UTN uW Translation Notes:

John 13 Chapter Introduction

Structure and Formatting

1. The Passover meal begins: Jesus washes his disciples’ feet (13:1–20)
2. Jesus predicts that Judas will betray him (13:21–30)
3. Jesus commands his disciples to love each other (13:31–35)
4. Jesus predicts that Peter will deny him (13:36–38)

The events of this chapter are commonly referred to as the “Last Supper.” In many ways this Passover meal parallels the sacrifice of Jesus as the lamb of God. (See: lordssupper and passover)

Religious and Cultural Concepts in This Chapter

The washing of feet

People in the Ancient Near East thought that feet were very dirty. Only servants would wash people’s feet. The disciples did not want Jesus to wash their feet, because they considered him to be their master and themselves to be his servants, and it was a servant’s job to wash the feet of master and guests. However, Jesus wanted to show them that his disciples need to humbly serve and love each other. (See: translate-symaction)

I AM

John records Jesus saying these words as an independent phrase one time in this chapter (13:19). They stand alone as a complete sentence, and they literally translate the Hebrew expression “I AM,” by which Yahweh identified himself to Moses in Exodus 3:14. For these reasons many people believe that when Jesus said these words he was claiming to be Yahweh. (See: yahweh).

Translation Issues in This Chapter

“The disciple whom Jesus loved”

The Apostle John first referred to himself as the disciple “whom Jesus loved” in this chapter (13:23). Your language may not allow people to speak of themselves as if they were speaking about someone else. If this is the case, then you will need to add a first person pronoun to these references and the other references to John in (13:23–25). If your language can retain the third person references, then you may still want to make these references to John explicit by adding “John” next to them. See the discussion of this in Part 1 of the General Introduction to the Gospel of John. (See: johntheapostle and figs-123person)

“Son of Man”

Jesus refers to himself as the “Son of Man” in this chapter (13:31). Your language may not allow people to speak of themselves as if they were speaking about someone else. See the discussion of this concept in Part 3 of the General Introduction to the Gospel of John. (See: sonofman and figs-123person)