John 3:16

9 Pages 2157 Words

oved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
NASB- “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
NIV- “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.”
These three different versions of John 3:16 have both differences and similarities. The first difference encountered is the capitalization of ‘he’. The capitalization, found in the NASB, is trying to emphasize that ‘he’ is really God (He). “Only begotten” is different in the NIV, changing to “one and only,” but the meaning is still the same: μονογενής, monogenes- only birth, sole (Strong, G3439). One of the last term disagreements is the word “everlasting” compared to “eternal.” However, these two terms carry the same meaning. The rest of the differences are simply because of the style of English, (the King James Version uses old English).
Looking more closely at the meaning of each word helps understand the passage more completely. The first word encountered in the passage that could carry different meanings is the word love. In the Greek text, the word for love is ἀγαπάω, agapao, meaning to love in a social or moral sense (Strong, G25). This word is used in other parts of John and throughout the Bible to expre...