Exegesis of John 3:16

I taught these three lessons at Spring Creek Bible Church on May 21, June 4, and June 11, 2017, as parts 4–6 of the Introduction to New Testament Exegesis series.

Prefer what I actually said? Read the transcripts: Part 1 · Part 2 · Part 3 (lightly edited for readability).

Οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον
ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν,
ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν
μὴ ἀπόληται
ἀλλὰ
ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον.

Preparation

USE BLACK; WRITE LARGE.
Put the text in Greek and English up on the whiteboard.
Put up a section for questions about the text.
Put up a section for observations about the text.
Make sure to open up all the documents I’ll want to refer to on the Macbook Pro.

0. Introduction

John 3:16 is by some standards the most popular verses in the Bible.¹ It captures the essence of the gospel message in a simple yet profound way. Most of you have it memorized, and its basic message is simple enough for young children to understand.

So you might be wondering why I’d choose it as one of our passages to exegete together.

Three reasons:

It’s simplicity lends itself nicely to getting acquainted with the steps of exegesis.
There’s actually more going on than meets the eye.
Verses we have memorized or have high familiarity with are often the ones we haven’t taken the time to read carefully and think deeply about.

Now let’s walk through each of these steps together with John 3:16.

But before we do, a quick note about the importance of asking questions. Developing the skill of asking good questions about the text is a key part of exegesis. Look at the text from every possible angle, and write down the questions that come to mind. Look for answers to those questions throughout your study.

Let’s jot down some questions that we can have before us as we study through John 3:16.

Preparation: Ask God to help you understand, believe, feel, and
respond rightly to the text.

Step 1: Illumination: Read and pray over the text.

Spend several minutes just reading the passage. Read it multiple times, in multiple versions. Give consideration to how it fits in the context. Consider reading it on your knees, and pray for God’s supernatural illumination.

“Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.” —Psalm 119:18

“Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.” —Psalm 119:36

Write out and pray a prayer of petition for the Lord’s help.

Need for Divine Illumination

As we learned last week, all of our thinking about the text will be in vain if God’s Spirit does attend to the reading and studying of his Word.

The Bible repeatedly makes it clear that rightly understanding God’s Word is a divine work of the Spirit, who illuminates our eyes, minds, and hearts to see, understand, and believe the Word. All the looking at Scripture without his help will do us no good. The Spirit and the Word must come together for our study to be fruitful.

Study and Devotion Together

There is a tendency to separate the theological from the devotional. Many people devote themselves to rigorous academic study of the Bible, but do not have hearts eager to see and savor the Savior. Some come to the Word looking for spiritual encouragement, but take passages out of context and don’t dig into the meat of God’s Word.

B. B. Warfield, the great Princeton theologian from the 19th century, reminds us that we must keep both together:

Sometimes we hear it said that ten minutes on your knees will give you a truer, deeper, more operative knowledge of God than ten hours over your books. “What!” is the appropriate response, “than ten hours over your books, on your knees?” Why should you turn from God when you turn to your books, or feel that you must from your books in order to turn to God?²

A Prayer for Illumination

Did anyone write out a prayer that they’d like to lead us in as we get started?

So as we get started, let’s pray for God’s help.

Father in heaven, thank you for the wonderful privilege of having your word in our own language in so many different translations and with so many different tools to help us understand it. We’re blessed with resources so abundantly. We love your word, because we love you and want to hear from you and know you better. But we desperately need your help. So help us know you better as we read and think about and consider your word. Direct us to think about it rightly and feel it deeply and live in light of it fervently.

We pray all of this in the name of Jesus, the Word. Amen.

Read the Text

Next, let’s read our text together.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (NIV)

Now let’s read it in its context, John 3:1–21:

1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” 3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” 4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” 9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. 10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Foundation: Determine what the text said.

Step 2: Textual Criticism: Establish the original text.

Did you find any textual differences by checking your Bible or study Bible’s footnotes or by consulting with any resources like the NET Bible notes or the Lexham Textual Notes?

Do Bible versions mention manuscript differences (check footnotes and study Bible notes)? If so, what?

Greek Readers

If you know even a little bit of Greek, you’ll get some help by looking at your Greek NT for any footnotes that indicate different readings.

Here’s the text in the 28th edition of Nestle-Aland’s Greek New Testament (NA28 for short):

οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον, ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν ⸆ τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν, ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν μὴ ἀπόληται ἀλλʼ ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον.

Show in Logos.

Textual Apparatuses

Look for apparatus markers, which are footnotes that point to textual variants.

This text gives us one after the word υἱὸν, which means son.

Here’s what the apparatus note says:

⸆ αυτου ?63 א2 A K L N T Γ Δ Θ Ψ 083. 086 ƒ1.13 33. 565. 579. 700. 892. 1241. 1424. l 2211 ? latt sy; Did

¦ txt ?66.75 א* B Ws³

In a nutshell, this is saying that many newer manuscripts have the Greek word αὐτοῦ, which means his. But this edition of the Greek New Testament has chosen not to consider it original, choosing instead to go with the fewer older manuscripts, which lack it.

Show picture of manuscript where αὐτοῦ was added.

Textual Commentaries

You can also consult a textual commentary, which may provide additional detail or additional variants.

In this case, the variant isn’t significant enough for textual commentaries to comment on.

Compare Editions

To go deeper, you can compare various editions of the Greek New Testament to see if they differ in any ways not captured by apparatuses and textual commentaries.

Logos and similar tools enable this kind of comparison pretty easily. Here’s a view using Logos’s Text Comparison tool.

You can also do this work in a spreadsheet.

