This is a lightly edited transcript of what I actually said when I taught this session at Spring Creek Bible Church on May 21, 2017, as Part 4 of the Introduction to New Testament Exegesis class (the first of the three sessions on John 3:16). It differs from what I planned to say; for the prepared text, see the manuscript.
We’re picking up this week with our study on John 3:16, which was originally scheduled for last week—but with a baby arriving, I didn’t have much time to prepare, so we finished the previous material instead. Today we’ll work through John 3:16 together. Let’s open in prayer and then move into our text.
Father, thank you for this time together. Thank you for your great love for us, shown in the giving of your Son to save us from perishing eternally, and for the eternal life we have in him. Thank you for your Word and the opportunity to study it. Bless us this morning; give us attentive minds and receptive hearts as we ponder your words to us about your love and your Son. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
You might wonder why we’d pick a text like John 3:16, which seems so simple, to work through the exegetical process. Three reasons. First, its very simplicity makes it a good place to practice the steps. Second, there’s actually more going on here than you see on the surface. And third—this is true for me, and maybe for you—with texts I’ve memorized, I often have a hard time thinking about them deeply; as soon as I look, the words just run through my mind on autopilot. Alternate translations help here, because they slow you down and make you think about the words rather than rehearse them. For all those reasons, John 3:16 is a good text to dig into.
One word before we start on the fourteen steps: asking questions. Developing the skill of asking questions of the text is a critical part of good exegetical work. As you work through a passage, jot down the questions that come to mind—What does this word mean? Why did he say it this way? How does this relate to that?—and then seek out answers as you study. The better you get at asking questions, the better you’ll understand what’s being communicated. So throughout today, if you have a question, call it out and we’ll put it on the board.
Step 1: Prayer and Illumination
The first step is illumination. We shouldn’t just jump into the Bible and try to understand it on our own; understanding God’s Word is a supernatural thing, and we need his help. Scripture repeatedly shows people calling out to God to open their eyes and turn their hearts to his Word, and I’d encourage you to make that a regular part of your study. We also shouldn’t fall into a false dichotomy between the devotional and spiritual on the one hand—attending to our hearts—and the academic and intellectual on the other, digging into which word it was and what it meant. Those belong together, not one to the closet and the other to the classroom. B. B. Warfield wrote a wonderful essay on this, and I’ll rehearse his line again:
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! Then ten hours over your books, on your knees, will give you a knowledge of God as truer, as deeper, as more operative still. Why should you turn from God when you turn to your books, or feel that you must turn from your books in order to turn to God?
I’ve never literally spent ten hours in my books on my knees—though it might be worth trying—but it can be a posture of the heart: on your knees in spirit while over your books. I spent a dozen hours in my books yesterday and tried to do so with a heart of gratitude, love, and devotion to the Lord.
The Text and Its Context
Let’s read the text and then read it in its context. John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” And the broader unit, John 3:1–21, begins with Nicodemus, “a man of the Pharisees…a ruler of the Jews,” coming to Jesus by night: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God.” Jesus tells him, “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God,” speaks of the Son of Man being “lifted up” as Moses lifted up the serpent, and moves into verses 16–21 on God’s love, belief and unbelief, and light coming into the world while men love darkness because their deeds are evil.
Step 2: Establishing the Text
The second step is textual criticism—establishing the original wording. Did anyone find variants noted in a study Bible, the NET Bible notes, or the Lexham textual notes? The main variant in the Greek here is small: after “the…Son” and “the only,” some manuscripts insert autou (“his”), but most think it wasn’t original—you can even see it added in line in a fourth-century manuscript, inserted later by a copyist. And here’s the key point about Greek: the definite article often carries a possessive sense, so whether “his” is explicitly present or not, the article already conveys it. This is a great example of a variant that doesn’t change the meaning at all—the text reads the same either way. (For English readers, the two best resources beyond your study Bible’s footnotes are the NET Bible notes and the Lexham textual notes, both accessible without knowing Greek.)
