John 3:13
New International Version
No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.

New Living Translation
No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven.

English Standard Version
No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

Berean Standard Bible
No one has ascended into heaven except the One who descended from heaven—the Son of Man.

Berean Literal Bible
And no one has gone up into heaven except the One having come down out of heaven, the Son of Man.

King James Bible
And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

New King James Version
No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.

New American Standard Bible
No one has ascended into heaven, except He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.

NASB 1995
“No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.

NASB 1977
“And no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man.

Legacy Standard Bible
And no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

Amplified Bible
No one has gone up into heaven, but there is One who came down from heaven, the Son of Man [Himself—whose home is in heaven].

Christian Standard Bible
No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven —the Son of Man.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
No one has ascended into heaven except the One who descended from heaven—the Son of Man.

American Standard Version
And no one hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended out of heaven, even the Son of man, who is in heaven.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And no man has gone up to Heaven except he who went down from Heaven: The Son of Man - he who is in Heaven.

Contemporary English Version
No one has gone up to heaven except the Son of Man, who came down from there.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And no man hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven.

English Revised Version
And no man hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended out of heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
No one has gone to heaven except the Son of Man, who came from heaven.

Good News Translation
And no one has ever gone up to heaven except the Son of Man, who came down from heaven."

International Standard Version
"No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven.

Literal Standard Version
And no one has gone up to Heaven, except He who came down out of Heaven—the Son of Man who is in Heaven.

Majority Standard Bible
No one has ascended into heaven except the One who descended from heaven—the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

New American Bible
No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.

NET Bible
No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven--the Son of Man.

New Revised Standard Version
No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

New Heart English Bible
And no one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

Webster's Bible Translation
And no man hath ascended to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man who is in heaven.

Weymouth New Testament
There is no one who has gone up to Heaven, but there is One who has come down from Heaven, namely the Son of Man whose home is in Heaven.

World English Bible
No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

Young's Literal Translation
and no one hath gone up to the heaven, except he who out of the heaven came down -- the Son of Man who is in the heaven.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Jesus and Nicodemus
12If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the One who descended from heaven— the Son of Man. 14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,…

Cross References
Deuteronomy 30:12
It is not in heaven, that you should need to ask, 'Who will ascend into heaven to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?'

Proverbs 30:4
Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in His hands? Who has bound up the waters in His cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is the name of His Son--surely you know!

Matthew 8:20
Jesus replied, "Foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head."

John 3:12
If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

John 3:31
The One who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks as one from the earth. The One who comes from heaven is above all.

John 6:38
For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but to do the will of Him who sent Me.

John 6:42
They were asking, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then can He say, 'I have come down from heaven?'"


Treasury of Scripture

And no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

no man.

John 1:18
No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

John 6:46
Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.

Deuteronomy 30:12
It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?

but.

John 6:33,38,51,62
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world…

John 8:42
Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.

John 13:3
Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;

even.

John 1:18
No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

Matthew 28:20
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Mark 16:19,20
So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God…

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Ascended Descended Except Heaven Home Namely Save
John 3
1. Jesus teaches Nicodemus the necessity of being born again,
14. of faith in his death,
16. the great love of God toward the world,
18. and the condemnation for unbelief.
22. Jesus baptizes in Judea.
23. The baptism, witness, and doctrine of John concerning Jesus.














(13) And no man hath ascended up.--There can be no other means of receiving heavenly truth. No man hath learnt it, and is able to teach it, except the Son of Man, who ever was, and is, in heaven. The thought has met us before (John 1:18). To Nicodemus it must have come as an answer to the words of Agur, which had passed into a proverb to express the vanity of human effort to know God. "Who hath ascended up into heaven or descended?. . . . What is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell?" (Proverbs 30:4). No man had so passed to heaven and returned again to earth; but there was One then speaking with him who had been in heaven with God, and could tell him its eternal truths. He had that knowledge which a man could obtain only by ascending to heaven, and He came down from heaven with it. From the human point of view He was as one who had already ascended and descended. (Comp. Note on John 1:51.) This is the evident meaning of the sentence, and the form is quite consistent with it. To explain the perfect tense of the future ascension, or to introduce the idea of the "hypostatic union," by virtue of which the human nature may be said to have ascended into heaven with the divine, is, to give an explanation, not of the text, but of a misunderstanding of it. (But comp. John 6:62.)

