16–21. It is much disputed whether what follows is a continuation of Christ’s discourse, or S. John’s comment upon it. That expressions characteristic of S. John’s diction appear (μονογενής, πιστεύειν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα, ποιεῖν τὴν�, τὸ φῶς), cannot settle the question; the substance may still be Christ’s though the wording is S. John’s. And have we sufficient knowledge of our Lord’s phraseology to distinguish S. John’s wording from His? In any case we have what was probably a conversation of long duration condensed into one of five minutes. Nor does the cessation of the conversational form prove anything. The more Nicodemus became impressed the less he would be likely to interrupt, like the disciples in the last discourses. It seems unlikely that S. John would give us no indication of the change from the Lord’s words to his own, if the discourse with Nicodemus really ended at John 3:15. See on John 3:31-36.

The subject of these six verses is as follows; God’s purpose in sending His Son (16, 17); the opposite results (18, 19); the moral cause of these opposite results (20, 21).

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Old Testament