One thing you can do at this step, which I did, is compare different printed editions of the Greek New Testament—scholars surveying the manuscripts and choosing the preferred readings. Most of the differences you’ll find are things like capitalization and punctuation, which are editorial: the earliest Greek was written in all capital letters, with no spaces between words and no punctuation. (Try writing your next email that way—all caps, no spaces, no punctuation—and you’ll get a feel for it.) There are a couple of genuine differences in the Greek here—an alternate spelling of the word for “but” (alla versus the contracted all’) and a spelling variant of houtōs with or without a final sigma—but these change nothing; the meaning is identical. That’s the character of most manuscript differences: when I said a few weeks ago that most variants are trivial, this is what I meant. So for our text, we can be very confident we know what it says.
Step 3: Comparing the Translations
Step three is noting how the translations differ. A couple stand out here. First, “God so loved the world” versus “this is how” or “in this way God loved the world.” This isn’t a different Greek reading—it’s two ways of understanding the same word, which we’ll dig into under word studies. Second, “his only Son” versus “only begotten Son.” There are lots of smaller differences too—“eternal life” versus “everlasting life,” “shall” versus “should,” “whosoever” versus “whoever” (mostly just older versus more current English)—but those carry the same meaning with different word choices. (One member noted that a Spanish translation used a past-perfect “he has given”; tenses don’t always map neatly between languages, and the Greek here is a simple past.) I’d flag “so” and “only/only begotten” for further study in the word-study step.
One more difference isn’t about wording but about an editorial decision: some Bibles print verses 16–21 in red and some don’t. That’s because some translators take Jesus’ words to Nicodemus as ending at verse 15, making verse 16 onward John’s commentary on the encounter, while most treat 16–21 as still Jesus speaking. It’s not uncommon for Jesus to refer to himself in the third person (as “the Son of Man”), and the text doesn’t tell us explicitly. I lean toward taking these as Jesus’ own words, and I’ll give my reasons a little later—but even if it’s John speaking, it’s still Jesus speaking indirectly through the inspired author. There are only a handful of places in the Gospels where it’s genuinely unclear where Jesus’ speech ends; it isn’t common, since usually the transitions are cleaner.
Step 4: Historical Context
Who wrote it? John—the apostle, the beloved disciple “whom Jesus loved,” the brother of James, a son of Zebedee, part of Jesus’ inner circle with Peter and James, a son of thunder, an eyewitness of the Transfiguration, and author of the Gospel, three letters, and Revelation. It’s worth noting that John repeatedly calls himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” and that love is a major theme in his writings—a connection worth watching.
To whom did he write? Unlike a letter, the Gospels don’t name their recipients, but there are clues. My take is that John writes to both unbelievers and believers, since his goal is to help people believe and keep believing—something we all need. There’s clearly a large Jewish element (as one member noted, John assumes his readers know figures like Elijah and “the Prophet” without explanation), but there are also strong universal signals pointing to a broader audience: “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him…he gave the right to become children of God” (1:11–13); “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (1:29); the Samaritan woman’s village calling him “the Savior of the world” (chapter 4); and Greeks seeking him (chapter 12). So the audience is broad and universal, though thoroughly Jewish at its core.
When was it written? Estimates range from as early as AD 55 to as late as 95–100, and most lean later—around AD 80–90—which makes John by far the latest Gospel and one of the latest books in the New Testament. That means forty to sixty years elapsed since Jesus’ death and resurrection (around AD 30–32), and John’s Gospel is more theologically developed and mature than the others, fitting a later date. As one member observed, a later date fits the way John seems to supplement the other Gospels and to write with an apologetic aim—his theological emphasis anticipates and guards against errors like docetism and early Gnosticism, which became major issues in the second century. Where was it written? Perhaps Ephesus; Irenaeus—who had personal contact with Polycarp, a friend of John’s—says so, though that’s tradition, not inspired.
Why did he write? John 20:30–31 states it plainly: “Jesus did many other signs…which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John writes so his readers will believe, and keep believing, in Jesus as the divine Messiah and Savior of the world. As for the surrounding backdrop—Roman occupation, widespread idolatry, the destruction of the temple around AD 70 (a date scholars use to argue for the timing), divisions, the pull to love the world, persecution, creeping heresies, and disputes over the Mosaic law—these all form the setting. And I can’t overstate the significance of the shift from God’s people being Jews to being Jews and Gentiles; that’s the great backdrop of the whole New Testament, and I think John’s emphasis on “the world” has exactly that in view—not Jews only, but Jews plus Gentiles. It’s striking, too, that this most famous verse in the Bible was given in Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus, a teacher of Israel who came with questions.
