John 3:17
New International Version
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

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

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.

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

Berean Literal Bible
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.

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

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 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.

NASB 1995
"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

NASB 1977
“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved 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.

Christian Standard Bible
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn 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.

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

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.

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.

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

GOD'S WORD® Translation
God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save the world.

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

Literal Standard Version
For God did not send His Son into the world that He may judge the world, but that the world may be saved through Him;

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

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

Weymouth 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.

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.

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;

Additional Translations ...
Study Bible
For God So Loved
16For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. 18Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.…

Cross References
John 3:34
For the One whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.

John 5:36
But I have testimony more substantial than that of John. For the works that the Father has given Me to accomplish--the very works I am doing--testify about Me that the Father has sent Me.

John 5:38
nor does His word abide in you, because you do not believe the One He sent.

John 6:29
Jesus replied, "The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent."

John 6:38
For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but to do the will of Him who sent Me.

John 6:57
Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me.

John 7:29
but I know Him, because I am from Him and He sent Me."

John 8:11
"No one, Lord," she answered. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Now go and sin no more."

John 8:15
You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.

John 10:36
then what about the One whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world? How then can you accuse Me of blasphemy for stating that I am the Son of God?

John 11:42
I knew that You always hear Me, but I say this for the benefit of the people standing here, so they may believe that You sent Me."

John 12:47
As for anyone who hears My words and does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world.

John 17:3
Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.

John 17:8
For I have given them the words You gave Me, and they have received them. They knew with certainty that I came from You, and they believed that You sent Me.

John 17:18
As You sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world.

John 17:21
that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

John 17:23
I in them and You in Me--that they may be perfectly united, so that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them just as You have loved Me.

John 17:25
Righteous Father, although the world has not known You, I know You, and they know that You sent Me.

John 20:21
Again Jesus said to them, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so also I am sending you."

1 John 4:14
And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.


Treasury of Scripture

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

God.

John 5:45
Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.

John 8:15,16
Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man…

John 12:47,48
And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world…

but.

John 1:29
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

John 6:40
And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Isaiah 45:21-23
Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me…









(17) To condemn the world gives to the English reader a stronger impression than that of the original Greek. The word (?????, krino, the Latin c(k)erno, and the English dis-cern) means originally to separate, and in the moral sense to separate good from evil. Passing from the act to the effect, it may mean to absolve; but as the usual effect of separation is to exclude the evil, the word has attached to itself more frequently the idea of condemnation. Our word judge, which has itself something of this double meaning, is probably the best rendering in this context.

Part of the current belief about the Messiah's advent was, that he would destroy the Gentile world. The authorised expositions of many texts of the Old Testament asserted this, and Nicodemus must ofttimes have heard it and taught it. God's love for, and gift to, the world has just been declared. This truth runs counter to their belief, and is now stated as an express denial of it. The purpose of the Messiah's mission is not to judge, but to save. The latter clause of the verse changes the order of the thought. It would naturally be "but that He might save the world." The inversion makes prominent the action of man in willing to be saved.