There are seven differences among the various versions of the Greek New Testament:

Οὕτως vs. Οὕτω vs. οὕτως: spelling and capitalization; no impact on meaning
Θεὸς vs. θεὸς: capitalization; no impact on meaning; editorial difference
Comma after κόσμον: punctuation; no impact on meaning; editorial difference
Υἱὸν vs. υἱὸν: capitalization; no impact on meaning; editorial difference
– vs. αὐτοῦ: omission/addition; no impact on meaning; editorial difference
Comma after ἀπόληται: punctuation; no impact on meaning; editorial difference
ἀλλʼ vs. ἀλλὰ: spelling; no impact on meaning

Consult Individual Manuscripts and Transcriptions

For advanced study, you may want to consult individual manuscripts for yourself. The above steps trust the work of text critics to summarize the data for you. If you want to analyze the data for yourself, you can consult the manuscripts through various sources.⁴

Compare Ancient Translations

We have lots of copies of the Bible translated into Latin, Coptic, and Syriac. These help to shed light on original readings.

Summary

Even if αὐτοῦ was original, its presence or absence doesn’t change the meaning of the text, since Greek often uses the definite article in a possessive sense.

So this is a great example of the majority case of manuscript differences. It has no impact on meaning.

Step 3: Translation: Identify challenges in translating the text.

Did you find any significant differences between translations? Where do they differ?

Do Bible versions differ in important ways? If so, where?

Show my comparison of English translations.

Here are the places that translations differ:

Οὕτως: so vs. this is how / in this way
μονογενῆ: only begotten vs. one and only / unique

There are other minor differences of word choice, but not that affect the meaning of the passage.

When you find differences like this, you should add them to your list as candidates for word studies.

Add them to the board in the observations section.

Did you notice anything else? What about how some translations have John 3:16 in red, and others don’t?

Related to this is how some put a paragraph break at v. 16, while others don’t.

Construction: Determine what the text meant to its original audience.

4. Context: Explore the temporal or historical-cultural context.

Who wrote it?

John, the beloved disciple, brother of James, part of Jesus’ inner circle with his brother James and Peter, son of Zebedee and perhaps Salome, one of the sons of thunder with his brother James, and author of three letters and the Revelation, eye witness of the transfiguration, eye witness of the crucifixion and the resurrected Jesus, and the ascension.

John had a deep sense of God’s love, so he’s in a good position to talk about it. And he does, more than anyone else.

To whom did they write it?

John doesn’t explicitly mention his audience like we get in most letters, but there are themes that suggest John has a broad audience in view that captures the diversity of God’s new covenant people. The world is a key theme in John’s writings. He’s writing to both believing and unbelieving Jews and Gentiles.

“He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (1:11–13)
“the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (1:29)
“Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him . . .” (4:39)
“the Savior of the world” (4:42)
“there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival” (12:20)

When did they write it?

Most people believe that John’s Gospel is the latest Gospel and one of the latest books of the New Testament. Most put it between 80–90 AD; some as early as 55 AD and others as late as 95 AD.

Where did they write it?

We don’t know for sure, but it may have been Ephesus, which Irenaeus claims. Irenaeus had personal contact with Polycarp, who was friends with John.

Why did they write it?

John gives us a clear statement of purpose at the end of his Gospel: “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30–31).

John is trying to help his readers believe and continue to believe in Jesus as the divine Messiah and Savior of the world for all who believe.

What was its theme?

Jesus, the divine Son of God, who was himself God and the Savior of the world, reveals the Father and calls all people to believe in him and enter into the intimate relationship of love that he shares with the Father.

What was going on at the time?

Legalism: Conflict between the old and new covenants, between Jews and Gentiles
Heresies: gnosticism and docetism, the precursor to some of the Christological heresies
Persecution: Christians suffering for their faith and tempted to walk away
Licentiousness: the draw of the love of the world
Divisions: . . .
Destruction of Jerusalem: . . .

Were there other important historical or cultural factors worth noting?

It’s difficult to overestimate the significance of the shift from the Jews as God’s people to Jews and Gentiles as God’s people. Much of what we read in John and elsewhere in the NT needs to be interpreted with this as the backdrop.

This doesn’t seem like a big deal to us, but this was a huge deal to the early Christians.

Jesus going to Samaria
Jesus and the Greeks . . .
Jesus healing . . .
Peter playing the hypocrite and insisting that Gentiles act like Jews

We’ll come back to this point later.

Having all of these points in mind as we interpret the text will help us draw out the original meaning.

Step 5: Genre: Identify the type of literature and its features.

What is the book’s genre?

John is a Gospel, which we described earlier as a kind of biography, but not a modern-day biography. These biographies focused the majority of their time on the final week of Jesus, and the rest of the Gospel serves as an extended introduction. These are non-fiction, selective recountings of the events and teachings of Jesus’ life leading up to his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and sending of his Spirit.

Does the text include any literary devices?

There aren’t any in v. 16, but in the immediate context there are a few:

Simile in v. 14
Metaphors in vv. 19–20

What are the points of similarity?

Is it a proverb or a parable?

No.

Do any special interpretive principles apply to the genre or literary devices?

We should read this as factually accurate accounts, but not necessarily as chronologically precise. Sometimes the authors wanted to make a theological point, and they’d string stories together in the order that suited that point, not necessarily in the order they happened.

We should look for the point of comparison in the similes and metaphors and not read them literally.

If it’s narrative, identify the characters and storyline.

It’s a nonfiction story about Jesus’ interaction with Nicodemus, a Jewish leader who was curious about Jesus. He represents how most of the Jewish leaders

If it’s a parable, identify its main point.

N/A

Step 6: Co-text: Explore the textual or literary context.

Identify the layers of textual structure (words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, pericopes, book’s structure, book, author corpus, testament, whole Bible) and note any important relationships.

It’s a part of the Bible.
It’s a part of the New Testament.
It’s a part of the Johannine corpus, or John’s writings: Gospel, three letters, and Revelation.
It’s a part of John’s Gospel.
It’s a part of chapters 1–11, which introduce us to the divine Messiah, who is betrayed, tried, crucified, and raised in 12–21.
It’s part of Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus in 3:1–21.
It’s either part of Jesus’s spoken words to Nicodemus or John’s inspired commentary.
It’s either part of the one paragraph that starts with 3:10 or a new paragraph that starts with 3:16. I lean toward the former:
- v. 16 connects closely to the preceding context and feel like one continuous argument.
- V. 22 begins with “after this” (Μετὰ ταῦτα), which suggests that what preceded was part of one temporal event.

