Sermon Tone Analysis

john

John 3.16-21

16.

Following his account of the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus, the evangelist comments on its significance in 3:16–21.

He begins his comments with the much-loved words 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.

Traditionally, the first part of 3:16 has been interpreted to highlight the ‘degree’ of God’s love for the world, i.e. ‘how much’ he loved the world: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son’.

While it may be said that the degree of God’s love for the world is demonstrated in the giving of his Son, this may not be what the evangelist is saying here.

The word translated ‘so’ (understood by most to mean ‘so much’) is houtōs, a word used frequently elsewhere in the Fourth Gospel, never to denote degree (how much) but always manner (in what way) (8, 14; 4:6; 5:21, 26; 7:46; 11:48; 12:50; 13:25; 14:31; 15:4; 18:22; 21:1).

Further, houtōs, indicating ‘in what way’, always refers back to something previously mentioned, not something about to be explained.

Allowing these things to guide us, we should translate the first part of 3:16 as follows: ‘For in this way (referring to something already mentioned) God loved the world …’ An understanding of the way God loved the world, then, is to be sought in the preceding verses, 3:14–15, where Jesus speaks of the Son of Man being ‘lifted up’ as the snake was lifted up on the pole by Moses.

This means that the rest of 3:16 really belongs with what follows in 3:17.

Thus the thought of 3:14–17 may be set out as follows, the two main clauses being in italics:

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert,

in the same way the Son of Man must be lifted up,

that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life,

for in this way God loved the world;

And so [as a consequence of this love] he gave his one and only Son,

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have

eternal life, for God did not send his Son into the world

to condemn the world,

but to save the world through him.

There are no great theological differences between this approach and the more traditional approach to these verses.

However, it is closer to what the evangelist actually wrote in this passage.

When the evangelist says ‘for God so loved the world’, the word ‘world’ signifies humanity in general.

It was God’s love for all humanity that led him to give his ‘one and only’ (ton mongenē) Son.

In some older translations monogenēs is translated as ‘only begotten’, but this is misleading, for the word monogenēs emphasizes uniqueness, not ‘begottenness’ (see Additional note: Monogenēs, pp.

71–72).

What the text is saying, therefore, is that God had only one Son, and because of his love for humanity he gave him to make eternal life available to the world.

The purpose for giving his only Son was so ‘that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life’.