Step 5: Genre and Literary Devices
What is the genre? It’s a Gospel—but what is a Gospel? It’s non-fiction: history and fact (it contains parables, which are invented illustrations, but the telling of them is not fiction). It’s a kind of ancient biography whose main character is Jesus—though not a typical one, since John devotes roughly the second half of his book (chapters 12–13 onward) to Jesus’ final week, his betrayal, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection. Some call the Gospels “passion narratives with extended introductions”: the first twelve chapters introduce us to the person of Jesus, and the last half deals with his cross work.
What about literary devices? Several. As one member pointed out, the NET Bible argues that “God so loved the world” may carry a double meaning—both the manner (“in this way”) and the degree (“so much”) of God’s love; John is famous for such double entendres. The phrase “lifted up” is another: in verses 14–15 Jesus draws a simile—“as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up”—comparing the bronze serpent raised on a pole (which the venom-bitten Israelites looked to and lived) with Jesus lifted up on the cross, to which all who look in faith are saved; and “lifted up” simultaneously points to his crucifixion. From verse 14 on, the passage becomes very didactic—authoritative teaching rather than back-and-forth dialogue. And in verses 19–20, “the light has come into the world” is a metaphor: “light” and “darkness” stand for good and evil, God’s purity and truth versus wickedness—spiritual illumination, not physical light. As for interpretive principles: read the Gospel as factually accurate, but remember it’s not necessarily arranged in strict chronological order—the Gospel writers selected and sometimes grouped material to make a theological point, so be careful about pressing arguments based on the sequence of events. And with similes and metaphors, don’t read them literally; grasp the point of comparison.
Step 6: Literary Context (Co-text)
Co-text is the literary context—thinking of the passage in nested circles of structure. From the largest down: John 3:16 is part of the Bible, then the New Testament, then John’s corpus (Gospel, three letters, Revelation), then his Gospel, then chapters 1–11 or 12 (which introduce the divine Messiah before the second half turns to his betrayal, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection), then Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus in 3:1–21 (the pericope), and finally either Jesus’ spoken words to Nicodemus or John’s inspired commentary afterward.
This is where I’d explain my leaning toward taking verses 16–21 as Jesus’ words. Two things point that way. First, verse 16 is closely connected to what precedes—the “for” ties it to verses 14–15—and unfortunately many translations start a new paragraph at verse 16, which obscures the connection; keeping it as one continuous flow of thought is my preference. Second, verse 22 clearly marks a transition: its first words are “After this.” That’s not decisive proof that 16–21 belong to the same occasion, but it points in that direction.
Does the passage quote or allude to other Scripture? Yes. Verse 14 alludes to Numbers 21:4–9, so it’s worth reading that in context. On the journey from Mount Hor around the land of Edom, the people grew impatient and spoke against God and Moses, so the Lord sent fiery serpents among them, and many died. When the people repented, “the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.’ So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live” (21:8–9). We’ll draw out the connection more in the word-study section. There may also be a foreshadowing in Genesis 22, where Abraham offers up his only son, Isaac—not explicit here, but very possibly in view.
Finally, how does the text fit the book’s larger message? I’d identify five big themes in John’s Gospel, and John 3:16 touches nearly all of them: the divine Messiah who is the Son of God and God himself; the deep, loving intimacy between the Father and the Son; Jesus’ mission of love to save the world; our being invited into that loving intimacy through faith; and eternal life through believing in Jesus. (As one member added, there’s also the flip side—we are all perishing apart from him, and “should not perish” is itself part of the message.) So John 3:16 sits right at the heart of what John is communicating in the book.
We’ll pick up next time with Step 7, diagramming, and continue through the remaining steps. Let’s close in prayer. Father, thank you for your great love for us. Thank you for sending your Son to offer us salvation in him through faith. Thank you that this free gift is ours—we do not deserve it; it is by grace alone. Fill our hearts with gratitude as we ponder your love, and help us to keep believing, and to invite others to believe, in this Jesus, whom to know is life eternal. Bless our time now as we gather corporately, in Jesus’ name, amen.