It may be necessary in some languages to combine Jesus and his disciples as coordinate objects of the verb saw, for example, “when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there.” In some languages it is preferable to translate saw as “recognized” or “realized,” since the experience was not merely visual.

Again in this brief passage Good News Translation substitutes a pronoun for a noun in the Greek text because of the nature of English discourse structure. Looking for him is literally “looking for Jesus.” This phrase may be expressed as purpose, for example, “in order to look for him” or “in order to try to find him.”

It should be noted that once again John introduces a verse with the Greek conjunction oun (literally “therefore”). In Revised Standard Version it is translated “so,” but in Good News Translation and some other translations it does not appear.

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 .