The first part of this verse in Greek is literally “Therefore they said to him, ‘Therefore what sign are you doing….’ ” As noted earlier, the word “therefore” (Greek oun) is used frequently in John’s Gospel without any particular grammatical force. For example, it appears again at the beginning of verses 32 and 34 (see under 2.18).

Once again, miracle translates the word “sign,” used so often in John’s Gospel. In the present passage it refers to some miraculous act of power by which Jesus could prove to the crowd who he was. They have already seen Jesus perform a sign of power, but they want a further sign. If he claims to be greater than Moses, then he must perform some sign of power greater than the signs that Moses did (see verses 31-32).

Will you perform. The pronoun you is emphatic in Greek.

It, as the object of the verb see, is supplied translationally in Good News Translation; it is implicit in the Greek text.

Believe you is taken by some translators in the sense of “believe in you.” The Greek construction is not the one normally used for believing in Jesus. Here the Jews are considering nothing more than accepting Jesus’ words as true.

It may be important to indicate clearly the relation between the expressions we may see it and believe you. The relation is one of reason and result; it may be made specific as “in order that we may see the miracle and as a result believe you” or “… believe what you say.”

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 .