You read John 12:25 like an American. Which is to say, you read these words from Jesus to His disciples in English: “‘he who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.’” The American experience of this verse is flawless in all regards except one: it cheats the reader’s hope for the ancient Greek experience.
An English encounter with John 12:25 means reading threefold about the concept of life. A Greek encounter, however, has no such quality; it instead sets forth a parallel between hating and loving a thing called psuchē, and then a second and distinguished concept, zōē. The passage reads like this: “‘he who loves his life [psuchē] loses it, and he who hates his life [psuchē] in this world will keep it to life [zōē] eternal.’” Although these words are obscured in translation, they need not be lost to us.
Because both psuchē and zōē receive the same English translation, we may naturally conceive of them as different nuances of the same word. They were not, however, the same word to the Greek-speaking authors of the New Testament. Both words make manifold appearances in John’s Gospel, and these examples delineate their differences.
Psuchē, in addition to “life,” can mean “soul.” This definition is clear in John 12:27 when Jesus says, “‘now My soul [psuchē] has become troubled.’” With few exceptions, however, psuchē in John’s Gospel refers to “life” as in “the life held by an individual person.” Jesus tells His disciples, “‘I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life [psuchē] for the sheep’” (10:11-24). Peter promises Jesus that he will lay down his life [psuchē] for Him (13:37). Finally, Jesus teaches His disciples, “‘greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life [psuchē] for his friends’” (15:13).
Zōē, on the other hand, appears in many of Jesus’ most memorable quotations. “‘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 [zōē]’” (3:16). “‘I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life [zōē]’” (8:12). “‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life [zōē]; no one comes to the Father but through Me’” (14:6).1 Zōē is the word used each of the 17 times that John’s Gospel mentions eternal life, and is written in John’s opening meditation (1:1-18) where he introduces repeating tropes like light, darkness, and life: “in Him [Jesus] was life [zōē], and the life [zōē] was the Light of men” (1:4). Whereas psuchē concerns the life of the individual, zōē is at once a purer and more arcane word for life in the abstract and eternal.
Turning back to John 12:25, we must not erroneously impose our English over the Greek by asking why Jesus chose two different words for “life.” He did not. He simply chose two different words. Rather, we must seek the authentic experience of a Greek-speaker reading these words. Consider the first part of John 12:25, “‘He who loves his life [psuchē] loses it.’” Based on John’s wider use of psuchē, the Greek-speaker would understand that Jesus is referring to the earthly, transient life of the individual. Given that psuchē can also mean “soul,” however, this life is not conceived of as only flesh and blood, but also as soul and spirit. The final two words, “‘loses it,’” may express a double meaning by referring to the loss, not just of physical life, but also of the soul. An inappropriate obsession with one’s transient, earthly life will, in the end, harm an individual’s body and spirit.
The next phrase in John 12:25, “‘and he who hates his life [psuchē] in this world will keep it,’” inspires an equal and opposite reflection in the reader. The sentence structure of the Greek parallels the preceding phrase, and the twin appearances of psuchē create an even richer and more emphatic parallel between the antitheses than appears in English.
It is worth noting, however, that Greek has little care for English word order. The final words in our English editions, “‘to life [zōē] eternal,’” are actually nested within, not placed after, the preceding words. The actual arrangement of the Greek follows, with the first clause in regular text, the second clause italicized, and the words which come last in English emboldened:
He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world to life eternal will keep it.
The placement of the words “‘to life [zōē] eternal’” is salient. Just as Jesus juxtaposes hating and loving psuchē, so too does he juxtapose this world against life eternal by placing them in close proximity, the one next to the other. The word order also makes clear the parallel structure—both grammatically and conceptually—of hating and loving life by revealing how, if the ancillary phrases “‘in this world’” and “‘to life eternal’” are set aside momentarily, the remaining clauses are in perfect symmetry.
When Jesus reaches these words, “‘to life [zōē] eternal,’” His teaching takes on a new purpose by elucidating what the relationship is between psuchē and zōē. And by describing zōē as eternal, He bestows upon this relationship an eschatological magnitude. This zōē is the same zōē which John describes as being “the Light of men” within Jesus (1:4). This zōē is the next iteration in Jesus’ pattern of teachings about pure, perennial, and perfect life. This zōē partakes in a transcendent and tightly-knit pattern in John’s original Greek; for the fact that zōē is rendered distinctly from psuchē means that John’s habit with the word is seen distinctly. Through John 12:25, Jesus makes clear how we, as individuals with psuchē, can pursue, and fail to pursue, this zōē.
Just as small seasonings can transform a large dish, so too do an author’s subtle twists and turns transform our experience with a text. This poses the hardest challenge that a translator faces—to give the reader not just the words, but the experience of reading the original document. Yet, close study can be a bridge across language barriers, and hopefully your experience of John 12:25 is now just a little more Greek.
More examples include, but are not limited to:
John 6:35 - “‘I am the bread of life [zōē]; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.’”
John 10:10 - “‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life [zōē], and have it abundantly.’”
John 11:25-6 - “‘I am the resurrection and the life [zōē]; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.’”
This definitely brings out a deeper meaning to key Johannine passages.
John 17:3, "And this is eternal life (ζωὴ), that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."
I wonder if this applies across the New Testament or just in John?