The prophets wrote (literally “It is written in the prophets”) may suggest that John is referring to several prophetic books. Actually, Everyone will be taught by God is a free rendering of Isaiah 54.13. Rather than attempt to explain to the reader why prophets is the plural, it may be better to translate “One of the prophets wrote” or “The following words occur in one of the books written by the prophets.”

Anyone who hears the Father and learns from him comes to me is a slight restructuring of the Greek “everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to me.” Moffatt, New English Bible, and New American Bible all restructure in essentially the same way. However, they differ from Good News Translation in translating the two Greek aorist participles in the past tense (New English Bible, for example, “has listened to” and “learned”). The Greek aorist participles may have either the force of a past tense or of a timeless tense, as in Good News Translation. The same verb tense is used of hearing the Father in 8.26,40, and 15.15, where Good News Translation has either a past (“I heard”) or a perfect (“I have heard”). In each case it is Jesus who hears the Father.

As in many other contexts, hears involves more than mere “listening to.” It is really equivalent to learns.

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 .