5.00 - Endnotes

Endnotes

¹ See on the whole subject the copious article of W. M. Ramsay in the Extra Volume of Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible—“Roads and Travel (in N.T.).”

² The term here used is not, according to the corrected reading (ἐθνικῶν for ἐθνῶν of the T.R.), the common Greek word for Gentiles, but that employed in Matthew 5:47; Matthew 6:7; Matthew 18:17, which signifies of Gentile state or disposition—i.e. heathen, Pagan by religion, rather than Gentile by race. The Apostle would not, we presume, forbid his agents to be guests with Gentiles who were friendly to the faith and disposed to conversion; to stay in a household that was decidedly heathen in character, was a different matter.

³ The word apostle in still used in its wider N.T. sense (compare Acts 14:4, Romans 16:7), of Christian emissaries or missionaries generally: a mark of early date.

⁴ἸησοῦνΧριστὸνἐρχόμενονἐνσαρκί (Greek present participle)—“who do not confess Jesus Christ as one coming in flesh,” i.e., do not confess Him in this sense, in this character; but in 1 John 4:2, ἸησοῦνΧριστὸνἐνσαρκίἐληλυθότα (Greek perfect)—“which does not confess Jesus Christ as come in flesh,” i.e., does not confess the reality of His incarnation, denies the accomplished fact.

⁵ In a paper entitled “The Problem of the Address to the Second Epistle of John,” which appeared in the Expositor for March, 1901; Series VI, vol. iii, pp. 194-203.

⁶Expositor, February, 1903; Series VI, vol. vii, p. 116.

⁷ The thought of Christ’s “new commandment” of love (see John 13:34) as the “old commandment” dating from the beginning is very characteristic of St John (see Chapter 11, below); also the identity of “love” and “commandment-keeping” (John 14:15, John 15:10; 1 John 5:3). It is worth observing that the combination “Grace, mercy, peace” of this salutation occurs besides only in 1 Timothy 1:1 and 2 Timothy 1:1, addressed to Ephesus.

⁸ Clement of Alexandria seems to have understood Rome (under the name of Babylon) as the Elect Lady, and this view has been occasionally revived. Dom Chapman argues ingeniously in The Journal of Theological Studies (April and July, 1904), for Thessalonica as the destination of 3 John, and Rome of 2 John.

⁹ The present tense in the Greek participles of 3 John 1:3 implies repetition: “I was greatly gladdened as brethren came from time to time and testified to thy faith,” etc.

¹⁰ See the articles of Dom Chapman, 0.S.B., in the Journal of Theological Studies, April and July, 1904, referred to also on p. 30 above.

¹¹ The two last verbs of 3 John 1:10 “do not necessarily express more than the purpose and effort” (Westcott) of Diotrephes,—a conative present.

¹² See Milligan-Moulton’s Popular Commentary, on John 21:21-23.

¹³ See e.g., John 2:6, John 4:6, John 11:44, John 18:18, John 19:33-35, John 20:6-8, John 21:11.

¹⁴ Chapter viii in W. M. Ramsay’s Letters to the Seven Churches.

¹⁵ On St John’s idiosyncrasy, see further Chapter 5.

¹⁶ Remembering the close friendship of St Peter and St John in their early days, one is surprised to find so few points of contact in their Epistles. In fact, as writers they show more affinity with St Paul than with each other. They wrote each of them at an advanced period of life, after long separation. See the tables of comparison drawn out in the Appendix to this chapter.

¹⁷ One might take the words of 1 John 2:18 and 1 John 4:3—“You have heard that Antichrist is coming”—as an allusion to St Paul’s prophecy of 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4, delivered about forty years before this time. But this anticipation was widespread in the Apostolic age. The curious thing is that the Apostle’s language in the “antichrist” passages bears little or no traces of the eschatology of the Apocalypse; we find in 1 John 2:18-28 and 1 John 4:1-6 but a single parallel to the Book of Revelation given by the Reference Bibles,—the correspondence of 1 John 4:1 (“try the spirits”) with Revelation 2:2; whereas the links of expression between St John and St Paul in these paragraphs, though not numerous, are unmistakable. The Pauline tradition was strong and pervasive in the Churches of Asia; this St Polycarp’s Letter, sent from Smyrna to the Philippians, goes to show.