Which is in heaven.--These words are omitted in some MSS., including the Sinaitic and the Vatican. The judgment of most modern editors (not including Westcott and Hort) retains them. It is an instance where it is hard to account for the insertion by a copyist, but where the omission is not unlikely, owing to their seeming difficulty. And yet the difficulty is one which vanishes before the true idea of heaven. If heaven is thought of as a place infinitely distant beyond clouds and sky, or as a time in the far future when this world's life shall end, then it is indeed hard to understand what is here meant by "the Son of Man which is in heaven;" and a copyist may well have found in omission the easiest solution of the difficulty. But if heaven is something wholly different from this coldness of distance in space or time; if it is a state, a life, in which we are, which is in us--now in part, hereafter in its fulness--then may we understand and with glad hearts hold to the vital truth that the Son of Man, who came down from heaven, was ever in heaven; and that every son of man who is born of water and of the Spirit is "made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor (in the present, ??????????) of the kingdom of heaven."

Verses 13-15. -

(2) The truth concerning the Son of man and his sacrifice. Verse 13. - And. The simple copula is here fuller significance. Olshausen regards it as "adversative," equivalent to "yet." Meyer, as a simple continuation of the previous statement. The καὶ has more than a mere conjunctive force. Lance puts it thus: "And yet you must be told heavenly things by him who, being the Heavenly One, is himself the first subject of this revelation." No one hath ascended into heaven. The past tense must be honestly considered. The word cannot refer to the future ascension of Jesus the Lord of glory to where he was before - to the glory which he had with the Father before the world was (John 17:5); nor can it refer, as the Socinian interpreters supposed, to a rapture into heaven of the Divine Man between his baptism and temptation (Socini 'Opera,' 2:511, 610, quoted by J.P. Smith, 'Scripture Testimony to the Messiah,' 2, pp. 103-117), of which we have not the faintest trace either in Scripture or tradition; nor is it sufficient, with Hengstenberg and others, to regard it as a mere Hebraism for high and exalted intercourse with God and heavenly things. True, there have been many who have sought to climb the steep ascent (Genesis 11:4; Isaiah 14:13); true also that rabbis spoke of Moses having "ascended into the heavens," by which (says Whitby) they meant "admission to the Divine counsels." The authority on which he depends is the late 'Targum on Cantic. 1:5, 11, 12,' by which, however, all that is clear is that the Targnmist was referring to the ascent of Moses to the top of Sinai, i.e. above the multitude in the deserts, to the place whither Jehovah came to speak with him. But Exodus 20:22, the canonical Scripture, makes it clear that it was "from the heavens" that Jehovah spoke with his servant. There are, however, other passages quoted by Schottgen from Jerusalem Targum on Deuteronomy 30:12, and from the 'Mishna,' in which Moses is said to have "ascended into heaven, and heard the voice of God;" but further inquiry leads us to judge that the Hebrew commentators were thinking of the going up to Sinai for his lofty revelations, and their followers have supposed that this process was a synonym of the revelations themselves. Many have thought to rise above the world to the beatific vision, but Jesus says none have done it in the only sense in which they would have been thereby fitted to discourse on the heavenly things. Two things are needed for this in the main - to be in heaven, and come thence charged with its Divine communications. Enoch, Elijah, may have been translated that they should not see death, but they are not so lifted into the abode of God that they might come thence charged with heavenly truth, and able to explain the "how" of Divine grace. No one hath ascended into heaven except he who has by living there as in his eternal home come down from heaven. Meyer, Luthardt, Westcott, etc., all call attention to other and analogous usage of εἰ μὴ, which fastens upon a part of the previous negative, not the whole assertion, and therefore here upon the idea of living in heaven and coming thence (Matthew 12:4; Luke 4:26, 27; Galatians 1:7). Man, if he should presume to come with a full revelation of Divine and heavenly things, must come down from a height to which he had previously ascended; but no man has thus and for this purpose ascended, except he who has descended from heaven, having been there before his manifestation in the flesh, having been "in God." "with God," "in the bosom of the Father," and having come thence, not losing his essential ego, his Divine personality, even though calling himself the Son of man. For any other to have come down from heaven, it was necessary that he should first have ascended thither; but the Son of man has descended without having ascended. He calls himself "Son of man," and he claims to have come down from heaven without ceasing to be what he was before. Godet urges that, by the "ascended into heaven," he meant such lofty communion with God and immediate knowledge of Divine things as to differentiate him from all others, but that the phrase, "come down from heaven," implies previous existence in his native place, and that the Lord's filial intimacy with God rests on his essential sonship. Still, he conceives that Jesus asserts his own ascension in the spiritual sense to the heart of God, and his descent with consequent resultant knowledge, and expounds both statements by the explanation that as Son of man he is living the twofold life in heaven and on earth at the same time. By using the term, "Son of man," Christ emphasized the exalted dignity that is involved in the extent of his self-humiliation,, and complete sympathy with us. He was the second Adam, the Lord from heaven." Who is (not was) in heaven. If this be only an early gloss, it throws light on the two previous clauses. It declares that, though he came down, and though his introduction to this world was an incarnation, yet that he is in the deepest sense still in heaven. Such language is a vindication of his claim to reveal heavenly things. Augustine says, "Ecce hic erat et in coelo erat, hic erat in carne, in coelo erat divinitate, natus de matre, non recedens a Patre." Again, "Si Paulus ambulabat in carne in terra et conversabatur in coelo, Deus coeli et terrae poterat esse et in coelo et in terra." Archdeacon Watkins says admirably, "If heaven is a state, a life, in which we are, which is in us, now in part, hereafter in its fulness, then we may understand, and with glad hearts hold to, the vital truth that the Son of man who came down from heaven was ever in heaven."

