John 3:16

[Haipule]

Many have John 3:16 framed on there wall. It is probably the most famous verse in Christianity.

However, it is not faithfully translated. It does not honor John's grammatical inflection which he actually carefully pinned into every word. A Greek word is a root, and the rest of the alphabet soup is the grammar. Greek is highly inflective. When translating from Greek into English, it is important to honor the grammatical inflection first so that we can properly understand John's intended usage of the words. I will show you John's grammar. This style of translation is hyper-literal:

Hyper-Literal: For(conjunction assigning a reason) thusly, (2)thee God, (1)He-agapaO-loves* (3-)thee kosmos-world even-as-and thee Son of-Him-same, namely--thee uniquely-begotten, He-gives* that(purpose) any thee one-keeps-on-trusting(not a “one shot” decision but continuous, repeated, customary action--do not argue with Greek present participles!) into Him-same no he-might-be(acting upon themselves--stupidly)-rendered-useless (keep-on trusting into Him and you cannot screw it up!) but-rather he-might-be(and continue)-having zOE-life(feminine), breath-being-belong-to-her(right here, right now!). John 3:16

That is just gorgeous! Ain’t it good!

The word translated as "eternal" is aiOnios(lexical form) which is the root ai = breath, + On = being/existence + ios = belonging-to-he/she/it. It's form in this verse is aiOnion which is an accusative(direct object of the verb) feminine singular adjective in the predicate position(making an assertion about the accusative feminine singular noun zOEn). zOE(lexical form) means: living real life: not bios--biological life.

You will find that that translation of aiOnios works perfectly every time it occurs in Scripture. It also give us insight into the meaning of a very difficult verse for most pastors to teach:

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 1 John 3:15 NASB


"No murderer has zOE-life(feminine), breath-being-belonging-to-her(right here, right now), abiding in him": we can now file that under--DUH! Of course not!

 

[Shempster]

This is great.
I see that this "eternal life" might include existing forever, but it also means eternal "life" NOW on earth.
To me, this "life" means experiencing joy and wonder in everything we encounter - even calamity - in a peaceful way, sensing God in everything. So I suppose the term "death" would also refer to living life like a zombie, trudging through each work day to earn a little break on Saturday or slaving life away in order to pay bills.

 

[Haipule]

This is great.
I see that this "eternal life" might include existing forever, but it also means eternal "life" NOW on earth.
To me, this "life" means experiencing joy and wonder in everything we encounter - even calamity - in a peaceful way, sensing God in everything. So I suppose the term "death" would also refer to living life like a zombie, trudging through each work day to earn a little break on Saturday or slaving life away in order to pay bills.

Glad you thought it was great! The major theme of the NT is zOE-life, right here, right now, and that more abundant and everlasting. Unfortunately, it is often hidden in the translation and often shrouded by soteriology. And yes, the opposite are the walking dead. The Greek calls them "dead-ones", "I see dead people!"

The basic idea given us is that we are to rouse/waken/rise from the dead-ones onto a new zOE so that are names are written in the Lamb's Book of zOE-Life and avoid the 2nd death. I admit that the road is narrow but, it is easy to find: it looks just like Jesus in a mirror! He is the zOE!

 

[1watchman]

The overall thought is that God has given us a very clear statement there of hope and promise, and of course He never intended we should all learn Greek or Hebrew ---right?

 

[Haipule]

The overall thought is that God has given us a very clear statement there of hope and promise, and of course He never intended we should all learn Greek or Hebrew ---right?

It started when my life and theology became indifferent. Most certainly, we can learn about God from the life challenges God Himself challenges us with. Paul himself said, "both life and death are teachers". However, our understanding should be in agreement with the Word of God. But, for me, that was not happening with regards to theology. So, out of a desire for peace, I started to study the original languages.

Now, my life and God's Word are in harmony but, my life and theology are out of phase. Yet, I know that theology is an important tool help but it is, in and of itself, just a tool and NOT God's Word.

Yet still, man teaches us their theology as if it is "Bible Doctrine"--self evident truth! These things should not be!

Systematic theology has no ability to fully express God's infinite Word. Yet, theologians attempt to do this by stabbing the Word so that it can't move and then tell us what it means. In doing this, they commit verbacide so that the Word cannot live and breathe beyond their limited resources of ideas. And if they have no ability to understand the original languages, they're just parroting others saying, "Polly what a cracker?"

In the subject verse, John 3:16 was translated for you to include anyone's "Doctrine of Soteriology". Yet, we can see from the Greek that Jesus was talking to Nicodemus about deliverance onto life, right here, right now, and NOT the modern post-reform doctrine built from the French word "salvation" transliterated from the Latin word "salvationem" with complete disregard for the Greek general word sOtEria which means: deliverance in any sense.

These reformers and post-reformers, many of whom have no education to look into the original languages of what Jesus actually said, and they instead, give us the doctrine of our "salvation" and tell us "how to be saved", how to have the golden ticket to heaven when we die, complete with the fire insurance! And then we all argue about works vs. grace and there are people running around saying, "I don't feel saved" and asking their pastor, "how do I know if I'm really saved?". Then they teach them "saving faith" without any ability to qualify that statement.

When all in all, the Scriptures are teaching us how to be delivered into this zOE-life of God's promise, right here, right now and that the only way into the Kingdom of Heaven(right here, right now)" IS WHEN WE LIVE RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW! It's called the Book of Life for a reason!

I'm pretty sure, at our final evaluation, that the excuse, "The pastor, that YOU GAVE ME GOD, said that...", is not going to fly with God. Seeing that He has said to us all, "check it out".

The after life is called "Paradise" NOT "heaven".
ouranos/ouranoi translated "heaven(s)" means: sk(y-ies) and when not being used literally as the sk(y-ies), it is being used figuratively to refer to the up, authoritative position(s) of our God given lives as His son(s)! The same is true in the Hebrew.

And by the way, the pre-reform teaching of "Justification" is no better.

And to answer your question, in this modern day of the internet, learning Greek is very easy.
Every tool you need is right there: blueletterbible.org: scripture4all.org; biblehub.com; others; Wikipedia if you don't know what a reciprocal pronoun is, or any part of speech but, focus on the Greek grammatical inflection. The inflection establishes the writers usage. Anyone can read a lexicon and learn what theos means but to translate, you also have to learn how theon; theou; theO; the'e are used as they do not appear in a lexicon.