Does the text quote or allude to other parts of Scripture?

Yes.

v. 14 directly references Numbers 21:4–9
v. 8 may allude to Ecclesiastes 11:5
v. 12 may allude to Wisdom of Solomon 9:16
v. 13 may allude to Proverbs 30:4
v. 16 doesn’t directly mention, but is probably foreshadowed by Genesis 22:1–19

So in order to understand our passage, we’ll need to understand Numbers 21:4–9 in its original context as well.

Let’s read it together. Would someone like to read it for us?

They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” 6 Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

How does the text fit into the book’s larger message?

Some of John’s big themes are:

the divine Messiah, unique son of God, God himself
in deep loving intimacy with the Father
on a love mission to save the world
who invites us into that deep intimate love, known as eternal life
through faith in Jesus

John 3:16 ties into all of these indirectly, but the fourth is developed more fully elsewhere in the Gospel. Here it’s presented as eternal life.

What about into the pericope’s message?

Oops. Forgot to do this part.

PART 2

Step 7: Diagram: Map the structure and meaning of the text.

What are the kernels / independent clauses?

There is one main clause in the verse:

“For God so loved the world”

It’s kernel is

God [subject]
loved [verb]
the world [direct object]

What are the dependent / subordinate clauses?

There are two main subordinate clauses:

“that he gave his one and only Son”
“that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life,”

The kernel in the first is

he [subject]
gave [verb]
unique Son [direct object]

The kernel in the second is

whoever believes in him [subject]
shall not perish [first verb]
shall have [second verb]
eternal life [direct object]

This reflects the grammatical structure of the Greek. In English, “whoever believes in him” forms a relative clause, which is also dependent/subordinate. It itself functions as the subject of the second main subordinate clause.

Visually diagram the text to show its structure and the relationships.

Sentence diagram

Propositional display

Step 8: Grammar: Unpack the relationships between words, phrases, and clauses.

Identify all the parts of speech for each word. [I accidentally left this out of your worksheet, but have added it to the document.]

for (γὰρ): conjunction (logical explanatory)
God (ὁ θεὸς): [article (simple identification; anaphoric?) +] noun (proper)
so (Οὕτως): adverb
loved (ἠγάπησεν): verb (transitive)
the (τὸν): article
world (κόσμον): noun
that (ὥστε): conjunction (result)
he ([αὐτός]): pronoun (implied in Greek)
gave (ἔδωκεν): verb (transitive)
his (τὸν): pronoun (article in Greek)
only (τὸν μονογενῆ): adjective (w/ article in Greek)
Son (υἱὸν): noun
that (ἵνα): conjunction (purpose)
whoever (πᾶς ὁ): pronoun (relative) (adjective plus article in Greek)
believes (πιστεύων): verb (substantival participle in Greek)
in (εἰς): preposition
him (αὐτὸν): pronoun
shall/should (ἀπόληται): verb (not a separate word in Greek)
not (μὴ): adverb (or particle in Greek)
perish (ἀπόληται): verb
but (ἀλλʼ): conjunction (logical contrastive)
have (ἔχῃ): verb
eternal (αἰώνιον): adjective
life (ζωὴν): noun

What are the key connecting words, and what do they convey?

for (γὰρ): it connects v. 16 to what precedes and further explains it
that (ὥστε): it connects the second clause (he gave his only son) to the first clause (God loved the world) and expresses that God’s giving was the result of his loving—or that God’s loving resulted in his giving.
that (ἵνα): it connects the third clause (whoever believes should not perish but have eternal life) to the second clause (he gave his only son) and expresses that the purpose or intent of God’s giving was to save those who believe.
but (ἀλλʼ): it connects the first part of the third clauses to the second part and creates a contrast between the two: not this, but that.

What are the key logical relationships?

result: God’s giving of his son was the result of God’s love for the world
purpose: God’s giving of his son was intended to save those who believe and rescue them from perishing

What are the nouns and their referents and the pronouns and their antecedents? [I accidentally left this out of your worksheet, but have added it to the document.]

God (ὁ θεὸς): refers to God the Father as distinct from his son
he (ἔδωκεν): points back to God (ὁ θεὸς)
his (τὸν): points back to God (ὁ θεὸς), which refers to the Father
Son (υἱὸν): refers to Jesus
whoever (πᾶς ὁ): refers to any of John’s original audience or any future audience who embraces Jesus by faith
him (αὐτὸν): refers back to the Son (υἱὸν), which refers to Jesus

Are there any other grammatically significant constructions? [I accidentally left this out of your worksheet, but have added it to the document.]

loved (ἠγάπησεν) is stressed by being at the beginning of the clause
unique son (τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ) is stressed by being at the beginning of the clause

Step 9: Word Studies: Determine the contextual meaning of words and phrases.

Note: You may consult lexicons, but try to do your own word studies first when possible.

Are there any other words whose meaning is uncertain? (Take note of words you highlighted earlier in your study.)

Yes. In our translation comparison step, we noted two places where translator diverged:

Οὕτως: so vs. this is how / in this way
μονογενῆ: only begotten vs. one and only / unique

Let’s do a quick word study on both of these words:

