John 3:17

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn

King James Version (1611)
For God sent not his Sonne into the world to condemne the world: but that the world through him might be saued.

King James Version
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

English Standard Version
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

New American Standard Bible
"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.

New Century Version
God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him.

Amplified Bible
"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge and condemn the world [that is, to initiate the final judgment of the world], but that the world might be saved through Him.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

Legacy Standard Bible
For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

Berean Standard Bible
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.

Contemporary English Version
God did not send his Son into the world to condemn its people. He sent him to save them!

Complete Jewish Bible
For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but rather so that through him, the world might be saved.

Darby Translation
For God has not sent his Son into the world that he may judge the world, but that the world may be saved through him.

Easy-to-Read Version
God sent his Son into the world. He did not send him to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him.

Geneva Bible (1587)
For God sent not his Sonne into the world, that he should condemne the world, but that the world through him might be saued.

George Lamsa Translation
For God did not send his Son into the world, to condemn the world; but that the world should be saved by him.

Good News Translation
For God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its savior.

Lexham English Bible
For God did not send his Son into the world in order that he should judge the world, but in order that the world should be saved through him.

Literal Translation
For God did not send His Son into the world that He might judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

American Standard Version
For God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him.

Bible in Basic English
God did not send his Son into the world to be judge of the world; he sent him so that the world might have salvation through him.

Hebrew Names Version
For God didn't send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.

International Standard Version
For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.Luke 9:56; John 5:45; 8:15; 12:47; 1 John 4:14;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
For Aloha sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might live by him.

Murdock Translation
For God sent not his Son into the world, to condemn the world; but that the world might live by means of him.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
For God sent not his sonne into the worlde, to condempne the worlde: but that the worlde through hym myght be saued. He that beleueth on hym, is not condempned:

English Revised Version
For God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him.

World English Bible
For God didn't send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
For God sent not his Son into the world, to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved thro' him.

Weymouth's New Testament
For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For God sente not his sone in to the world, that he iuge the world, but that the world be saued bi him.

Update Bible Version
For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him.

Webster's Bible Translation
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him may be saved.

New English Translation
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him.

New King James Version
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

New Living Translation
God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

New Life Bible
For God did not send His Son into the world to say it is guilty. He sent His Son so the world might be saved from the punishment of sin by Him.

New Revised Standard
"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For God, sent not, his Son into the world, that he might judge the world, but, that the world might be saved through him.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world: but that the world may be saved by him.

Revised Standard Version
For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
For God sent not his sonne into the worlde to condepne the worlde: but that the worlde through him might be saved.

Young's Literal Translation
For God did not send His Son to the world that he may judge the world, but that the world may be saved through him;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For God sent not his sonne in to ye worlde to condempne the worlde, but that the worlde might be saued by him.

Mace New Testament (1729)
for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Simplified Cowboy Version
For the Boss didn't send the Top Hand to point out people's faults, but to save them from their sins.

Contextual Overview

¹There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the Jews. Late one night he visited Jesus and said, "Rabbi, we all know you're a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it." ³ Jesus said, "You're absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to—to God's kingdom." ⁴ "How can anyone," said Nicodemus, "be born who has already been born and grown up? You can't re-enter your mother's womb and be born again. What are you saying with this ‘born-from-above' talk?" ⁵Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the ‘wind-hovering-over-the-water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit. ⁷"So don't be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be ‘born from above'—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone ‘born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God." ⁹ Nicodemus asked, "What do you mean by this? How does this happen?" ¹⁰Jesus said, "You're a respected teacher of Israel and you don't know these basics? Listen carefully. I'm speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give witness only to what I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing secondhand here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions. If I tell you things that are plain as the hand before your face and you don't believe me, what use is there in telling you of things you can't see, the things of God? ¹³"No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life. ¹⁶"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him. ¹⁹"This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

God: John 5:45, John 8:15, John 8:16, John 12:47, John 12:48, Luke 9:56

but: John 1:29, John 6:40, Isaiah 45:21-23, Isaiah 49:6, Isaiah 49:7, Isaiah 53:10-12, Zechariah 9:9, Matthew 1:23, Matthew 18:11, Matthew 1:23, Matthew 18:11, Luke 2:10, Luke 2:11, Luke 19:10, 1 Timothy 2:5, 1 Timothy 2:6, 1 John 2:2, 1 John 4:14

