The traditional English translation of John 3:16 begins with the well-known “For God so loved the world, that he gave…ĝ A few modern translations (CSB, NET, NLT) render it “For God loved the world in this way: he gave…ĝ Of course, this doesn’t make a huge amount of difference to the overall meaning of this wonderful verse! But sometimes and speakers claim that the translation “so loved” gives the wrong idea. The correct meaning of this verse, they say, is not that God loved the world “so much,” but he loved the world “in this way,” by giving his son.

The debate is over the translation of the Greek word οὕτως (houtōs). It is true that it is often translated “in this way” or “even so” or similar. Here are some examples:

“Let your light shine before people in such a way that they see…ĝ (Matt 5:16)

“Pray then, in this way…ĝ (Matt 5:30)

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man must be lifted up” (John 3:14)

“As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, in this way neither can you unless you abide…ĝ (John 15:4)

If that is the meaning of οὕτως, then you can see that John 3:16 would be translated “For God loved the world in this way…ĝ The point would be that the way God loves the world is by giving his son.

But sometimes words combine together in ways that are not obvious from the perspective of another language. That’s the case with two words that occur in this verse, οὕτως (houtōs) and ὥστε (hōste). “For God so (οὕτως) loved the world, that (ὥστε)…ĝ These two words regularly combine together to not only describe the way something happens, but how much it happens, or to what extent it happens. Understanding how those words combine leads us to the translation “God loved the world so much that…ĝ

This meaning of οὕτως + ὥστε as “so much that” is widely attested, and is listed in standard Greek dictionaries such as BDAG, LSJ and BrillDAG. It occurs just a few times in the New Testament, but it can be found often in the LXX (the Greek Old Testament) and in other Greek literature. Here are a few examples, with the οὕτως + ὥστε section italicized:

“… they spoke in such a manner that a large number of people believed…ĝ (Acts 14:1)

“… God loved this country and its inhabitants so much that he made you [Solomon] their king.” (Jos. Ant. 8.173)

“… they loved their mother so much that they obeyed her even to death…ĝ (4 Macc. 15:10)

“For they were being sent off with such a harsh and ruthless spirit… that even some of their enemies… shed tears…ĝ (3 Macc 4:4)

“Sulla cared about this matter so much that he was eager to have a personal conference with Archelaus” (Plut., Lives 22.2)

“They loved their country so much that they nearly stoned Xerxes’ ambassador [their enemy] to death.” (Lycurgus, Leoc. 71)

As you can see, in each of these examples (and there are many more), οὕτως + ὥστε is used to indicate something like “so much that.” In many cases, the meaning “in this way” would not make sense. For example, in Acts 14:1, it would not make sense to translate it “they spoke in this way: that a large number of people believed.”

Conclusion: in John 3:16, the use of οὕτως + ὥστε indicates not only the way that God loved, but the extent of his love: “God loved the world so much that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life.”