Οὕτως

Οὕτως occurs 207 times in the NT. It’s a common word.
It’s the adverbial form of the demonstrative pronoun this (οὗτος) as opposed to that (ἐκεῖνος).
In Greek, the -ως ending is similar to the -ly ending in English.
You could translate it in a really stilted way thisly—to make up a word—or thus or in this way.
It has three main functions:
- To point backward: In a similar way, God loved the world, so that he gave . . . .
- To point forward: God loved the world like this: he gave . . .
- To emphasize degree: God loved the world so much that he gave . . .
Most translations and commentators go with the third option here. It’s easy to understand why. It would take a great love to give such a great gift, and so is capable of emphasizing that.
Some newer translations have been choosing the second option (NLT, NET, LEB, ISV). The idea is that it points to the giving as the way God loved the world.
But I think the bulk of the exegetical weight actually points in the direction of the first, where so points back to what precedes. I have x arguments for this view:
- Οὕτως is usually backward-pointing. We should assume it is here as well unless it clearly doesn’t work or there’s a compelling reason to prefer a different sense.
- Οὕτως may always be backward-pointing in John’s writings. BDAG lists 1 John 4:11 as an example of degree, but I think the context makes backward-pointing preferable.
- Οὕτως in the immediate context, John 3:8 and 3:14, is clearly backward-pointing.
- The forward-pointing interpretation doesn’t work, since ὥστε never resolves οὕτως, and ὥστε rarely introduces a noun clause.
- Οὕτως rarely conveys degree. We should prefer this interpretation only if the other two don’t work or there’s a strong clue in the context for this sense.
- The γὰρ connects v. 16 to vv. 14–15, signaling an important connection. (The ESV incorrectly inserts a pericope break at v. 16, breaking the flow of thought). The other two interpretations make less sense of this connection.
Why don’t translators go this route? That’s a good question. I have found one scholar who makes a very similar argument to the one I just made.
Regardless of what view you take here, but main points are still clear:
- God’s love is infinitely great.
- God’s love for the world displayed in the giving of his son and lifting him up on the cross has similarities to God’s love for Israel displayed through the lifting up of the serpent.
The difference is only a matter of emphasis, not of completely different meaning.
But this is not a mere academic exercise. This is careful grappling with the inspired words and meaning of Scripture so we can have a deeper and more accurate understanding of his revelation to us and love for us.

A few additional comments:

Examples of degree: Gal. 1:6; 3:3 (or forward pointing); Heb. 12:21; Rev. 16:18
The two other uses of Οὕτως in John 3
If there’s a strong comparison between God’s love for Israel and his love for the world, then two things come to the forefront:
- Israel was a sinful people complaining and worthy of God’s judgment. God had compassion on his sinful people. His love and compassion for the world has this in common.
- The meaning of the word world is illuminated in light of this context to mean not just Israel, but Israel and the nations.

μονογενῆ

μονογενῆ occurs 9 times in the NT: 4 in John’s Gospel, one in his first letter, three in Luke, and one in Hebrews
The word is of debated origin.
- Some think it’s made up of only (μόνος) and or child/offspring (γέννημα) or bear/beget (γεννάω).
- Others think it’s made up of only (μόνος) and race/kind (γένος) or be/become (γίνομαι).
I lean toward the latter for four reasons:
- The lack of the double nu does seem to lean toward unique rather than only begotten.
- Hebrews 11:17 refers to Isaac as Abraham’s only (μονογενῆ) son. But Abraham begat a son before Isaac: Ishmael. So Isaac wasn’t Abraham’s only begotten son, but he certainly was his unique son, the son of the promise.
- God had other divine sons mentioned in the Old Testament (Gen. 6:2, 4; Job 1:6; 2:1). But Jesus is in a class all by himself.
- God has many human sons and daughters: us. We’re begotten by him. But Jesus is in a class all by himself.
While this difference does affect translation, it doesn’t significantly impact the meaning. Either way, we know that God’s unique son was the greatest gift imaginable and of the greatest value.

PART 3

This is the exegesis of John 3:16, Part 3. We finished last time in the word study section. So we’ll pick back up with some more thoughts on word studies.

Summarize and review comments above.

Translation vs. Interpretation

Jeremy asked a question last week that led to an important distinction: the difference between translation and interpretation. A given translation doesn’t always map to a particular interpretation. Sometimes a translation is capable of communicating more than one interpretation. It’s not always possible for translators to let readings know which translation they think is right. And it may not always be fitting. That would often require the use of a footnote.

To some degree, when you’re reading the Bible in English, you have three different levels of intent to consider:

What did God intend to communicate in the original language?
What did the human author intend to communicate in the original language?
What did the translators intend to communicate in the translation?

The first two are the most important, because that’s the space of divine inspiration. Inspiration doesn’t extend to translations. Translations are only inspired inasmuch as they accurately reflect the meaning of the original. Still, it’s useful to remember that one or more people made a choice about how to translate the original Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek text into English, and we should ask what they were intending to communicate by their choice of words.

How to Do Word Studies

Last time we jumped quickly into the fruit of a word study, and I realized I didn’t give you pointers on how to do a word study yourself. So let’s cover that briefly.

Guiding Principles

Here are a few guiding principles:

We do word studies of Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic words, not English words. The danger of doing a word study of an English word is that you might be dealing with multiple original language words without knowing it.
A word means what an author meant for it to mean as communicated by its use in its literary and historical and cultural contexts.
Words are flexible and dynamic. They can mean different things in different contexts, and their meanings can change over time. We need to make sure we don’t force a meaning from one place into another place.
An author’s writings is the most helpful literary context for understanding the range of meanings a word will likely have in that context. In other words, to find out what John meant by love, we should begin by looking at how John used love.
Lexicons are fallible. Often you’ll find a Greek or Hebrew lexicon will list a Bible verse as an example of a particular meaning. And often they’re right. But not always. It’s okay to differ with a fallible human opinion.

