John 12:37
John 12:3737Although Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still did not believe in Him.
Read as the framing observation that Jesus' contemporaries failed to exercise faith despite the public miracles — leading into John's Isaiah-quotation explanation in the verses that follow. The Watchtower uses the verse to illustrate the importance of "putting faith in" Christ as an ongoing volitional posture.
is the subject-establishing verse for the whole 12:37-41 passage. The "him" in verse 37 is Jesus; that subject continues through verses 38-40 (the Isaiah quotations) and into verse 41, where John says Isaiah saw "his glory" and "spoke about him." The grammar is continuous: John does not switch subjects mid-paragraph. This is the move that opens the Isaiah 6 / John 12 argument: Isaiah's throne-room vision was of Jesus.
Where most English translations render the imperfect episteuon as "they did not believe" or "they were not believing," the NWT renders it as "they were not putting faith in." The expansion is consistent with broader NWT idiom — "exercising faith," "putting faith in" — and not divergent at the level of meaning, but the cumulative effect across the gospel is to recast simple believing as an ongoing volitional act, which fits the JW framework of belief as a practice-driven discipleship rather than a saving trust.