The Greek of this verse does not explicitly mention Jesus, but it is obvious that the pronoun “he” of the Greek text refers to him; Good News Translation and New English Bible make this information explicit in the text. Jerusalem Bible does so by means of a section heading (“Jesus withdraws to the other side of the Jordan”).

The Greek of this verse and the two following verses reflects Semitic style in the use of the coordinating conjunction “and.” Literally these verses are introduced, “(40) And he … (41) And many people … (42) And many people.” Naturally, it is not necessary to retain all these “ands” in the receptor language. Good News Translation, for example, has and only in verse 42.

The Greek has “across the Jordan”; Good News Translation adds the classifier River.

Where John had been baptizing is more literally “where John at first baptized” (Revised Standard Version) or “Where John was baptizing earlier.” By the use of the past perfect tense (had been baptizing), Good News Translation retains the force of the Greek past linear tense “was baptizing” in combination with the adverb “earlier.” If a choice must be made between the rendering “at first” and “earlier,” then “earlier” is to be preferred. To translate “at first” may suggest that John at first baptized at this place and later baptized somewhere else. Rather, the force of the Greek is merely to throw back the point of action to an earlier time (see New English Bible “where John had been baptizing earlier”). The place referred to is Bethany (see 1.28).

In selecting the form of the verb stayed it may be necessary in some languages to imply the time approximately involved, whether a few days, a few weeks, or several months. In view of the context, a form suggesting a period of several weeks may be preferable.

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 .