Aenon, not far from Salim cannot be identified with certainty. One ancient tradition locates these placed on the west bank of the Jordan River, about eight miles south of the town of Scythopolis. It is thought by others that if this were the location intended, it would be unnecessary to mention that there was plenty of water in that place. Some scholars even take these names to be symbolic, and such an interpretation is possible, but it seems more probable that the Fourth Gospel intends actual places.

People were going to him, and he was baptizing them is literally “and they were going and they were being baptized.” All commentators understand “they” in both occurrences to refer to the people of that region, and to him (that is, “to John”) is implied in the sentence construction. Good News Translation makes this information explicitly and further transforms the second of these verbs from a passive to an active construction: he was baptizing them.

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 .