Steps

Here are the steps I typically type when doing a word study:

Identify a word that you’d like to study. The two most common sources for word studies are (1) words that translators handle differently (e.g., Οὕτως) or (2) words that are prominent and important to a book’s message (e.g., κόσμον). But you could also study any word you’d like to understand better.
Identify the underlying original language word. The method that people who don’t know the original languages used before the digital era was Strong’s numbers. James Strong was an American Methodist biblical scholar who assigned a word number to each word used in the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. English readers can find the original language word by looking it up by its word number. Bible software makes this even easier. A tool like Logos allows you to click on an English word and look up the underlying Greek word.
Locate all instances of that original language word. For a Greek word, you’ll want to find all the occurrences of the word in the NT, paying special attention to the occurrences by the author. If the word occurs infrequently, you’ll probably want to look outside the NT in other Greek literature: LXX, Josephus, Philo, Pseudepigrapha, Apostolic Fathers, Greek Fathers, Greek Classics, etc.
Read through each instance in context and try to identify its meaning. As you read, keep a running list of passages that seem to line up with a particular shade of meaning. At the end of your first pass through the passages, you should have each instance classified. Mark the ones you’re uncertain about.
Test your range of meanings and classification. Now that you have an idea on the range of meanings for your word and a meaning associated with each passage, work back through each instance and try out the other meanings to see if you still think you have it the right sense for each. Perhaps there’s an additional meaning that you’ve missed entirely. Consider going through the passages in a different order this time. Repeat this process until you’re pretty sure you’ve captured the full range of meanings and have the best meaning selected for each instance.
Check your work against a lexicon. As a final step, consult a Greek dictionary (called a lexicon) and look at how they organize the different meanings of the word and which passages that associate with each. Consider whether you should change anything.

What are the most important words (repeated in the context or tied into the book’s theme)?

As we’ve already seen, John 3:16 is very closely tied to the book’s overall message. As you might expect, then, many of the most important words in John appear in this verse.

How do you find the most important words?

You look for the words that occur with greater prominence in your book relative to its size than in other books relative to their size.

Graph Bible search results to show the prominence of each of these in John.

loved (ἠγάπησεν): 143x in the NT; 72 (more than 50%) in John’s writings: 37 in John, 28 in 1 John, 2 in 2 John, 1 in 3 John, and 4 in Revelation
world (κόσμον): 186x in the NT; 105 (56%) of those occurrences are in John’s writings: 78 in John, 23 in 1 John, 1 in 2 John, and 3 in Revelation
gave (ἔδωκεν): 415x in the NT; 140 in John’s writings: 75 in John, 7 in 1 John, 58 in Revelation.
believes (πιστεύων): 241x in the NT; 107 in John’s writings: 98 in John, 9 in 1 John; this makes sense since this is John’s stated purpose in writing the Gospel
- believes in (πιστεύων εἰς): 43x in the NT; 38 in John’s writings: 34 in John, 4 in 1 John
eternal (αἰώνιον): 69x in the NT; 24 in John’s writings: 17 in John, 6 in 1 John, 1 in Revelation
life (ζωὴν): 135x in the NT; 66 in John’s writings: 36 in John, 13 in 1 John, 17 in Revelation
- eternal life (ζωὴν αἰώνιον): 40x in the NT; 20 (50%) in John’s writings: 17 in John, 3 in 1 John

You could spend a lot of time doing word studies, and it would probably prove to be fruitful. In addition to figuring out the specific nuance of meaning a word has in your verse, one of the other main benefits is seeing themes developed through a book.

I want to focus on just one with our limited time.

κόσμον⁵

κόσμον occurs 186 times in the NT.
105 of those occurrences are in John’s writings: 78 in John, 23 in 1 John, 1 in 2 John, and 3 in Revelation. It’s clearly a major theme for John, especially in his gospel and first letter.
By way of comparison, the term occurs 15 times in all the other gospels combined: 9 in Matthew, 3 in Mark and 3 in Luke, compared to 78 in John.
It has form primary senses:
- (1) the world as the created order (i.e., the universe; e.g., Acts 17:24),⁶ usually with special emphasis on the earth as a thing (e.g., Mt. 13:35; 25:34; Jn. 17:24; καταβολῆς κόσμου);
- (2) the world viewed as a place (i.e., the inhabited earth);⁷
- (3) the world as human beings (e.g., Jn. 12:19 “the world has gone after Him”),⁸ usually viewed as sinful and needy:⁹
  - (a) sinful mankind collectively (e.g., Jn. 1:10c; 1:29?; 3:16; 4:42?; 9:5),
  - (b) unbelievers as opposed to believers (e.g., Mt. 5:14; 18:7; Jn. 15:18 “the world hates you”),
  - (c) Gentiles as opposed to Jews (e.g., Rm. 11:12, 15; 1 Jn. 2:2?),
  - (d) believers as opposed to unbelievers¹⁰ (e.g., Jn. 6:33, 51; 2 Cor. 5:19; 1 Jn. 4:14);
- (4) the world as a sinful system of beliefs and values (e.g., 1 Jn. 2:15a; Jam. 4:4).¹¹
It occasionally includes more than human beings (e.g., 1 Cor. 4:9, where angels are included).
It often clearly is limited to fewer than all people:
- Jn. 8:26 “these things I speak to the world,”
- Jn. 18:20 “I have spoken openly to the world,”
- Jn. 12:19 “the whole world has gone after Him,”
- Rom. 1:8 “your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world,”
It occurs four more times in the following three verses, where it has a different shades of meaning.
- The first and the last refer to the world as a place
- The middle two refer to the world as people
I argue that the meaning here in John 3:16 isn’t “every single person in the world” or “every single person who has ever lived or will ever live.” A careful survey of the 186 uses in the NT will demonstrate that it never carries that kind of explicit and exhaustive meaning.
The idea when it refers to people in a universal sense is typically all people without distinction, not all people without exception. That’s a really important difference.
- If I told you I like all food, I probably don’t mean I like every piece of food that’s ever existed or ever will exist.
- Instead, I probably mean something more like I like all kinds of food without distinction.
- I may in fact mean that I like almost all kinds of food. That’s normal, natural language to use a word like world or all in limited ways, as we saw in the examples above.
World here in our verse carries the idea of humanity viewed collectively without distinction, inclusive of both Jews and Gentiles. We mustn’t press it’s meaning beyond this. Many evangelicals today take an over-literal reading of Scripture by grabbing on to some good principles of interpretation and applying them incorrectly.
There’s a hint in v. 17 that supports this reading. God sent his son into the world in order that the world might be saved. His purpose or intent was to save the world.
- Elsewhere that purpose is captured as “save his people from their sins” (cf. below in the systematic theology section for more examples)¹²
- If this was truly God’s purpose or intent, we know it can’t fail. God’s purposes cannot be thwarted. God’s purposes always become results.
- This isn’t, then, every single person who has ever or will ever lived. The fate of those who had already died was sealed. Not everyone will be saved, but God’s intent to save the world will not fail.
Earlier in John 1:29 we’re told that Jesus “takes away the sin of the world.” But not everyone has their sin taken away.
The Bible regularly speaks with universal language about God’s saving work, and we should not be afraid of that. We should embrace it and love it. But we should understand it as it was intended to be understood, in the light of the first century Jewish-centric culture where God was opening the door to the Gentiles.

