Translation commentary on John 14:8

Philip is first mentioned in 1.43. His request (Lord, show us the Father) shows a misunderstanding, which enables Jesus to give further and deeper teaching to the disciples. Philip seems to be requesting a revelation of the Father which can be seen by human eyes, and Jesus, on the basis of this misunderstanding, is able to develop his teaching further. Show us the Father may be rendered in some languages as “cause us to see your Father” or “make us to see your Father with our own eyes.”

That is all we need is rendered with the meaning “we shall be satisfied” in several translations (Revised Standard Version; see also Jerusalem Bible, Goodspeed, Phillips). New American Bible has “that will be enough for us”; New English Bible “and we ask no more”; and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “we need nothing more.”

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 14:8

Paragraph 14:8–11

Jesus’ disciple Philip asked to see God the Father. Jesus replied that anyone who had seen him had seen God the Father, because they are one.

14:8a

Philip said to Him: The pronoun Him refers to Jesus. Because this begins a new paragraph, you may want to make it explicit that Philip spoke to Jesus. For example:

Philip said to Jesus

Philip: Philip was the name of one of Jesus’ disciples. See 1:43 and 12:21.

Lord: See how you translated this in 14:5.

show us the Father: This clause is a request to see God the Father. For example:

Please cause/allow us to see the Father.
-or-
We want to see the Father. Please reveal him to us.

show: This verb here means “cause to see.”

us: This pronoun is exclusive here and refers to the disciples but not to Jesus.

the Father: This phrase refers to God the Father. Jesus referred to him as “my Father” in 14:7a. So if it is necessary to say whose Father he was, you may want to say this:

⌊your
(sing.)⌋ Father

14:8b

and that will be enough for us: The Greek clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates literally as that will be enough for us indicates that seeing God the Father would fulfill the disciples’ greatest desire. The disciples wanted to see and know God more than they wanted anything else. Seeing him would make them satisfied (content and happy). For example:

and that will satisfy us (God’s Word)
-or-
and we will be content (NET Bible)
-or-
That is all we need. (New Century Version)

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