Verse 17. - For - notwithstanding your vain and selfish interpretation of the older revelation - God sent not his Son to judge (ἵνα κρίμῃ, with a view to judge, to discriminate the evil from the good. "Judgment" in this sense may be identical with "absolution," and may also connote "condemnation," but in itself it leaves the issue undecided) the world. Observe that the word "sent" replaces the word "gave" of the previous statement (ἀποστέλλω, not πέυπω). The word carries with it "the sending on a special mission" (see notes on John 20:21), and arrests attention by denoting the immediate function of the Son of God's mission into the world. He was sent, not to judge the world. This judgment is not the end of his manifestation. This statement is not without difficulty, because we learn from John 5:27, 28 and John 12:48 that there is a great function of judgment which will ultimately be discharged by him, and which does, indeed, follow from the contact of all men with his truth and light. This is confirmed by the declarations of our Lord in Matthew (Matthew 13:24-30, 47), that the judgment would be delayed till the consummation of his work, but would then be most certain (see Matthew 25.). But judgment is not the end or purpose of his mission. Judgment, discrimination of the moral character of men, is a consequence, but not the prime nor the immediate purport of his coming. Numerous passages from the Book of Enoch and the Fourth Book of Esdras, and the literal interpretation of Psalm 2:9; Malachi 4:1, etc., may be quoted to show the Jewish prejudices against which our Lord here protested. But God sent his Son that the world through him maybe saved. "Saved" is here the analogue and interpretation of the not perishing and the having of eternal life. Christ is "the Saviour of the world" (John 4:42). Hengstenberg says truly, "The Old Testament basis for the words is found in Isaiah 52:10, 'And all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.'" His coming will, as he goes on to say, exercise a discriminating process and a saving energy. There will occur a further advent, when he will consummate both his judgment and his mercy. "In the Old Testament," says Lunge, "the Judge becomes Redeemer by judging; in the New Testament, the Redeemer becomes Judge by his redeeming." Through him the world may be saved from its ruin, by reason of individuals accepting his grace. The saving of humanity as a whole issues from the believing and living of men. God's love of the world and his sending of his Son aim at the saving of the world as their Divine end. Salvation (σωτηρία) is the largest of all the famous biblical terms which denote the restoration and blessedness of man. It means all that is elsewhere denoted by "justification," but much more than that. It connotes all that is included in "regeneration" and "sanctification," but more than these terms taken by themselves. It includes all that is involved in "redemption" and "adoption" and the "full assurance," and also the conditions of "appropriation" - the subjective states which are the human antecedents of grace received, such as "faith" and "repentance," with all the "fruits of the Spirit." These Divine blessings originated in the bosom of the Father, where the only begotten Son forevermore abides, and they are all poured forth through the Son upon the world in the coming of the Christ. He was sent to save.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Lexicon
For
γὰρ (gar)
Conjunction
Strong's Greek 1063: For. A primary particle; properly, assigning a reason.

God
Θεὸς (Theos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's Greek 2316: A deity, especially the supreme Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very.

{did} not
οὐ (ou)
Adverb
Strong's Greek 3756: No, not. Also ouk, and ouch a primary word; the absolute negative adverb; no or not.

send
ἀπέστειλεν (apesteilen)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's Greek 649: From apo and stello; set apart, i.e. to send out literally or figuratively.

His Son
Υἱὸν (Huion)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's Greek 5207: A son, descendent. Apparently a primary word; a 'son', used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinship.

into
εἰς (eis)
Preposition
Strong's Greek 1519: A primary preposition; to or into, of place, time, or purpose; also in adverbial phrases.

the
τὸν (ton)
Article - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's Greek 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

world
κόσμον (kosmon)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's Greek 2889: Probably from the base of komizo; orderly arrangement, i.e. Decoration; by implication, the world (morally).

to
ἵνα (hina)
Conjunction
Strong's Greek 2443: In order that, so that. Probably from the same as the former part of heautou; in order that.

condemn
κρίνῃ (krinē)
Verb - Aorist Subjunctive Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's Greek 2919: Properly, to distinguish, i.e. Decide; by implication, to try, condemn, punish.

the
τὸν (ton)
Article - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's Greek 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

world,
κόσμον (kosmon)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's Greek 2889: Probably from the base of komizo; orderly arrangement, i.e. Decoration; by implication, the world (morally).

but
ἀλλ’ (all’)
Conjunction
Strong's Greek 235: But, except, however. Neuter plural of allos; properly, other things, i.e. contrariwise.

to
ἵνα (hina)
Conjunction
Strong's Greek 2443: In order that, so that. Probably from the same as the former part of heautou; in order that.

save
σωθῇ (sōthē)
Verb - Aorist Subjunctive Passive - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's Greek 4982: To save, heal, preserve, rescue. From a primary sos; to save, i.e. Deliver or protect.

the
(ho)
Article - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's Greek 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

world
κόσμος (kosmos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's Greek 2889: Probably from the base of komizo; orderly arrangement, i.e. Decoration; by implication, the world (morally).

through
δι’ (di’)
Preposition
Strong's Greek 1223: A primary preposition denoting the channel of an act; through.

Him.
αὐτοῦ (autou)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
Strong's Greek 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.


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