In Greek this verse is a single sentence (note Revised Standard Version “Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said…”), which New English Bible divides into two sentences (“Jesus heard that they had expelled him. When he found him he asked…”). Good News Translation translates as one sentence but restructures the verse. Such differences between the Greek and English sentence divisions reflect the efforts of translators to achieve a natural sounding English style.

In translating he found the man, it is important to note that some languages have several different words for “find.” Sometimes the meaning is “to come upon something accidentally,” but in this particular context the implication is that Jesus, having heard about the man’s being expelled from the synagogue, went to find him, that is, “looked for him and then found him.”

Instead of the reading the Son of Man, some ancient manuscripts have “the Son of God,” but the manuscript evidence is strongly in favor of the reading the Son of Man. If “the Son of God” had been the original reading, it is doubtful that a scribe would have changed it to read the Son of Man. No modern translation follows the reading “the Son of God.” In many contexts it is important to introduce the first person singular when Jesus speaks of the Son of Man, but to do so in this context would not make sense, since immediately afterward the man asks who the Son of Man is.

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 .