In John 12 Jesus is talking with a crowd and then he disappears. Then the narrator provides an explanation for why "the Jews" could not believe in Jesus. However after it ends, Jesus is talking again. But weren't we just told that he left? I'll quote from NRSV.
Chapter 12 35-44 (NRSV)
35 Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.” After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them.37 Although he had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfill the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah:
“Lord, who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” 39 And so they could not believe, because Isaiah also said, 40“He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart,
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and understand with their heart and turn—
and I would heal them.”41 Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke about him. 42 Nevertheless many, even of the authorities, believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they did not confess it, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved human glory more than the glory that comes from God.
44 Then Jesus cried aloud: “Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me.
NLT translates the beginning of verse 44
Ἰησοῦς δὲ ἔκραξεν καὶ εἶπεν·
as
Jesus shouted to the crowds,
I can not find any manuscript support for this in NA28 or NA27, so I have a feeling this is an apologetic skewing of the text.
It also seems that there are no manuscripts omitting the narrator's theological monologue (which would seem to be the easiest solution to the "Where is Jesus problem").
The narrator's theology is also a bit confusing, on one hand he is claiming that this crowd could not believe in Jesus because God had blinded them. And then he turns it right around and admits that many did believe in him despite being blinded! It seems as if He really wanted to employ the Isaiah quote here even though it creates problems in the text.
Could this be a seam in the text just is the closing in John 7:53 to make way for the Pericope Adulterae? So far my thinking is that John 12:36b-44 is an insert that occurred before our manuscript tradition begins. Does this line of thinking have any merit? Does anyone have any resources that could help? Thanks