What Does John 3:16 Mean?
For God so loved the world that he gave his only-born Son, that everyone who leans their full weight into him should not perish, but have the life of the ages.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.THE KEY
Trust in the Son God gives is the hinge between perishing and the life of the ages.
THE MEANING
God’s love reaches you now as a gift in the Son. Trust in him opens into the life of the ages, a life the verse says you have now, while perishing is the loss this gift answers.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that you must earn God’s love before receiving life dissolves here: the Son is given to the world, and life is received through trust.
THE ROOT
πιστεύων
pisteuōn
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
pist-
Trust; the steadiness of relying on someone.
“leans their full weight into” in this verse is pisteuōn. The word carries more than agreeing that something is true: it describes trust placed in the Son. This makes belief the verse’s living hinge, reliance opens into the life God gives.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: Trust, reliance; often rendered faith.
πίστις
This noun names the trust that the verb “believeth” expresses.
pistos: Firm, steady; trustworthy.
πιστός
This related word shows the family’s connection between trust and steadiness.
αἰώνιον
aiōnion
GROWS FROM
αἰών-
aiōn-
An age, or an era.
“the life of the ages” in this verse is aiōnion. The phrase opens as “life of the ages”: life that belongs to God’s age, not merely an abstract label for endless time. The verse says this life is received now.
ALSO GROWS
aiōn: An age, era, or span of time.
αἰών
This noun is the seed behind the adjective translated “everlasting.”
aiōnios: Of an age or ages; age-long.
αἰώνιος
The adjective connects the life in this verse to the ages.
ἀπόληται
apolētai
GROWS FROM
ἀπολλυ-
apolly-
To perish, be destroyed, or be lost.
The verb’s word family holds both destruction and loss. Set against life, “perish” names a real movement away from life that the gift answers.
ALSO GROWS
apollymi: Perish, destroy, or lose.
ἀπόλλυμι
This is the verb’s base form and carries the sense found in “should not perish.”
apōleia: Loss or destruction.
ἀπώλεια
This related noun makes the loss within “perish” visible.
THE PATTERN
Life is given as a gift and received through trust, rather than earned as a wage.
Lean your full weight upon the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.In this the love of God was made visible among us, for God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, so that we might live through him.For the writing says, Everyone who leans their full weight on him will not be put to shame.THE THREAD
Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you lean your full weight into the one he has sent.“Believe” here is the same Greek trust-word family as “believeth” in John 3:16. The connection shows that the verse’s hinge is reliance on the one God sends, not belief as bare agreement.
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