uses follower here to avoid confusing the reader with the notion of a “secret disciple.”

According to 12.42, many Jewish authorities believed in Jesus: but because of the Pharisees they did not talk about it openly. In 12.43 John is critical of such persons: They loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. In 19.38, however, no such harsh judgment is expressed. Perhaps John considers Joseph to be no longer a secret follower of Jesus, now that he has openly requested Jesus’ body for burial. But in secret may be rendered “but he had not let other people know about it” or “but he hadn’t told anyone about it.”

Jewish authorities is literally “Jews.” (See Appendix I.)

Pilate told him he could have the body is literally “and Pilate permitted (it).” The clause so Joseph went and took it away is literally “so he came and took away his body.” Since Good News Translation mentions the body in the first part of this sentence, it may be referred to in the second part by the pronoun it. In order to avoid pronominal ambiguities, Good News Translation identifies Joseph explicitly in this verse.

In some languages it is necessary to say specifically what took it away implies. That is, one must indicate that Joseph of Arimathea either personally carried the body of Jesus or had it carried. Furthermore, many languages require terms which indicate how a corpse would be carried. The likelihood is that Jesus’ body was carried on a kind of stretcher or bier, such as were often used in ancient times to transport a body to a tomb or grave.

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 .