By John H. Niemelä

John 3:16 is the most famous quotation from Jesus. Some would take issue with that statement. Some think the idea that Jesus said those words is an urban legend of the New Testament.¹

Actually, that charge itself is fake news. A veritable war exists between Bible translations (which generally treat John 3:16 as Jesus’ words)² and commentaries (which typically view it as the words of the apostle).³

Some evangelicals punt by claiming that it does not matter whether these words originated with Jesus or with the apostle. One said, “Whether this verse was spoken by John or Jesus, it is God’s Word and is an important summary of the gospel.”⁴ Yes, it would be inspired and inerrant either way, but “Who said it?” matters much more than such writers can comprehend.

WHY MANY DENY THAT JESUS SPOKE 3:16

Three pretexts for the denial are:

1. the shift from dialogue with Nicodemus to monologue seems abrupt,
2. verses 16-21 lack first-person Self-references by Jesus (I, Me, or My), and
3. verse 16 seems redundant, repeating 3:15.

Some are skeptical about a shift from dialogue to monologue, but C. H. Dodd notes: “The transition from dialogue to monologue is characteristic of this writer’s manner.”⁵ Such a shift from dialogue to monologue actually happens in 3:10, so the “solution” does not solve the “problem,” regardless of who says 3:16ff.

What about the absence of I, Me, or My? Would Jesus refer to Himself as Him (3:16, 18) and Son (3:16-18)?⁶ Actually, Jesus refers to Himself in the third person in thirty-nine verses of John.⁷ Furthermore, most who deny that Jesus spoke 3:16-21 believe that He spoke 3:13-15, verses in which Jesus refers to Himself as He (3:13), Him (3:15), and Son (3:13-14). The argument fails because its proponents spend more time theorizing than looking at how Jesus actually spoke.

What about 3:16 redundantly repeating verse 15? David Croteau says, “…if Jesus is continuing to speak in verse 16, then 3:16 becomes somewhat redundant with 3:15. Virtually everything that 3:15 says seems to be repeated in 3:16.”⁸ The argument that verse 16 is redundant assumes that John 3:15 was sufficient for Nicodemus—that no repetition of 3:15 was needed. The next section critiques that presumption.

WAS JOHN 3:15 ENOUGH FOR NICODEMUS?

Yes, most of 3:15 appears again in the following verse, but verse 16’s expanded explanation of the prior verse goes to the heart of the underlying issue for Nicodemus.

However, before discussing Nicodemus’ central concern, consider the outline of John 3:1-21 proposed sixty-eight years ago by François Roustang:

Introduction (3:1-2)

Part 1: Born again of the Spirit (3:3-8)

Part 2: The mediation of the Son (3:9-15)

Part 3: The saving plan of the Father (3:16-18)

Conclusion (3:19-21)⁹ [emphases mine].

This is an important outline. Jesus starts with birth from above (via the Holy Spirit). Then He speaks of the necessity of believing the Son. Finally, He says the Father sent the Son. He discusses all three members of the Trinity.

Clearly, much can be said about the roles of the Spirit and the Son, but this short article focuses on the Father (verses 16-17). Jesus’ punchline to Nicodemus is there, not in 3:15. Those denying that Jesus spoke 3:16 view verse 15 as the pinnacle of Jesus’ words. It is not, because He has not yet mentioned the Father’s role. Many interpreters fail to comprehend the whole passage.

A FULL ANSWER FOR NICODEMUS

Nicodemus’ opening words assert that God sent Jesus: “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher” (3:2a).¹⁰

Jesus offers an initial and partial affirmation of what Nicodemus asserts in 3:2: He came from heaven. John 3:13a says, “Now no one has gone up into heaven except the One who came down from heaven” (3:13a). Why is this only an initial and partial affirmation? Nicodemus speaks of Jesus’ coming from God. That is, God sent Him. Theoretically, One might come from heaven without God’s sending Him. Jesus’ initial affirmation does not explicitly assert that the Father sent Him.

If Jesus’ words were to end at verse 15, He would affirm less than Nicodemus’ opening statement asserts. The only member of the Trinity expressly mentioned in verses 3-8 is the Spirit.¹¹ The only Member explicitly named in 3:9-15 is the Son. Thus far, Jesus is silent about the Father.

However, this changes in verses 16-17. Here Jesus affirms all that Nicodemus asserts in 3:2: “For God loved the world this way: that He gave His One and only Son,¹² so whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (3:16-17). Jesus affirms in 3:16 that God [the Father] gave His Son; verse 17 says that God sent His Son. It is when Jesus declares that the Father gave/sent Him that He has affirmed all that Nicodemus asserts in 3:2.

Those who imagine Jesus’ words to end at 3:15 fail to perceive that 3:16-17 are the pinnacle. Without those verses, Jesus has not fully affirmed all that Nicodemus asserts.

