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John 3 · a question people ask

Is "For God so loved the world" (3:16) Jesus speaking, or the book's own words?

In the text

Favor follows the World English Bible's quotation marks. In the WEB, Jesus's answer to Nicodemus opens at 3:10, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things?", and its quotation marks close at the end of 3:21, after "that they have been done in God". So the WEB prints 3:16 inside what Jesus says to Nicodemus. In the same way, John's answer opens at 3:27, and the WEB prints 3:31-36 inside his words, closing them at the end of 3:36. These notes say who speaks where the WEB's marks say so, and build nothing on where the marks fall.

From Favor's study of John 3

John 3: Born anew

John's Gospel remembers Nicodemus as the man who came by night: "Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night" (19:39). And the verb of "For God so loved the world" (3:16) comes again three verses later: "men loved the darkness rather than the light" (3:19).

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Last reviewed October 1, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions