Translation commentary on John 14:21

Whoever accepts is actually a participial phrase in Greek (literally “the one having”). On this construction see 12.44. The indefinite relative clause may be treated as a conditional clause, for example, “if anyone accepts my commandments.”

Accepts is literally “has.” Some commentators understand obeys (literally “keeps”) as a step beyond accepting, but this interpretation is doubtful. It is better to take the two verbs as a kind of parallelism, as in New American Bible “He who obeys the commandments he has from me is the man who loves me.” New English Bible renders “The man who has received my commands and obeys them….” It is very difficult in some languages to make a distinction between “accepting” and “obeying” commandments. Some translators try to render accepts my commandments as equivalent to “acknowledges my commandments” or “recognizes my commandments,” as if there were two stages involved in a person’s relation to the commandments of Jesus. This interpretation, however, does not carry the meaning of this passage; therefore it may be better to translate “whoever obeys my commandments” or “whoever does what I have commanded him to do.”

My Father will love whoever loves me is literally “the one who loves me will be loved by my Father.” Good News Translation inverts the order of the Greek, changing the passive into an active construction, and making my Father, the agent of the passive verb, into the subject of the active verb. Just as the first clause of verse 21 may be treated as conditional, whoever loves me may also be treated as conditional, for example, “if anyone loves me, my Father will love him.”

The verb translated reveal is used in John’s Gospel only here and in the following verse. As in the Septuagint of Exodus 33.13 it is used of a special divine manifestation. I … will … reveal myself to him is more than merely “showing him who I am.” An equivalent in some languages is “I will come to him” or “… come to him personally.”

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on John 14:21

14:21a

Whoever has My commandments and keeps them: The word Whoever is indefinite. That means that it refers to anyone and everyone who obeys Jesus’ commandments. Express this indefinite subject in a way that is natural in your language. For example:

People who have my commands and keeps them
-or-
If you (plur.) have my commands and follow them
-or-
Anyone who has received my commandments and obeys them
-or-
Those who accept my commandments and obey them

has My commandments and keeps them: This phrase means “know what I want them to do and do it.” These people understand what Jesus commanded them to do and they do what he commanded. In some languages it is more natural to express these two ideas as one. For example:

whoever does what I commanded him to do
-or-
whoever obeys my commands

is the one who loves Me: The clause the one who loves Me refers to the same person as “Whoever has My commandments and keeps them.” So the subjects of the two clauses should agree in number. (They should both be singular or both be plural.) These people show that they love Jesus when they obey what he has told them to do.

14:21b

The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father: This clause indicates that God the Father will love those people who love Jesus, his Son. The verb phrase will be loved by My Father is passive. There are at least two ways to translate it:

• Use a passive verb. For example:

And he who loves me will be loved by my Father. (English Standard Version)

• Use an active verb. For example:

My Father will love those who love me. (Good News Translation)

Use the verb form that is most natural in your language here.

who loves Me: This noun clause refers back to the people mentioned in 14:21a. Refer to this indefinite subject in a way that is natural in your language. For example:

People who love me
-or-
If you love me you
-or-
All who love me
-or-
Whoever loves me

14:21c

and I will love him: The Greek text emphasizes the pronoun I. Jesus as well as God the Father will love the one who loves and obeys him. The pronoun him refers back to the indefinite pronoun in 14:21b and should agree with its number (singular or plural).

and reveal Myself to him: This phrase indicates that Jesus will allow his followers to see him as he truly is. It implies that he is great and glorious, and that his followers will recognize his greatness and glory. This probably refers mainly to Jesus appearing to his disciples after he rose from the dead. He came to them so that they saw who he was with their eyes. But this probably also refers to later followers who did not see Jesus with their eyes. Translate this phrase to include both meanings. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:

show myself to him (New International Version)
-or-
make myself known to him
-or-
appear before them
-or-
show them who I really am

General Comment on 14:21

In some languages it may be natural to continue to use the second-person plural form (you) as the main subject. That is what was used in 14:15–20. For example:

21 If you love me, you will do what I have said, and my Father will love you. I will also love you and show you what I am like. (Contemporary English Version)

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.