God so loved the world
Steve Kearfott
skearfott at juno.com
Tue Apr 30 17:12:16 EDT 2002
> Richard:
>
> You wrote:
>
> --------
> >hOUTWS YAR HGAPHSEN hO QEOS TON KOSMON, hWSTE TON hUION TON MONOGENH
> >EDWKEN
> >
> >Until now I guess my assumption had been that "so loved" was an expression
> >of the amount of love God has for the world.
> >
> >Now however it seems that the verse is better understood as "God loved the
> >world in this way."
> >
> >The giving of the Son is not the measure of God's love, but its result and
> >its fruitful expression.
> --------
>
> I think you are needlessly forcing an either/or here. John is a
> master/genius of multiple meanings with his use of words.
>
> The giving of the Son is the measure of God's love, AND its result and its
> fruitful expression.
>
> This understanding really doesn't solve the problem; it
> eliminates it!
>
> Mark Wilson
>
A defense of the non-traditional view:
hOUTWS is primarily an adverb which expresses manner not extent,
particularly when it precedes a verb as it does in John 3:16. According
to BAGD, hOUTWS means in this manner, thus, so, and specifically in John
3:16, it is referring to what follows, and means in this way, as
follows. A.T. Robertson (A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the
Light of Historical Research) defined hOUTWS as a modal adverb, from
which definition the idea of manner is detected. Dana & Mantey (A Manual
Grammar of the Greek New Testament) classified hOUTWS as an adverb of
manner. Therefore, a truer interpretation would be God loved the world
in this way. The Reina-Valera version (Spanish, 1602) translated it de
tal manera, of such a manner. What BAGD refers to as what follows is
the following clause introduced by hWSTE, a subordinating conjunction
expressing result. God loved the world is this way, that it resulted in
his giving the unique Son.
It is conceded that manner is not the exclusive meaning for hOUTWS; there
is, in fact, room for using hOUTWS to express extent or degree. BAGD
cites four occurrences in the New Testament of hOUTWS to denote degree
when it precedes an adjective or an adverb (Rev. 16:18 is the clearest
example), and only one such occurrence when it precedes a verb (1 John
4:11). Even in that occurrence, however, manner seems preferable to
extent. There is also some evidence of pre-Christian (5th century BC)
usage of hOUTWS preceding a verb to express degree, ALLA TI POTE SU, TW
SAKA hOUTW POLEMEIS (Xenophon, Cyropaedia I. iii. 11), But why are you
so set against Sacas?
The difference between manner and extent can be seen more clearly in other
passages, where a preceding conjunctive such as hWS or KAQWS is present.
For example, just two verses earlier, Jesus says, And as [KAQWS] Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so [hOUTWS] must the Son of
man be lifted up. I doubt that anyone would interpret this hOUTWS to mean
that the Son of man must be lifted up so high, or to such a great extent,
(or even both/and!).
It bears repeating that by no means is the conclusion of the traditional
view false. The extent of Gods love is indeed immeasurable. However, to
interpret John 3:16 as declaring that (I think) is to misrepresent it.
John 3:16 is speaking to the manner of Gods love. Once again, this is by
no means to deny the concept of the great extent of Gods love, only to
suggest that this particular passage expresses a different aspect of that
love.
Steve Kearfott
Louisville, Kentucky
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list