"".
NASB- "For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."".
NIV- "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life."".
These three different versions of John 3:16 have both differences and similarities. The first difference encountered is the capitalization of he'. The capitalization, found in the NASB, is trying to emphasize that he' is really God (He). "Only begotten- is different in the NIV, changing to "one and only,"" but the meaning is still the same: μονογενής, monogenes- only birth, sole (Strong, G3439). One of the last term disagreements is the word "everlasting- compared to "eternal."" However, these two terms carry the same meaning. The rest of the differences are simply because of the style of English, (the King James Version uses old English).
Looking more closely at the meaning of each word helps understand the passage more completely. The first word encountered in the passage that could carry different meanings is the word love. In the Greek text, the word for love is ἀγαπάω, agapao, meaning to love in a social or moral sense (Strong, G25). This word is used in other parts of John and throughout the Bible to express the kind of love God has for his Son, but in this passage, it is showing the love God has for the world "unique in the sense that God's love toward the world is not seen anywhere else in the book of John. World, κόσμος, kosmos, means the inhabitants of the earth, the people as a community, and the souls of those in the bodily form (Strong, G2865). The world is seen throughout John as the peoples of the earth that do not love God, yet are still loved by God, as seen in 3:17, "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