What is the range of meaning for each? And what is the specific meaning in this passage?

so (Οὕτως): it seems to be backward-pointing and carries the idea “in a way similar to what I just described about God’s love for Israel shown through lifting up a serpent to provide salvation through faith to his people, God loved the world by sending his son to be lifted up for all to look on and be saved by faith.”
world (κόσμον): sinful humanity viewed as a whole stressing the inclusion of both Jews and Gentiles
only (μονογενῆ): carries the idea of unique or one of a kind, not necessarily only begotten; stresses the uniqueness of Jesus and the greatness of the gift

Are there any key passages that shed light on the meaning of the words in this passage?

vv. 8, 14 shed light on the meaning of so (Οὕτως)
Hebrew 11:7 sheds light on only (μονογενῆ)
vv. 17–21 shed light on the meaning of world (κόσμον)

Step 10: Biblical Theology: Place the text in the Bible’s grand redemption narrative.

There are several different scopes of biblical theology: there is (1) book-level biblical theology, (2) testament-level biblical theology, and (3) whole-Bible biblical theology. It’s good to think about all three.

How does the text fit into the theology of the book?

There’s overlap between this and our step about literary context above.

How do you find a book’s message? You look for a summary or purpose statement if there is one. Otherwise, you look for the key vocabulary. Author’s usually repeat what is most important.

Those repeated vocabulary point you to the key themes. Those key themes usually roll up into the book’s central message.

Some of John’s big themes are:

the divine Messiah, unique son of God, God himself
in deep loving intimacy with the Father
on a love mission to save the world
who invites us into that deep intimate love, known as eternal life
through faith in Jesus

We could combine those themes into this theological message:

“Jesus, the divine Messiah and unique son of God, was God himself. He existed eternally in deep loving intimacy with the Father, who sent him on a love mission to save the world. That salvation consists in entering into the same deep intimate divine love, also known as eternal life, through faith in Jesus.” (Gons)

Others summarize John’s message this way:

Believe that Jesus is the Son who came from the Father to reveal him, and has returned to the Father to open up the way to life for his people. (Gavin Perkins)¹³

Jesus the Messiah gives eternal life to everyone who believes in him. (Andy Naselli)¹⁴

How does the text fit into the theology of the New (or Old) Testament?

¹⁵

How does the text fit into the overarching story of the Bible?

“God reigns, saves, and satisfies through covenant for his glory in Christ.” (Andy Naselli and Jason DeRouchie)

“God the Father has reconciled His created but fallen world through the death of His Son, and renews it into a Kingdom of God by His Spirit.” (Joe Carter)¹⁶

“God reigns over all things for his glory, but we will only enjoy his saving reign in the new heavens and the new earth if we repent and believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the crucified and risen Lord and who gave himself on the cross for our salvation.” (Tom Schreiner)¹⁷

John 3:16 fits beautifully into the story of the Bible. It doesn’t capture the whole story, but it comes as close as just about any single sentence could.

The triune God who exists eternally in perfect fellowship overflowed to create a group of spiritual beings to share in his fellowship and love and delight in his glory. He also create a physical universe and physical being in his image to glorify him and life in fellowship with him. Adam and Eve rebelled against God and plunged themselves and the entire human race into sin, breaking fellowship with God. God responded in grace with atonement and forgiveness, but mankind became increasingly sinful. He judged the world, sparing Noah and his family and created a new people in Noah and his descendants. Mankind continued to rebel against God, and God chose Abraham to create another people. He promised to make Abraham a great nation and bless all people through him. He promises them a land, reminiscent of the perfections of Eden. He led his people into captivity in Egypt and then redeemed them with a mighty arm, so all the world would know that Yahweh was the one true God. He gave his people laws to live by to set them apart from all other people and help them please God and live in fellowship with him. But his people couldn’t keep them. He gave them leaders to rule over them: priests, prophets, judges, and kings. But his people rebelled against them, and all of them failed to lead them perfectly. His people went through cycles of sin, judgment, and repentance. But there was no lasting change of heart.

All along God promised that he’d send a perfect prophet, priest, and king to rule over his people and restore them to the promised blessing they could never attain. But this promised one would be more than just the better leader his people needed. He’d be God himself. He did that in the fulness of time by sending his son to be born of a virgin and live among his people. He was the second Adam, the new Israel, the new temple, greater than Solomon, the promised Messiah. He didn’t come as many thought, to set up a physical kingdom. He came to set up a spiritual kingdom. And he didn’t come just for the Jews. But he came to fulfill the promise made to Abraham and bless all people through him by bringing Jews and Gentiles together in one body. In order to establish his kingdom and restore fellowship with his people, he had to deal with their sin. He took the condemnation of his people and offer eternal life to all who repent and believe in him. One day he’ll fully establish his kingdom and put an end to all evil, restoring the original paradise and fellowship between God and humanity.

Completion: Determine what the text means today and what you should do about it.

Step 11: Historical Theology: Consider how the church’s best theologians have interpreted and applied it.

Note: Pay special attention to creeds, confessions, and catechisms. You may also look at commentaries at this stage.

What did theologians of the early church (100–600) say about it, and how did they use it?

