5:26a

For as the Father has life in Himself: This is the first half of a comparison which is completed in 5:26b. See the General Comment on 5:26a–b for ideas of how to translate this comparison.

the Father has life in Himself: This clause indicates that God the Father is the one who is the source of all life. All life comes from him; he alone creates/gives life. He was not created or given life by someone else but has always existed. He is the source of everything that lives. Refer to the notes on 1:14a–b. There the author writes of the Word that “in him was life” and “the life was the light of all people.” Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

The Father is the source of life (God’s Word)
-or-
the Father is himself the source of life (Good News Translation)
-or-
The Father has the power to give life (Contemporary English Version)

5:26b

so also He has granted the Son to have life in Himself: This is the second half of the comparison. God the Father has given to the Son the same life-giving power that he has. The Son also is the source of life and is eternally self-existent (meaning that he has always existed without any outside cause). As in 5:25c, Jesus was talking about himself. See the note there.

He has granted the Son to have life in Himself: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translated as granted the Son is more literally “gave to the Son.” God enables or causes his Son to have and give life. When you translate this, you should not imply that at one time the Son did not have life in himself. The Father has always had life in himself and the Father has always granted the Son to have life in himself.

In some languages a verb such as He has granted implies that there was a time before the Son had life. If that is true in your language, you may want to make it clearer that Jesus always had life:

by his gift the Son also has life in himself (Revised English Bible)

Jesus continued to refer to himself in this verse using the third person (the Son). In some languages, you many need to make it clear that Jesus was taking about himself. For example:

Because my Father is the one who ⌊gives⌋ life. And the same is true with me, because he gave me ⌊the authority to give⌋ life.

the Son: See the note in 5:19b and how you translated this term there.

General Comment on 5:26a–b

The Greek words that Berean Standard Bible translates with the conjunctions For…so compares two things and says that they are equal.

Here are other ways to translate this idea:

Just as the Father is himself the source of life, in the same way he has made his Son to be the source of life. (Good News Translation)
-or-
The Father has the power to give life, and he has given that same power to the Son. (Contemporary English Version)

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