The Nugget:
John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. (KJV)
Joh 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. (ESV)
Joh 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. (NET)
Joh 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him to me; then I myself will raise him to life on the last day. (Williams NT)
Joh 6:44 No one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me makes them want to come. But if they do come, I will raise them to life on the last day. (CEV)
Joh 6:44 No man is able to come to me if the Father who sent me does not give him the desire to come: and I will take him up from the dead on the last day. (BBE, Bible in Basic English)
Joh 6:44 no one is able to come unto me, if the Father who sent me may not draw him, and I will raise him up in the last day; (YLT, Young’s Literal Translation)
My Comment:
I cited seven English translations for John 6:44. I saved the best for last. Only Young’s Literal Translation of the Bible properly preserves the subjunctive mood present in the Greek text.
You cannot correctly understand the doctrine of the Bible if you ignore or gloss over the grammar of the original language used in the Bible.
I heard a portion of a Bible message on Christian radio this past weekend. The speaker emphasized John 6:44 to support a rather narrow and mistaken view of predestination. The speaker interpreted John 6:44 in the absolute sense to suggest no person can come to Christ for salvation unless God from eternity past predestined that specific person to be among the elect who can be saved. This is a very mistaken view improperly derived from John 6:44 and similar verses in the Bible.
Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, unless the Father who sent me, shall draw him; and I will raise him up at the last day. (Murdock)
Notice that the Murdock translation goes a step further in the wrong grammatical direction by translating John 6:44 to read “shall draw him.” Only the Young’s Literal Translation of the Bible renders John 6:44 correctly by “may draw him.”
I know of only one modern English translation which correctly translates John 6:44, Lavender’s New Testament:
John 6:44 No one is able to come to Me unless the Father–the One having sent Me–may draw him; and I will raise him up at the last day. (LNT)
May in English is a subjunctive mood verb. The subjunctive mood verb in the underlying Greek text of John 6:44 conveys a very important distinction. The distinction conveyed is that the promise or benefit stated is conditioned upon meeting a specified contingency or requirement. The conditional benefit can only be received by meeting the contingency expressed in the context.
That contingency is expressed in John 6:37 and John 6:40. The emphasis is upon “coming” and “believing.” These requirements are given in the present tense, so the person that God may draw is marked by the obedience to the command to keep coming and keep believing. As long as a person continues to believe and continues to obey Christ’s command to believe on Him, that person continues to have everlasting life.
John 6:37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
John 6:40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.