Reciprocal: Psalms 40:10 - lovingkindness Isaiah 9:6 - unto us a son Zechariah 4:9 - and Matthew 27:43 - I am Luke 20:13 - I will John 3:34 - for God John 7:29 - for John 8:11 - Neither John 9:39 - For John 10:10 - I am John 10:36 - sent John 11:42 - that thou John 14:4 - and the John 17:3 - and Jesus 2 Thessalonians 2:10 - that they 1 Timothy 1:15 - worthy James 3:15 - wisdom

Cross-References

Genesis 3:2
The Woman said to the serpent, "Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It's only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘Don't eat from it; don't even touch it or you'll die.'"

Genesis 3:6
When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she'd know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.

Genesis 3:7
Immediately the two of them did "see what's really going on"—saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves.

Genesis 3:9
God called to the Man: "Where are you?"

Genesis 3:11
God said, "Who told you you were naked? Did you eat from that tree I told you not to eat from?"

Genesis 3:13
"The serpent seduced me," she said, "and I ate."

Genesis 3:14
God told the serpent: "Because you've done this, you're cursed, cursed beyond all cattle and wild animals, Cursed to slink on your belly and eat dirt all your life. I'm declaring war between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers. He'll wound your head, you'll wound his heel."

Genesis 3:16
He told the Woman: "I'll multiply your pains in childbirth; you'll give birth to your babies in pain. You'll want to please your husband, but he'll lord it over you."

Genesis 3:17
He told the Man: "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree That I commanded you not to eat from, ‘Don't eat from this tree,' The very ground is cursed because of you; getting food from the ground Will be as painful as having babies is for your wife; you'll be working in pain all your life long. The ground will sprout thorns and weeds, you'll get your food the hard way, Planting and tilling and harvesting, sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk, Until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried; you started out as dirt, you'll end up dirt."

Genesis 3:20
The Man, known as Adam, named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For God sent not his Son into the world,.... God did send his Son into the world in the likeness of sinful flesh, being made of a woman, and made under the law; and which is an instance of his great love, and not of any disrespect to his Son, or of any inequality between them: but then this was not

to condemn the world; even any part of it, or any in it: not the Gentiles, as the Jews thought he would; for though God had suffered them to walk in their own ways, and had winked at, or overlooked the times of their ignorance, and had sent no prophet unto them, nor made any revelation of his will, or any discovery of his special grace unto them; yet he sent his Son now, not to destroy them for their idolatry, and wickedness, but to be the Saviour of them: nor the Jews; for as impenitent and unbelieving, and as wicked as they were, he did not accuse them to the Father, nor judge and condemn them; he was to come again in power and great glory, when he would take vengeance on them, and cause wrath to come upon them to the uttermost, for their disbelief and rejection of him; but this was not his business now: nor the wicked of the world in general; to judge, and condemn them, will be his work, when he comes a second time, in the day God has appointed to judge the world in righteousness.

But the end of his mission, and first coming is,

that the world through him might be saved; even the world of the elect in general, whom God determined to save, and has chosen, to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ, and has appointed Christ to be the salvation of; and who being sent, came into the world to seek and save them; and his chosen people among the Gentiles in particular: wherefore he is said to be God's salvation to the ends of the earth: and all the ends of the earth are called upon to look unto him, and be saved by him, Isaiah 49:6.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

To condemn the world - Not to judge, or pronounce sentence on mankind. God might justly have sent him for this. Man deserved condemnation, and it would have been right to have pronounced it; but God was willing that there should be an offer of pardon, and the sentence of condemnation was delayed. But, although Jesus did not come then to condemn mankind, yet the time is coming when he will return to judge the living and the dead, Act 17:31; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Matthew 25:31-46.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse John 3:17. For God sent not, c.] It was the opinion of the Jews that the Gentiles, whom they often term the world, עלמה olmah, and omoth haolam, אומות העולם nations of the world, were to be destroyed in the days of the Messiah. Christ corrects this false opinion and teaches here a contrary doctrine. God, by giving his Son, and publishing his design in giving him, shows that he purposes the salvation, not the destruction, of the world-the Gentile people: nevertheless, those who will not receive the salvation he had provided for them, whether Jews or Gentiles, must necessarily perish; for this plain reason, There is but one remedy, and they refuse to apply it.