John 3:16. It is the most famous of Bible verses, well beloved and eagerly memorized, proudly displayed on posters at public events, a beautiful summary of the saving work of God through Christ. In its most famous translation it reads:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Yet how well do we understand this verse, which so many of us have hidden in our hearts? The crux of the interpretation lies in the little two-letter word so. When most of us hear this word, we think of it as a word of degree, indicating the amount of God’s love for us. In other words, we typically understand this word as do the translators of the Contemporary English Version (CEV) and the New Century Version (NCV), who translate the beginning of this verse as “God loved the world so much.” But the Greek word translated as so in the King James and so much in the CEV and NCV is more commonly an adverb of manner and not of degree. Consider for example the sentence, “I want you to do it just so.” Here the word so is describing the manner in which the speaker wants something to be done. Another way we might communicate the same idea in English would be to say “like this” or “in this way.”
While it is possible that the word so in John 3:16 communicates the degree of God’s love, it is equally possible that the focus is on the manner in which he demonstrated his love, namely by giving his only begotten Son. Actually, since the word can have both meanings, it is quite possible that John the Apostle wanted his readers to consider both senses of the word. But in most English translations, readers only get the sense of degree and miss the sense of manner.
Although it is not nearly as poetic as the traditional King James translation, the New English Translation (NET) captures well the sense of manner that so often gets lost in translation:
For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
A secondary issue in which translations of John 3:16 differ has to do with who is actually speaking these words. Are they the words of Jesus? Or is it the voice of John the Apostle providing further commentary about Jesus’s interaction with Nicodemus? While most translations consider these words to be a quotation of Jesus, translations such as the NET Bible and the Revised Standard Version (RSV) end the words of Jesus in verse 15. The original King James translation did not have quotation marks, nor did it use a red font for the words of Jesus, and so this question is left ambiguous in the King James. Similarly, the Greek manuscripts provide no indication of where exactly quotations end.
There are interesting arguments to support the idea that verses 16 to 21 are actually commentary from the Apostle John rather than the words of Jesus. First, there is some phraseology that is never spoken by Jesus, but is used by the Apostle John in other places, such as only begotten Son, do the truth, and who believes in him. Second, there is an abrupt shift of tense from present to past. Verses 1 to 15 are in the present tense, while verses 16 to 21 are in the past tense. This gives the sense of an outside observer looking back in time to what had happened in the past and providing explanation.
Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter whether Jesus spoke these words or whether John did; in either case it is still the inspired word of God. But it is interesting to ponder through whom God chose to communicate these words; and in translation it is necessary to make a decision if the target language employs quotation marks or other devices to indicate the conclusion of quoted speech.
John 3:16 is an excellent example of how translation can be more difficult than it might appear at first. One would think that a verse as well known as John 3:16 would be quite easy to translate; yet there are nuances that often escape the attention of the English reader, but which must be decided when translating into another language. This verse proved to be particularly difficult to translate into Enga, particularly as it relates to the little two-letter word so. Ultimately we translated John 3:16 in this way:
God loved all the people of the world; by means of that, he gave his one [and] only Son. He gave [him], saying [that] any person who shall put trust in the Son of him, that [person] shall not die and become lost, but rather he shall receive the life that exists forever.
And, by the way, we did end the quotation of the words of Jesus in verse 15, but there are certainly good arguments to extend the quotation through the end of verse 21.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Yet how well do we understand this verse, which so many of us have hidden in our hearts? The crux of the interpretation lies in the little two-letter word so. When most of us hear this word, we think of it as a word of degree, indicating the amount of God’s love for us. In other words, we typically understand this word as do the translators of the Contemporary English Version (CEV) and the New Century Version (NCV), who translate the beginning of this verse as “God loved the world so much.” But the Greek word translated as so in the King James and so much in the CEV and NCV is more commonly an adverb of manner and not of degree. Consider for example the sentence, “I want you to do it just so.” Here the word so is describing the manner in which the speaker wants something to be done. Another way we might communicate the same idea in English would be to say “like this” or “in this way.”
While it is possible that the word so in John 3:16 communicates the degree of God’s love, it is equally possible that the focus is on the manner in which he demonstrated his love, namely by giving his only begotten Son. Actually, since the word can have both meanings, it is quite possible that John the Apostle wanted his readers to consider both senses of the word. But in most English translations, readers only get the sense of degree and miss the sense of manner.
Although it is not nearly as poetic as the traditional King James translation, the New English Translation (NET) captures well the sense of manner that so often gets lost in translation:
For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
A secondary issue in which translations of John 3:16 differ has to do with who is actually speaking these words. Are they the words of Jesus? Or is it the voice of John the Apostle providing further commentary about Jesus’s interaction with Nicodemus? While most translations consider these words to be a quotation of Jesus, translations such as the NET Bible and the Revised Standard Version (RSV) end the words of Jesus in verse 15. The original King James translation did not have quotation marks, nor did it use a red font for the words of Jesus, and so this question is left ambiguous in the King James. Similarly, the Greek manuscripts provide no indication of where exactly quotations end.
There are interesting arguments to support the idea that verses 16 to 21 are actually commentary from the Apostle John rather than the words of Jesus. First, there is some phraseology that is never spoken by Jesus, but is used by the Apostle John in other places, such as only begotten Son, do the truth, and who believes in him. Second, there is an abrupt shift of tense from present to past. Verses 1 to 15 are in the present tense, while verses 16 to 21 are in the past tense. This gives the sense of an outside observer looking back in time to what had happened in the past and providing explanation.
Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter whether Jesus spoke these words or whether John did; in either case it is still the inspired word of God. But it is interesting to ponder through whom God chose to communicate these words; and in translation it is necessary to make a decision if the target language employs quotation marks or other devices to indicate the conclusion of quoted speech.
John 3:16 is an excellent example of how translation can be more difficult than it might appear at first. One would think that a verse as well known as John 3:16 would be quite easy to translate; yet there are nuances that often escape the attention of the English reader, but which must be decided when translating into another language. This verse proved to be particularly difficult to translate into Enga, particularly as it relates to the little two-letter word so. Ultimately we translated John 3:16 in this way:
God loved all the people of the world; by means of that, he gave his one [and] only Son. He gave [him], saying [that] any person who shall put trust in the Son of him, that [person] shall not die and become lost, but rather he shall receive the life that exists forever.
And, by the way, we did end the quotation of the words of Jesus in verse 15, but there are certainly good arguments to extend the quotation through the end of verse 21.
