Reading John 3:16–17

The verse you already know

You probably learned John 3:16 long before you met any Greek. This lesson teaches no new rules. It checks what you have learned about tenses, participles, the subjunctive and conjunctions against these two verses. The new words are κόσμος, ὥστε, αἰώνιος, ἀποστέλλω, κρίνω and σῴζω.

Verse 16: loving and giving

The first two words, οὕτως ("HOO-toce") and γὰρ ("gar"), are "for thus". Here translations part ways. The traditional rendering is "so loved", meaning "loved so much", because οὕτως is read together with ὥστε ("HOS-teh"), "so that". A number of scholars, and some recent translations, now prefer "in this way": God loved the world in the manner John has just described in 3:14–15, the lifting up of the serpent by Moses and of the Son of Man. This course presents both, and you can weigh them as you read more. The adverb itself, οὕτως, simply means "thus, in this way" (conjunctions and word order).

The three main verbs are all aorist indicative: ἠγάπησεν ("ay-GAH-pay-sen"), "loved"; ἔδωκεν ("EH-do-ken"), "gave"; and, in verse 17, ἀπέστειλεν ("ap-EH-stay-len"), "sent" (ἀποστέλλω, about 130 times). The aorist presents an action as a whole, the usual tense of narrative (the aorist); ἔδωκεν belongs to the δίδωμι family, so its form is a little different (contract and -μι verbs). Between the first two verbs sits ὥστε. It usually takes an infinitive, but here it is followed by the indicative ἔδωκεν. Grammars often explain ὥστε with the indicative as stressing a result that actually happened: God really gave.

κόσμον ("KOS-mon") is "world", about 185 times in the New Testament. It is accusative because it is the object of ἠγάπησεν, the one who is loved. μονογενῆ ("mon-og-en-AY") is an adjective describing υἱόν, "Son". The BSB's "one and only" and the 개역한글's "독생자" both translate it. A note about word 11, αὐτοῦ ("his"): it is found only in the Textus Receptus, which is why the panel gives it a TR badge. Translations still say "His Son", and we will not use it for grammar. Reading this way, with a Bible in each hand, is exactly what the app is built for: tap the word, see the badge, and you know why two Bibles differ.

Participles and ἵνα clauses

πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων ("pis-TYOO-ohn") is "everyone who believes". It is a present participle with the article, "the one who believes" (participles (1)). The present pictures believing as ongoing, though ὁ πιστεύων is also simply the usual way to say "the believer", so do not load too much onto the tense alone.

Next, ἵνα ("HEE-na") means "so that", and a subjunctive follows it (the subjunctive and imperative). There are two in verse 16: ἀπόληται ("ap-OH-lay-tie"), "may perish", and ἔχῃ ("EKH-ay"), "may have". Between ἵνα and the first verb, μὴ makes it "may not perish"; μή is the usual negative with the subjunctive. The ἀπόληται form is a middle (middle and passive), and ἀλλ᾽ ("but") turns the sentence to the other side: "but may have eternal life". αἰώνιον ("ai-OH-nee-on"), "eternal" (about 70 times), is the adjective describing ζωήν.

Verse 17 has the same architecture. It starts with οὐ γὰρ, "for not", and the sending of the Son is described with two ἵνα clauses. The first is denied: κρίνῃ ("KREE-nay"), "he may judge" (κρίνω occurs about 110 times). The second is affirmed: ἵνα σωθῇ ("so-THAY"), "so that it may be saved" (σῴζω, about 105 times). σωθῇ is passive, so the world is the one being saved, and κόσμος is now nominative, the subject of that verb.

Summary

In these two verses the three things God does, loving, giving and sending, are aorists; the purpose of the giving is carried by ἵνα with subjunctives. You can now tell the result word ὥστε from the purpose word ἵνα, and you can spot a subjunctive by its long ending. If some forms still feel slow, that is normal: reading the same two verses again, aloud, is the best practice there is. And do not be surprised if "so loved" becomes "loved in this way" in a newer Bible: the Greek can carry either.

Words in this lesson

• κόσμοςkosmosworld185 times in the NT
• ὥστεhōsteso83 times in the NT
• αἰώνιοςaiōnioseternal70 times in the NT
• ἀποστέλλωapostellōto send132 times in the NT
• κρίνωkrinōto judge114 times in the NT
• σῴζωsōzōto save105 times in the NT

Practice