What if one translated according to the grammatical rules without picking and choosing which grammatical rules to follow in favor of bias or traditions, but just read it at face value without any fear of being burned at a stake?
For God so loved..
the “so” is a word that means “thus” or “in this way”. And “love” is not merely affection as in “philo” but a surrendering of his very soul life.
For thus God agape-loved the world…
“World” is the whole ordered world–the kosmos. It is also in the accusative meaning God does something to the world…
For thus God agape-loved the world, that…
The conjunction isn’t merely “that” but rather “so that” or “therefore” which means “in this way” refers to the previous verses about the serpent raised up in the wilderness…
For thus God agape-loved the world: so that the only begotten son he gave…
“Only begotten” is interpreted from one word, monogenés (#G3439), that is inaccurate and means only-family-kind. Genos (#G1805) is related to genesis or origin, and means offspring, family, race, nation, kind. The literal order of the accusative nouns with the definite articles is the son, the only-kind…
For thus God agape-loved the world: so that the only-kind son he gave, in order that the whole of the one-who-believes…
A present tense participle active verb works like a noun-verb—pisteuōn believing-one or he-who-believes. It is in the masculine singular–one-who-believes. There is also a definite article ὁ to this which insinuates that the participle verb is specific, the one who believes. The Greek pas (#G3956) is literally whole. “In order that” (#G2443) is a slightly different conjunction than the previous “so that” (#G5620).
For thus God agape-loved the world: so that he gave the only-kind son, in order that the whole of the him-who-believes into him…
“Eis” (#G1519) is properly into and not “in”. “Auton” (#G846) is the accusative “him” or better, “himself.” The NASB translated auto/auton as himself 83 times. The pronoun “himself” is used very uniquely in the NT. Thus the lexicon:
αὐτός, αὐτῇ, αὐτό, pronoun (“derived from the particle αὖ with the added force of a demonstrative pronoun. In itself it signifies nothing more than again, applied to what has either been previously mentioned or, when the whole discourse is looked at, must necessarily be supplied.” Klotz ad Devar. ii., p. 219; (see Vanicek, p. 268)). It is used by the Biblical writings both of the O. T. and of the N. T. far more frequently than the other pronouns; and in this very frequent and almost inordinate use of it, they deviate greatly from secular authors; cf. Buttmann, § 127, 9. (On classic usage cf. Hermann, Opuscc. i. 308ff, of which dissertation a summary is given in his edition of Viger, pp. 732-736.)
I. self, as used (in all persons, genders, numbers) to distinguish a person or thing from or contrast it with another, or to give him (it) emphatic prominence.
The Bible has an inordinate infatuation with the word “himself”. And the writers don’t use it the same way as secular writers. Why is that?
For thus God agape-loved the world: so that the only-kind son he gave, in order that the whole of him-who-believes into himself may not perish…
The word apollumi (#G622) is quite a bit more than “perish”. It means to destroy away/completely. It is also in the subjunctive meaning it should be translated with “may” or “might” or something similar. The verb is also in what is called the “middle voice” which means the subject is the recipient of the action. Because it is in the 3rd person masculine singular we will render it “be destroyed away”.
For thus God agape-loved the world: so that the only-kind son he gave, in order that the whole of him-who-believes into himself may not be destroyed away, but have life everlasting.
Zoe-life is not the same soul-life or bios-life. These Greek words would provide far greater insight to what the authors thought “everlasting life” really means if they weren’t all translated the same.
Here is the result of our translation:
For thus God agape-loved the World: wherefore the Only-kind Son he gave [self-surrender], in order that the whole of him who believes into himself might not be destroyed away, but possess the eternal zoe-life.
This applies secondly to “the whole” of Christ which means “his own lost sheep” those who are also born from above, sent to earth just like him, but do not know it, are deceived, and who must find and believe into themselves.