(Jn 3:13-17)

John 3:13 Yet no one has ever ascended into heaven except the Son of Man, who came down from heaven.

John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

John 3:15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.

Verse 13 opens with the verb "anabébēken" (he ascended); this is a perfect indicative, which by its nature indicates a present state, as a consequence of a past action, which John here places as exclusive to the Son of Man: "no one has ever ascended into heaven except...". That 'no one' removes any possible competition or comparison with the Son of Man, assigning him a unique position. The Son of Man, therefore, is seen in his state of definitive glorification, as the one who has already ascended to heaven and is so definitively and permanently as a result of a past event, which took place here in history and is specified in the following verse 14.

If the first part of verse 13 contemplates the unique and exclusive event of the glorification of the Son of Man, thus exalting his divinity, the second part captures him at the beginning of his earthly adventure, that is, in his descent, with clear reference to his incarnation. The verb 'katabás' (descended), in fact, is an aorist past participle, which expresses the occurrence of an event captured in its initial temporal appearance.

If verse 13 presents the two extremes of God's saving action, the incarnation and ascension of the Son of Man, verse 14 places between the two events the intermediate events of Jesus' death and resurrection, and does so starting from an image taken from Numbers 21:6-9, where Moses made a bronze serpent and placed it on a pole; when a snake bit an Israelite, if he looked at the bronze snake, he remained alive. The context in which the Old Testament episode is set is that of a revolt of the people against Moses and against God, who sent poisonous snakes to punish the Israelites with death. The story closely recalls the fall of Adam and Eve: there too there was a revolt against God; there too there was a serpent that injected into them the deadly poison of rebellion against God; there too there was an act of divine mercy, which promised the mortally fallen man the victory of the Woman and her Offspring over the Serpent (Gen 3:15). The reference to Moses raising up the serpent evokes this set of ancient stories, so that the figure of the Son of Man raised up becomes the definitive fulfilment of those images and the answer to the expectations and hopes of humanity fallen and corrupted by sin.

Verse 14, in fact, triggers a comparison between Moses' raising of the serpent and that of Jesus; but while Moses' raising is expressed with an aorist ("hípsōsen", raised), which circumscribes the salvific event in time, the raising of Jesus presents some peculiarities that give it a unique and exclusive meaning that transcends time: "hipsōthēnai dei", "he must be raised". Two verbs, one in the aorist passive infinitive (hipsōthēnai) "to be lifted up", which in New Testament language refers the action to God himself; the other in the present indicative ("deî"), "must", expressing a state of necessity, which implies that the raising up of Jesus, in its dual meaning of death and resurrection, is part of a pre-established divine plan, which is fulfilled in the raising up of Jesus himself. But if the Mosaic raising was confined in time, making its salvific effects relative to the circumstances, that of Jesus transcends the limits of space and time, making the salvific effects of his raising universal, since they are removed from the relativity of history.

Verse 15 attests that believing in Jesus allows access to eternal life. For John, faith is not an abstract concept but an action rooted in life, qualifying it as a believing life, in which, precisely because it is believing, the life of God is reflected, which is essentially a life of love. The believer, therefore, becomes a sort of reflection of God among men, a witness to his divine life, in which he is placed and lives precisely because of his belief. It is no coincidence that the term 'faith' never occurs, not even once, in John, but is always replaced by the verb 'to believe'. The verb, in fact, always expresses an action and is therefore more suited to the very dynamics of life.

The raising up of Jesus, therefore, points to the restoration of every man to divine life through faith in the Raised One. The sense of the universality of the divine plan is rendered with that 'pâs' (whoever), which involves man of every time and every place. It is, therefore, a universal salvific action, addressed to all and based on the premise of 'believing in him'. The Greek expression 'ho pisteúōn en autō', 'the believer in him', is significant. The present participle verb indicates how the action of believing becomes a constant, which qualifies man's life and determines his existential orientation. The verb 'to believe' is followed here by the expression 'en autō', which indicates a state in place: 'in him'. The purpose of believing, therefore, is to place the believer 'in him' and through him to obtain 'eternal life'.

Verse 16 constitutes the summit of John's thought on Jesus, who sees the descent of the Son of Man from heaven as the consequence of an act of love by the Father; a love that becomes a gift and a gift that becomes salvation for the believer. It is not, therefore, an ethereal or mystical love, but a concrete love, which historically takes on the face of Christ and in him becomes visible and accessible to all; and the gift is the very life of God.

The exclusivity of this gift is emphasised in the attribute with which the Son is described: Only Begotten; an expression that expresses the uniqueness not only of the Son in relation to the Father, but also of the relationship that binds them in a close communion of love.

The verb 'dídomi', however, does not only mean 'to give, to donate', but also 'to hand over, to entrust'. The gift that the Father gives of his Son, therefore, not only expresses his nature of love, but is also a handing him over to men, a handing over that has in itself a sacrificial and redemptive value, 'so that whoever believes in him may not perish but have eternal life'.

The phrase 'whoever believes in him' is taken up again in essentially the same form in verse 15, but here there is a small, very significant variation: the particle 'in', rendered in verse 15 as 'en', is replaced here by the particle 'eis'. The first (en) indicates a state in place, emphasising how believing places the believer in the same divine life (eternal life); the second (eis) expresses a movement to a place and gives the believer's belief a strong dynamism, which orientates him existentially towards Christ. The particle 'eis' therefore highlights a faith on the path to salvation, which has not yet been definitively acquired, since the prospect of perdition also appears in the background, albeit expressed in negative form ('let him not die').

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Apocalypse – exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, True God and True Man in the Trinitarian Mystery

The Prophetic Discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

 Catholics and Protestants in comparison – In defence of the faith

 The Church and Israel according to St Paul – Romans 9-11

(Available on Amazon)