John 3:16 – Cherev

Verse 16 Greek Text

3:16οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον, ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν, ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν μὴ ἀπόληται ἀλλ’ ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον.

Verse 16 Sentence Flow

γὰρ - postpositive explanatory conjunction = For
  οὕτως - adverb = in this way
    ἠγάπησεν - AAI3S, finite verb = loved
      ὁ θεὸς - NNMS, subject = God
      τὸν κόσμον - NAMS, direct object = the world
    ὥστε - correlative conjunction = that
      ἔδωκεν - AAI3S, finite verb = He (God) gave
        τὸν υἱὸν - NAMS, direct object = Son
          τὸν μονογενῆ - AAMS, attributive adjective = only, unique
  ἵνα - subordinating conjunction (purpose) = so that
    ὁ πιστεύων - PAPtcNMS, subject of dep. clause = the believing one
      πᾶς - ANMS, attributive adjective = all
      εἰς - preposition + accusative = in
        αὐτὸν - AM3S = him
    μὴ - negator = not
      ἀπόληται - AMSub3S, finite verb = will be destroyed, ruined, lost
    ἀλλ’ - adversative conjunction = but
      ἔχῃ - PASub3S, finite verb = will have
        ζωὴν - NAFS, direct object = life
          αἰώνιον - AAFS, attributive adjective = eternal

Verse 16 Translation Rationale

John 3:16 is a beautiful and well-known passage to many because of its popularity in culture. The translation of John 3:16 isn’t all that complex although it isn’t without a few decisions to make.

The verse starts with the postpositive γὰρ, linking it back to verses 14-15. We can’t miss that because this conjunction shows us that John 3:16 isn’t intended to stand alone grammatically.

Next, we have the adverb οὕτως, which I’ve chosen to translate as “in this way” mostly because I believe it creates a clearer communication of the intention. Often, this is translated as “so,” which gives off the idea that it’s creating an emphasis. For example, God sooooo loved the world. Clearly, that isn’t the intention of this word, as it’s an adverb modifying “loved,” and it’s intended to signal how God loved the world. Thus far, we have “For, in this way.”

In the following clause we have “ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον.” This is incredibly straightforward Greek. The subject of the clause is ὁ θεὸς, and we translate it as “God.” The direct object of the clause is τὸν κόσμον, and we translate it as “the world.” The finite verb ἠγάπησεν is an aorist active indicative third person singular that we translate with a simple past “loved.” Therefore, we have “For, in this way, God loved the world.” It is perhaps useful to regard the idea that John uses κόσμος in at least ten different ways in his writings, and it’s important to understand how he’s using the word in each context. For example, it seems that John is using the word in this context to refer to every tribe, nation, and tongue. It does not seem that John is referring to every person in the world in this context.

The World – κόσμος

As a quick aside for illustrative purposes, consider Romans 1:8. In Romans 1:8 the Apostle Paul is telling the Roman church that their faith is being proclaimed throughout the world. Remember, Paul was still trying to spread the gospel beyond Rome. In fact, his intended next stop after Rome, was Spain. This would indicate that the gospel had not yet spread to Spain. Therefore, if the gospel hadn’t yet spread to Spain, would it make sense to believe that those in Spain had heard of the faith of those in Rome? We must conclude that Paul’s use of “world” doesn’t mean “everybody in the whole world.” Just because Scripture uses the word “world” doesn’t mean that Scripture means everyone in the entire world. Be careful of blindly importing universality into the term.

Moving on, then, ὥστε is a correlative conjunction that introduces a dependent clause. The dependent clause describes how God loved the world. The word is translated as “that.” This conjunction correlates to the “in this way” portion of the previous clause.

Following our correlative conjunction we have the dependent clause τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν. Our finite verb, ἔδωκεν, is an aorist active indicative third person singular. The subject of the verb is “he” which has an antecedent of ὁ θεὸς (God) from the previous clause. Our direct object for this clause is τὸν υἱὸν and is translated as “son.” τὸν υἱὸν is modified by the attributive adjective τὸν μονογενῆ. This adjective means “only, unique, only begotten.” Given the rest of Scripture’s view on the sons of God, it may be helpful to translate this as either begotten or unique, especially to new readers of Scripture. My heart grew up with English only begotten, so I tend toward that translation even though it’s not without a need for qualification. However, to keep this from getting too long, we’ll leave that for another place. The astute reader might ask, “From where do we get the possessive pronoun since it’s not directly stated in the text?” The possessive pronoun that precedes “son” is indicated in the article. In cases where possession is implied, Greek can use the article to confer this possession.¹ For our final translation of this dependent clause we have “He gave His only begotten Son.”

Next, we have a classic adverbial ἵνα clause that indicates purpose. ἵνα can be translated as “in order that” or “so that.” For our translation, we will use “so that.” Also worth noting regarding this ἵνα clause is that it adverbially modifies “gave” and supplies the purpose of God giving His Son.

Next, we have the substantive participle ὁ πιστεύων, which is translated as “the believing one.” ὁ πιστεύων is modified by πᾶς, which means “all.” Therefore, we get “all the believing ones.” That doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue in English, though, so we’ll smooth that out a little later. Probably somewhat important to note here is that the King James “whosoever” level of subjectivity is not present. Rather, it is all who believe. Therefore, “so that all who believe” rather than “whosoever believes.” That may seem insignificant to some, but it is incredibly significant to others. That’s the only reason I mention it here. This clause closes with the prepositional phrase εἰς αὐτὸν. If we translated this with wooden literality, it would be “into Him.” However, that sounds a little strange in English, so we just translate it as “in Him.” We don’t lose any meaning that way, and it flows better in English. Whenever we have a pronoun, it’s wise to find its antecedent so we know to which it refers. In this case, the pronoun’s antecedent is “His only begotten Son.” We can tell this because the pronoun and the antecedent are in the accusative masculine singular. Closing out our ἵνα clause is the negated aorist middle subjunctive third person singular ἀπόληται. ἀπόληται means “to perish or be ruined.” The verb is negated with μὴ, which means “not” in English. Putting this all together we have “will not perish.” The subjunctive mood is often used to convey a future sense of time, and it does so here. Our final translation of this ἵνα clause is “so that all who believe in Him will not perish.”

Turning the corner on our final clause, we have an adversative conjunction that sets up a contrast. Rather than perishing, something else is going to happen. The conjunction ἀλλ’ is translated as “but.” This is then followed by ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον. ἔχῃ is a present active subjunctive third person singular and means “have.” The subject of this verb is the believing one from a few clauses ago, and the object of this verb is ζωὴν, which is translated as “life.” ζωὴν is modified by the attributive adjective αἰώνιον which is translated as “eternal.” Therefore, our final translation of this clause is “but have eternal life.” Who has eternal life? All of who believe in Him from a few verses ago. Based on our adversative conjunction we can see that those who perish are all those who do not believe in Him.

Verse 16 English Translation

For, in this way, God loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son so that all who believe in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

Verse 16 Interpretive Questions

How does John scope τὸν κόσμον (the world) in this verse?

Footnotes

Wallace, Daniel B. Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996, 215. ↩︎