John 3:15

ἐν αὐτῷ for εἰς αὐτόν (a correction to S. John’s usual construction): μὴ�' before ἔχῃ is an insertion (A) from John 3:16; אBL omit.

15. ἵνα. see on John 1:8. The eternal life of all believers, whether Jew or Gentile, is the purpose of the Divine δεῖ. The lifting up on the Cross was the turning-point in the faith of Nicodemus (John 19:39).

ἐν αὐτῷ. This goes with ἔχῃ rather than πιστεύων; that every one (John 11:25; John 12:46) that believeth may in Him have eternal life. Authorities are much divided between ἐν and ἐπ, αὐτῷ, εἰς and ἐπ' αὐτόν. The confusion partly arose from the insertion of μὴ�' from John 3:16 before ἔχῃ, causing the preposition and pronoun to be taken with πιστεύων.

ζωὴν αἰώνιον. This is one of S. John’s favourite phrases. It occurs 17 times in the Gospel (8 in the Synoptics) and 6 in the First Epistle. In neither Gospel nor Epistle does he apply αἰώνιος to anything but ζωή. The phrase ἔχειν ζωὴν αἰώνιον is also one of S. John’s phrases, John 3:36; John 5:24; John 6:40; John 6:47; John 6:54; 1 John 3:15; 1 John 5:12.