A literal translation of the last part of this verse may be misunderstood. Note, for example, Revised Standard Version “… for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place” This could intimate that Jesus left because of the crowd. Good News Translation avoids this ambiguity by translating for there was a crowd in that place, and Jesus had slipped away, making it clear that the presence of the crowd made it possible for Jesus to slip away. New English Bible has “for the place was crowded and Jesus slipped away.” Jerusalem Bible is even clearer: “since Jesus had disappeared into the crowd that filled the place.”

In rendering the man who had been healed did not know who Jesus was, it is important not to employ forms which would be misleading, that is, which would suggest that the man did not know who he himself was. It may be necessary to say “the man who was healed did not know who Jesus was” or “… who it was who had healed 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 .