A large number of people represents one textual tradition (New English Bible, Jerusalem Bible, Goodspeed, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Luther); “the great crowd” of Revised Standard Version (Zürcher Bibel, Moffatt, Phillips, New American Bible) represents a second textual tradition. The choice of text is difficult, since the text that includes the definite article “the” has such poor structure that there is doubt whether John could have written it. On the other hand, the text which omits “the” is obviously the easier text and could be the result of some scribe’s attempt to remove the difficulty of the other text. A similar problem exists in 12.12. The UBS Committee supports the manuscript reading which includes the definite article, but places the definite article in brackets to indicate serious doubt regarding the text at this point. Here, as elsewhere, scholarly opinion is divided, and the translator is free to choose either possibility.
The word rendered large number of people is mentioned in four places here and in the following section (verses 9,12,17,18). In these verses it is difficult to differentiate one use of the word from another. On the whole, it may be best to identify the “crowd” of verses 9 and 17 as one group and the “crowd” of 12 and 18 as another. However, it may be also possible to distinguish three groups: the large number of people of verse 9, the people of verse 17, and the crowd of verses 12 and 18.
That Jesus was in Bethany is literally “that he was there.” Good News Translation makes both person and place explicit. Similarly, whom Jesus had raised from death is literally “whom he had raised from death.”
The contrast in the phrases not only … but also is difficult in some languages because the elements are not parallel. It may be necessary to restructure the second part of verse 9 to read “They went because Jesus was there, and they also went in order to see Lazarus, the one Jesus had caused to live again.” It is also possible to translate because of Jesus “in order to see Jesus.” By making the two expressions parallel (“in order to see Jesus” and “in order to see Lazarus”), it is easier to treat the contrasting elements not only … but also. However, as noted elsewhere, it may be necessary to place the positive before the negative, that is, “They went in order to see Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from death. They also went in order to see Jesus.”
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 .