Hilary of Poitiers (315–367) noted that the greatness of God’s love is expressed in Jesus’ identity at his only son, not a servant or adopted son, and not one of many: “Gifts of price are the evidence of affection: the greatness of the surrender is evidence of the greatness of the love. God, who loved the world, gave no adopted son but his own, his only begotten [Son]. Here is personal interest, true sonship, sincerity; not creation, or adoption, or pretence. Here is the proof of his love and affection, that he gave his own, his only begotten Son.”¹⁸
John Chrysostom (347–407) saw in it an expression of the intensity of God’s love: “The text, “God so loved the world,” shows such an intensity of love. For great indeed and infinite is the distance between the two.”¹⁹

What did theologians in the middle ages (600–1500) say about it, and how did they use it?

Thomas Aquinas (1225–74) argued that John 3:16 doesn’t prove that the incarnation was necessary for God to save sinners: “A thing is said to be necessary for a certain end in two ways. First, when the end cannot be without it, as food is necessary for the preservation of human life. Secondly, when the end is attained better and more conveniently, as a horse is necessary for a journey. In the first way it was not necessary that God should become incarnate for the restoration of human nature. For God of His omnipotent power could have restored human nature in many other ways. But in the second way it was necessary that God should become incarnate for the restoration of human nature. Hence Augustine says:²⁰ “We shall also show that other ways were not wanting to God, to Whose power all things are equally subject, but that there was not a more fitting way of healing our misery.”²¹

What did theologians in the Reformation era (1500–1750) say about it, and how did they use it?

Martin Luther (1483–1546) used it as an example of the kind of teaching devoid in the Roman Catholic Church: “These and similar passages bring the hearing of gladness, whether they come from the mouth of another or from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This, too, is hidden truth and wisdom, which inexperienced men cannot grasp. Therefore the pope’s teachers bring vastly different ways by which they want to heal troubled minds.”²²
John Calvin (1509–64) used it to show that it wasn’t the Father who was angry and Jesus who loved: “For it was not after we were reconciled to him through the blood of his Son that he began to love us. Rather, he has loved us before the world was created, that we also might be his sons along with his only-begotten Son—before we became anything at all. The fact that we were reconciled through Christ’s death must not be understood as if his Son reconciled us to him that he might now begin to love those whom he had hated. Rather, we have already been reconciled to him who loves us, with whom we were enemies on account of sin.”²³

What did modern theologians (1750–present) say about it, and how did they use it?

B. B. Warfield (1851–1921) uses it to defend the eternal sonship of Jesus: “The force of a passage like 3:16‚ (cf. 3:35, 5:20)—‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son’—seems to turn on the intimacy of the relation expressed by the term ‘only begotten Son’ having been already existent before the giving: otherwise how is the greatness of the love expressed in the giving to be measured? Similarly in a passage like 3:17 there seems an implication of the Sonship as underlying the mission: He was sent on this mission because He was Son,—He did not become Son by being sent. In like manner the remarkable phrase ‘God only begotten’ in Jno 1:18 appears to be most readily explained by supposing that it was as God that He was the unique Son: and, if so, it seems easiest to understand ‘the glory of an Only Begotten of the Father,’ which men saw in the incarnate Christ (1:14) as the glory brought with Him from heaven. In this case, it is obvious, John goes far toward outlining the foundations of the doctrine of the Trinity for us: and it is a mistake not to see in his doctrine of the Logos and of the Only Begotten God and of the Divine Son, the elements of that doctrine.”²⁴

Step 12: Systematic Theology: Harmonize the truths of the text with the rest of the Bible.

What OT texts support this text?

Genesis 22:12: “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Isaiah 9:6: For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Gen. 12:2–3: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (cf. Gen. 18:18; 22:18).
Cf. also Genesis 22:1–19 and Numbers 21:4–9.

What OT texts seem at odds with this text? How would you resolve the tension?

None that I can think of. Maybe texts that seem to have God’s promises aimed at the Jewish people.
There are hints all throughout the OT (as above) that the Messiah would be for the whole world, but to some degree it was a mystery, hidden under the Old Covenant but now revealed through Jesus.

What NT texts support this text?

1 John 3:1: See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
1 John 4:9–10: This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1 John 2:1–2: My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

What NT texts seem at odds with this text? How would you resolve the tension?

All the texts that communicate God’s special love and Christ’s atoning work for his people.
- Matthew 1:21: She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
- John 10:11: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
- John 17:19: For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
- Ephesians 5:25–27: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
- Titus 2:14: who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
As I’ve argued above, this text doesn’t teach what it is often thought to teach. There’s no real tension between it and texts that have an explicitly limited focus for God’s love and Christ’s atonement.

Theology Proper: God is a plurality; the Father had a son.
Christology (the Incarnation): God sent his son, who became a man.
Hamartiology: Man was in a condition deserving God’s wrath and condemnation for his sin. Jesus’s death was necessary in order to deal with that sin.
Soteriology: God in love provided salvation through faith in his son.

How do various theological camps handle this text?

Arminians point to this text as an example of God’s love for all people, atoning work for all people, and free offer of salvation for all people—without exception.
Calvinists try to read into this text the doctrine of election and replace world with elect.

Both often stretch the text beyond what it was intended to communicate.

Step 13: Practical Theology: Apply the text to yourself, the church, and the world.

**What does the text describe? What does it prescribe?**

It describes God’s love gift of his son to save the world, Jews and Gentiles, through faith in Jesus.
It indirectly prescribes that we believe in Jesus and receive eternal life.

Are any aspects of the text only for its original audience? Which ones? How do you know?

No. There are no indications in the text or its context that would limit the text to a particular time period or people group. In fact, the text’s universal nature implies the opposite.

What aspects of the text still apply to readers today?

All of it. It seems that this text applies fully to a worldwide audience in 2017: all nations, all races, all languages, all people groups can embrace Jesus by faith, gain eternal life and escape God’s wrath, and experience his love.

How does its application to us today differ from its application to the original audience, prior audiences, and audiences from other cultures?

Our sins may take on a slightly different shape, but we’re sinners just like John’s original audience. The remedy for our sin is no different from theirs. The text is truly timeliness and universal in its application.

