John 3:36

[TKMP]

Greetings,

We all know the John 3:16 passage that whoever believes has eternal life.

However, in John 3:36 it says: " 36"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

Here we see that the OPPOSITE of believe if Obey. To NOT believe is to disobey, which implies that to believe means to obey what Jesus said.

Most protestant translations have “obey” translated as “disbelief” or “reject Jesus”. Which would be a totally different meaning.

What does the Correct Greek say in that phrase: “he who does not obey”, “he who does not believe”, or “he who rejects Jesus”. This is important to understanding the passage.

peace

 

[adnauseum]

apeithon

The primary meaning is disobey; a secondary meaning is disbelieve. It seems (I’m not a greek scholar) to mean going against, not submitting to.

You’re right, I checked a parallel bible and found that protestant translations use disbelieve which is a stretch.

Very interesting.

 

[DeFide]

TKMP, thank you for bringing up this question. I was just reading over that passage today, and was wondering why it wasn’t used more in apologetics discussions. An odd Protestant translation choice explains why we use other passages, just so we don’t have to go over the original languages.
:tiphat:

 

[asteroid]

TKMP:

Greetings,

We all know the John 3:16 passage that whoever believes has eternal life.

However, in John 3:36 it says: " 36"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

What does the Correct Greek say in that phrase: “he who does not obey”, “he who does not believe”, or “he who rejects Jesus”. This is important to understanding the passage.

peace

Here’s John3:36 from Douay (which is available with E-Sword among lots of other Bibles) Actually DRB is almost identical here to the King James.

---

Joh 3:36 He that believeth in the Son hath life everlasting: but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life: but the wrath of God abideth on him.

The New Jerusalem Bible says “… anyone who refuses to believe in the Son …” which seems to fit more the theology that I’ve been taught at RCIA where the only way not to see life is to reject God with full knowledge and choose Hell at the judgement.

The New American has “disobeys”.

So, it isn’t just protestants that use “disbelieve” instead of “disobey” it is Catholics too.

Here’s the Greek word apeitheo:
**Thayer Definition:

1. not to allow one’s self to be persuaded
   1a) to refuse or withhold belief
   1b) to refuse belief and obedience
2. not to comply with
   **Strong says: to disbelieve (wilfully and perversely): - not believe, disobedient, obey not, unbelieving.

So we can’t dogmatically say to Protestants “the oppostite of belief is disobedience”. Catholic Bibles aren’t unanimous on it. And dictionaries give both meanings. In any case, some Protestants say that “disobey” is correct (like Vincent’s Word Studies of the New Testament). Dake says the verse proves that true belief implies obedience - but don’t quote him, he also says a lot of weird things.

From the Greek either one-word translation is fine. And both translations are found, in both catholic and protestant translations.

Perhaps we can say from the word that true Christian belief implies obedience, not just an academic nod to truth. But for apologetic purposes there are probably better passages to prove that - like the Sermon on The Mount, especially Mt7:21-27 which were useful in my own journey home.

Sorry - this got too long. And too waffly.

 

[RyanL]

faith implies obedience. always. if you truly have the first, you will have the second (although the converse is not true). for scriptural support (KJV - it’s all some will listen to):

1. 
   *]Romans 1:5
   By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:
   *]Romans 16:26
   But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:
   *]Romans 6:16
   Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
   *]1 Peter 1:2
   Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied
   *]John 15:10
   If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
   
   so while you can’t say properly that the opposite of belief is disobedience, you CAN say that when early christians use “faith” they really mean “obedience of faith”, and now you can back it up scripturally!
   
   RyanL

 

[Verbum]

The Greek word used is “apeithôn”, pres. participle of “apeithô”, general meaning to disobey. With “apeithês” and “apeithia”, there are 14 uses of this in the New Testament. Sometimes it also means “to be rebellious”.

My huge Greek dictionary, which covers all literature up to the 5th C. AD, gives one of the meanings of “apeithô” as “to be incredulous”.

One can conclude that in this context, the word means “to disbelieve” with a connotation of rebelliousness. I think the Bible of Jerusalem hit the nail right on the head.

Verbum