Klopsch’s Mistake

John 3:13 reads “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.”  This verse is sometimes used by detractors of the Bible because the verse is saying Jesus was “in heaven” at a time they think the context “shows” Jesus was still on earth. But the solution to this apparent “contradiction” is to remember the book of John was written several decades after Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in the first twelve verses. Verse 13 is not saying Jesus was in heaven when Jesus had that conversation (which would be inaccurate); instead, it is saying Jesus was in heaven at the time of the writing of the book of John, which was certainly true. Verses 13-21 are John’s comments about that conversation written years later.

So there is no problem because Jesus is not still speaking in verse 13. Actually, John’s comments start in verse 13 instead of verse 22. The guy who decided what should be in red letters (Louis Klopsch in 1899) got it right probably 99% of the time, but he made a mistake in this one instance. The switch from Jesus being referred to in the first person (“I” in verses 3, 5, 7, 11, 12) to the third person (“he” in 13, 22, “him” in verses 15, 16, 17, 18, and “his” in 22) helps establish this conclusion, just like the switch from third person to first person in Acts 16:8,10 helps us to see Luke joined Paul on his preaching journey at that point in the narrative.

Rarely Jesus might use the third person to refer to himself but that is not the norm. Do you typically refer to yourself in the third person or first person? Compare to John 5:24 – “… He that … believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life …” See Jesus using third person to refer to the Father and first person to refer to himself? One thing that would prove Jesus was still conversing with Nicodemus in John 3:13-21 (and falsify the point of this article) would be something said by Nicodemus in that section, but we don’t have that, do we?

I have yet to see any reason given for why verses 13-21 should be taken as Jesus still conversing with Nicodemus, other than the fact that they are in red letters (Klopsch’s Mistake). I’ve heard explanations about why that could be the case, but never a reason why the passage should be taken that way. Do you know of a good reason (other than it’s in red letters)?

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