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
No one
οὐδεὶς (oudeis)
Adjective - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3762: No one, none, nothing.

has ascended
ἀναβέβηκεν (anabebēken)
Verb - Perfect Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 305: To go up, mount, ascend; of things: I rise, spring up, come up. From ana and the base of basis; to go up.

into
εἰς (eis)
Preposition
Strong's 1519: A primary preposition; to or into, of place, time, or purpose; also in adverbial phrases.

heaven
οὐρανὸν (ouranon)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3772: Perhaps from the same as oros; the sky; by extension, heaven; by implication, happiness, power, eternity; specially, the Gospel.

except
εἰ (ei)
Conjunction
Strong's 1487: If. A primary particle of conditionality; if, whether, that, etc.

the [One who]
(ho)
Article - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

descended
καταβάς (katabas)
Verb - Aorist Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2597: To go down, come down, either from the sky or from higher land, descend. From kata and the base of basis; to descend.

from
ἐκ (ek)
Preposition
Strong's 1537: From out, out from among, from, suggesting from the interior outwards. A primary preposition denoting origin, from, out.

heaven—
οὐρανοῦ (ouranou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 3772: Perhaps from the same as oros; the sky; by extension, heaven; by implication, happiness, power, eternity; specially, the Gospel.

the
(ho)
Article - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

Son
Υἱὸς (Huios)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 5207: A son, descendent. Apparently a primary word; a 'son', used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinship.

of Man.
ἀνθρώπου (anthrōpou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 444: A man, one of the human race. From aner and ops; man-faced, i.e. A human being.


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