What should you do differently (or more of) as a church member, spouse, parent, child, sibling, employee, employer, friend, citizen, etc.?

Be grateful for the amazing love gift of God’s son.
Believe fully and solely and perseveringly in Jesus’ work for sinners.
Talk about and rejoin in this amazing message with other believers to help spur them on to greater faith and gratitude.
Communicate this amazing message to the lost who are perishing and under God’s just condemnation.

Step 14: Take Action: Develop a plan for growth in godliness.

This section is for you to address privately or with a trusted friend or loved one.

Is there anything you need to confess to God or others?

What should you memorize and meditate on (e.g., promise to believe, command to obey)?

What should you add to your prayer list?

Should you invite trusted friends to pray with you about and help support you in anything? Who?

What should you study and investigate more deeply? How (e.g., do a study, read a book, listen to some sermons)?

Conclusion: Summarize what you’ve learned about the passage in a couple of sentences.

Make sure to grab another copy of the worksheet for our next class on John 12:32.

Gons, Phil. Version Comparison of John 3:16
Gons, Phil. Οὕτως in John 3:16
Gons, Phil. “God So Loved the World”
Naselli, Andy. “Portraits of Jesus: ‘God’s Only Son.’”
“Email Exchange with Andy Naselli on OUTWS in John 3:16.” June 26–29, 2016.
“Email Exchange with Dan Wagner: A Calvinist looks at the John 3:16 Context in Its OT Background.” August 21–22, 2002.
“Email Exchange with Chris Wallace on John 3:16.” February 2, 2001.
The Purpose of the Work of Christ.

Bibliography

Gundry, Robert H., and Russell W. Howell. “The Sense and Syntax of John 3:14–17 with Special Reference to the Use of ‘ΟΥΤΩΣ . . . ΩΣΤΕ’ in John 3.16.”

Harris, Murray J. John 3:16: What’s It All About? Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2015.

http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/god-so-loved-the-world-part-1

http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/god-so-loved-the-world-part-2

http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/you-must-be-born-again-why-this-series-and-where-are-we-going

http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/advent-series-for-god-so-loved-the-world

http://www.desiringgod.org/series/john-3-16

http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-danger-perishing

http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-design-love

http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-duty-faith

http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-destiny-eternal-life

Questions

Is the text of John 3:16 a statement of Jesus’ or of John’s? Take note of which translations put the words in red and which don’t.
How does John 3:16 fit into the flow of thought in John 3? Take note of where the translations insert the pericope breaks.
Does v. 16 continue an existing thought or start a new one? Take note of where the translations insert the paragraph breaks (cf. NIV, ESV, CSB)
How many clauses are in verse 16? How do they relate to one another?
What’s the significance of the word for?
What’s the significance of the word so?
What’s the meaning of the word only?
What’s the meaning of the word kosmos? Who is its referent?

Media

Here’s an image of a manuscript from the 4th century:

Here’s an image of a manuscript from the 9th century that includes the text of John 3:16:

This is a very advanced step reserved mainly for Bible translators, scholars writing commentaries, or advanced PhD students. It’s not one you need to be concerned about. But I did want to give you some very brief exposure to it.

Notes

1. A citation search for <=John 3:16> yields more hits in my Logos library than any other reference I’ve tried. Cf. this Google sheet. ↩

2. “The Religious Life of Theological Students.” ↩

3. Eberhard Nestle and Erwin Nestle, Nestle-Aland: NTG Apparatus Criticus, ed. Barbara Aland et al., 28. revidierte Auflage (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012), 299. ↩

4. Some mss. have ὅτι instead of ὥστε apparently, but this is easily explained as an attempt the usual construction of ὥστε with an indicative. ↩

5. See my word study. ↩

6. “God, who made the world . . . is Lord of heaven and earth.” This reference includes heaven as part of the κόσμος. ↩

7. For this meaning the phrases ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ and εἰς τὸν κόσμον dominate. ↩

8. In one instance the word is used of intelligent created beings—both man and angels (1 Cor. 4:9). ↩

9. All of these occurrences, if not explicitly mentioning sin, presuppose it by what Jesus is doing for mankind. ↩

10. This category blurs slightly with the category of sinful mankind viewed collectively. It might be better defined with a special focus on believers, or maybe the two categories should be viewed as one. Regardless, in each of the listed passages the benefits mentioned are for those who believe as opposed to those who do not. ↩

11. A few obscure uses occur—(5) the act of making attractive (1 Pet. 3:3) and (6) figuratively as the totality of something (Jam. 3:6; cf. Mt. 16:26; Mk. 8:36). ↩

12. See my document of verses on the purpose of Christ’s work. ↩

13. http://andynaselli.com/what-is-the-message-of-each-book-of-the-bible ↩

14. 1:52 in http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-new-testament-in-ten-minutes ↩

15. http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-old-testament-in-ten-minutes and http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-new-testament-in-ten-minutes ↩

16. https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2011/01/whats-the-message-of-the-bible-in-one-sentence ↩

17. http://dogmadoxa.blogspot.com/2011/01/whats-message-of-bible-in-one-sentence.html ↩

18. Joel C. Elowsky, John 1–10, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture NT 4a (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 125–126. ↩

19. Joel C. Elowsky, John 1–10, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture NT 4a (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 125. ↩

20. De Trin., XIII, 10 (PL 42, 1024). ↩

21. Saint Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica, ed. Mortimer J. Adler, Philip W. Goetz, and Daniel J. Sullivan, trans. Laurence Shapcote, Second Edition, vol. 18, Great Books of the Western World (Chicago; Auckland; Geneva; London; Madrid; Manila; Paris; Rome; Seoul; Sydney; Tokyo; Toronto: Robert P. Gwinn; Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1990), 703. ↩

22. Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 12 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 369. ↩

23. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, vol. 1, The Library of Christian Classics (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 506–507. ↩

24. Benjamin B. Warfield, The Lord of Glory: A Study of the Designations of Our Lord in the New Testament with Especial Reference to His Deity (New York: American Tract Society, 1907), 198–199. ↩