Think Wink.

This is the final entry on the retranslation of John 3:16, that famous and beautiful verse that I feel that is often overlooked in serious study because it is so familiar to us. Everyone knows of John 3:16 and most Christians have at least this one verse memorized. Luther called it the little gospel. But I wanted to give this some serious study. Thus far, after four posts, we have the following, “Thus in this manner God loved the world that he gave his one and only Son so that everyone that is believing in him…” I want to conclude this with the last of the verse. The ESV reads “…should not perish but have eternal life.” The Greek reads me apoletai all’ eche zoen aionion.

The first two words I want to look at is me apoletai. Me is a simple negating particle of speech. It is best translated as “no, not lest.” It negates the word it modifies. The word that requires some attention is apoletai. It comes from the verb apollumi, which comes from luo which means “to loose.” It is a strong word, apollumi. The Gospel According to John uses the word 10 times. It is used to mean perish in four other places than John 3:16, destroy one other time, and the rest are translated to mean lose. It basically means to destroy either by destruction or by being lost. The verb apoletai is in the middle voice. This usually means that the actions is being performed upon the subject by the subject. What is unique is that we are the cause of our own destruction. Our sin brings upon God’s wrath and condemnation upon us. Our sin destroys us. This verb is also in the subjunctive mood. The subjunctive is the mood of possibility and potentiality. Translation either translate this term as “will” or “should” or “shall.” A couple use “may.” But the text is speaking of the potential or the possibility of perishing. Couple this with the negating me and you see what Jesus has done in this text. He has negated the possibility, the potential for perishing. Faith in Jesus removes the possibility of eternal death. I like the translations that go with “will not” because it gives the certainty of the removing of the possibility of death.

The second words I want to look at is all’ eche. The Greek term all’ is an abbreviated form of alla. It is a Greek conjunction that means “but, rather, nevertheless.” It is a conjunction that “transitions to the cardinal matter” (Strong’s). The next word is the verb eche. It is a verb that means literally “to have.” It means to own, to have in hand, hold oneself in a condition or to hold oneself to something. This verb is a present tense verb, displaying linear action. Jesus is saying those who trust Christ have, in the present, eternal life. It is something we have right now and will always have through out all of time. Not even death can stop us from having eternal life. The verb also is a subjunctive verb. It is now saying by trusting in Christ, the possibility of eternal life, the potential of eternal life is now present in our lives. Naturally, the possibility of eternal life was non existent, but Christ has made it possible.

The last two words we will look at are the Greek zoen aionion. This is a non-articular noun-adjective pair. The noun is zoen, from zoe, which means life. From this term we get the science of zoology. It means life. The adjective is aionion, from aionios. It means without beginning or end, without ceasing. It means everlasting. It does not stop. Jesus uses this term to describe the life that he has purchased for us. It is life without end and never ceases, it is everlasting life, it is life forever.

So I would translate the last part of the verse as “…will never perish but have life forever.” The new translation of John 3:16 that we now have is this, “Thus in this manner God loved the world that he gave his one and only Son so that everyone that is believing in him will never perish but have life forever.” I hope this has been enlightening to you. It certainly has been for me.

James White on John 3:16-17

πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων

John 3:16 and Calvinism