New American Bible attempts to reproduce the force of the Greek imperfect (Good News Translation said) by translating “kept saying.”

In translating the Greek rhetorical question, Good News Translation attempts to structure it so that the reader will understand the expected answer to be “Yes.”

The adverb now (Greek nun) appears in some Greek manuscripts, while in others the particle oun appears. The adverb now does seem clumsy in the Greek sentence structure. Perhaps for this reason some ancient scribes omitted it and others changed it to oun. The UBS Committee on the Greek text concludes that nun (now) is an original part of the Greek text, though evaluating its decision as a “C” choice. Most modern translations include now; New American Bible omits it.

In Greek the last part of this sentence appears as direct discourse, “I have come down from heaven”; Good News Translation renders it as indirect discourse, he came down from heaven, thus avoiding a quotation within a quotation and simplifying the English sentence structure.

How, then introduces an objection. Compare the objection of Nicodemus: How can this be? (3.9). In some languages a similar expression should be used here also, for example, “How then is he able now to say?” or “How is it possible that he can now say?”

The Greek word order is changed in translation. In Greek the phrase from heaven actually precedes the verb came down, placing the adverbial phrase in the emphatic position.

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 .