However, there is more. Verses 16-17 implicitly address Jesus’ own opening statement. In John 3:3, He said, “Amen, amen, I tell you, unless someone is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Birth from above is an essential prerequisite to seeing [experiencing] Jesus’ future millennial kingdom. Birth from above is how a believer receives everlasting life. Later in John, Jesus says, “The Spirit is the One who makes alive; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are Spirit and are life” (John 6:63). What Jesus says in John 3:3-8 about the Holy Spirit and in 3:9-15 about Himself are crucial in 3:16-17. The entire Trinity has a role in giving everlasting life to believers. Perhaps Jesus’ revelation about the Trinity here might be His referent of the heavenly things that His hearers were (then) unprepared to believe (3:12).

That night, Nicodemus came out of the darkness to the light (the opposite: Judas forsaking the Light as he went out into the night in John 13:30). Strategic repetitions of the word man (anthrōpos) in John 2:25a, 25b, and 3:1 point to Nicodemus as one of the many who believed in Jesus during the eight-day Passover feast (see John 2:23).¹³ Nicodemus could not yet plumb the depths of what the Lord told him that night, but after each question from Nicodemus, Jesus simplified it further. That night, Nicodemus went beyond knowing that God sent Jesus. He believed the message of life from the One sent to give life eternal. On that night, Nicodemus would not have grasped what we can now see clearly from Jesus’ words: Each member of the triune God has a role in providing eternal life to believers.

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John is president of Message of Life Ministries. He and Diane recently moved to rural Knox County, TN to be near their son, George. John is working diligently on his forthcoming commentary on John’s Gospel.

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¹ David A. Croteau, Urban Legends of the New Testament, Leo Percer, consulting ed. (Nashville, TN: B&H, 2015), 43-44.

² Many do so by: 1) quotation marks (in versions that utilize them), 2) red letters (in red-letter editions), or 3) by both quotation marks and red letters. Some versions never use quotation marks (e.g., the King James Version), so only red-letter editions of such translations reveal an editor’s view on John 3:16. Some versions that use quotation marks to show that Jesus spoke John 3:16 include: Complete Jewish Bible, Holman Christian Standard Bible, English Standard Version, International Standard Bible, Jerusalem Bible, New American Standard Bible, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New King James Version, New Living Translation, New Revised Standard Version, and Revised English Bible.

³ Most commentaries view 3:16-21 as the apostle’s words. It is easier to list the occasional exceptions: Zane C. Hodges, “Coming to the Light—John 3:20-21,” BSac 135 (October 1978): 319, n. 8; Robert N. Wilkin, “John,” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, rev. ed. R. N. Wilkin, ed. (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2019), 186; C. H. Dodd, The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel (Cambridge, ENG: University Press, 1953), 303; and Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John (i-xii), 2nd ed., vol. 29, W. F. Albright and D. N. Freedman, gen. eds. (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970), 149.

⁴ Edwin A. Blum, “John,” in the Bible Knowledge Commentary, J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, eds. (Wheaton, IL: Victor, 1983), 282.

⁵ Dodd, Interpretation, 303.

⁶ Ben Witherington III, John’s Wisdom (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1995), 100.

⁷ John 1:51; 3:13-18; 4:10; 5:19-23, 25-28, 38; 6:27, 29, 33, 40, 46, 53, 62; 7:18; 8:28, 36; 9:35, 37; 10:11, 36; 11:4; 12:23; 13:31-32; 14:13; 17:1-2. Jesus refers to Himself sixty-eight times in these thirty-nine verses with third-person forms. For simplicity, I refer to the pronouns He, Him, and His as they appear in the NKJV: renderings (or partial renderings) of Greek pronouns, participles, or third-person verbs. The NKJV translates Jesus’ third-person Self-references as He (12×), Him (23×), His (3×) and Son (30×).

⁸ Croteau, Legends, 45.

⁹ François Roustang, “L’entretien avec Nicodème [The Interview with Nicodemus],” Nouvelle Revue Théologique 78 (1956): 338. The translation is my own. My own outline would close “Part 3” at 3:17; the “Conclusion” should be 3:18-21. Even so, Roustang’s observation is outstanding.

¹⁰ Scripture citations, unless otherwise noted, are from the author’s forthcoming Faithful Majority Translation, a translation of the Majority Text.

¹¹ The phrase kingdom of God (3:3, 5) does not clarify a specific member of the Trinity.

¹² The word monogenēs means “one of a kind,” not “only begotten.” If John wanted to say only begotten, the word would have been spelled monogennēs. The following examples from the NKJV underline its rendering of monogenēs. Psalm 22:20 (21:21, LXX) has “my precious life.” Psalm 25:16 (24:16, LXX) reads “I [David] am desolate and afflicted.” Hebrews 11:17 in the Holman CSB renders it as “his unique son [Isaac].” Neither David nor Isaac was an only child; neither were they the sole heirs of their fathers. In light of usage, this word should be treated as deriving from monos + genos, not from monos + gennaō. Robert N. Wilkin, “John,” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, rev. ed. Robert N. Wilkin, ed. (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2019), 186, agrees.

¹³ Several lines of evidence point to Nicodemus as one of the many who believed in His name (John 2:23):

1. Immediately after John 2:25’s use of anthōpos (for humanity), 3:1 uses the same word to introduce Nicodemus.
2. John 3:2 refers to Jesus via a third-person pronoun (auton). Its referent (“Jesus”) appears in 2:24.