¹⁸ In disproof of the connection between St John’s anti-Gnostic and his ethical dehortations, the fact has been urged that Cerinthus, whom tradition identifies as his chief opponent, was an ascetic in morals. But asceticism is perfectly consistent with unbrotherliness, and with a degree of worldly conformity; and moral rigour in some directions may be compensated by licence in others. Moreover the principle of the evil of matter, which lay at the root of Doketism and Gnosticism, breeds at the same time in some natures a false asceticism, and in others antinomian indulgence. Of this double tendency, St Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Timothy and Titus afford evidence.

¹⁹ St John’s Soteriology in form and dialect lies nearer, on the whole, to that of Hebrews than of the Pauline Epistles; see the comparisons in the Appendix to this chapter.

²⁰ The “unto you” of the T.R. in this place is certainly spurious; and “your joy” is, almost certainly, a textual corruption of “our joy” (R.V.). The satisfaction of those responsible for giving the message of Christ to the world would only be complete when provision had been made in writing for its safe transmission, for the full and exact knowledge of it on the part of those distant in place or time from the primary witnesses; compare Luke 1:4; 2 Peter 1:15; Revelation 22:18-19; 2 Timothy 2:2. Then the Apostle and his few remaining coevals will die content!

²¹ Haupt, with some other interpreters, makes this abstractness a ground for supposing the Epistle written at Patmos, where the writer was out of touch with his people.

²² The opening Discourses of Archbishop Alexander’s Commentary on The Epistles of St. John (Expositor’s Bible) give a fine historical setting to this Epistle. Sir W. M. Ramsay’s work on The Letters to the Seven Churches has, more recently, thrown a flood of light over the field of the Apostle’s later ministry.

²³ The “we write” (emphatic ἡμεῖς) of 1 John 1:4 shows that St John is not thinking of his own (written) Gospel in particular; compare p. 89.

²⁴ The thought of “witnessing” is a seal stamped on all St John’s writings—the Apocalypse along with the rest (see Revelation 1:2, Revelation 1:9; Revelation 6:9, Revelation 12:11, Revelation 12:17, Revelation 19:10, Revelation 22:16, Revelation 22:20.)

²⁵The First Epistle of St John: A Contribution to Biblical Theology. By Erich Haupt; translated (T. and T. Clark), 1879. See pp. 348-357, “The Chain of Thought.” This exposition remains indispensable; it is the most complete and thorough elucidation of the Epistle that we know, but suffers from its prolixity.

²⁶ compare bread of life; light of life; way, truth and life, etc., in the Fourth Gospel.

²⁷ On this reading see note 20, p. 70.

²⁸Πρὸςτὸνπατέρα = almost “addressing the Father.” Of the four Greek prepositions covered by the English with of personal intercourse, σύν signifies conjunction, μετάaccompaniment, παράpresence with (as in John 17:5), πρόςconverse with (compare John 1:1). Πρός is adversus rather than apud (Vulgate), and with the accusative signifies either the direction of motion, or the relation between two objects [or attitude of one person to another]. “We may fittingly call the preposition here πρόςpictorial” (Alexander, in Expositor’s Bible). The expression is ethical, not local.

²⁹This is the first time that the characteristic compellation (τεκνία), recurring six times later on, appears. In this single instance (as the genuine text stands) is τεκνία qualified by the appropriative μου.

³⁰ Any other Greek writer but St John would have used δέ instead of καί in the ἐάν clause. The revalence of the conjunction καί, the preference of the simple copulative to the adversative and illative connection of sentences is a marked syntactical feature of his style, giving it a Hebraistic cast (compare p. 77). The occurrence of in the last clause of verse 2 is the more significant because of the rarity of this particle with St John.

³¹Ἀναγκαῖονγὰρἠντὸνἱερωμένοντῷτοῦκόσμουπατρὶπαρακλήτῳχρῆσθαιτελειοτάτῳτὴνἀρετὴνυἱῷ,πρόςτεἀμνηστίανἁμαρτημάτωνκαὶχορηγίανἀφθονωτάτωνἀγαθῶν [“For it was indispensable that the man who was consecrated to the Father of the world, should have as a paraclete, his son, the being most perfect in all virtue, to procure forgiveness of sins, and a supply of unlimited blessings.”] (De Vita Moysis, 673 C).

³² With Philo Judeeus, the high priest is the παράκλητος of Israel before God; compare Hebrews 5:1, etc.

³³ See the art. Propitiation, by S. R. Driver, in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible.Ἱλασμός signifies etymologically the act or process of propitiating; then, like some other nouns in -μος, the means or agency effecting propitiation.

³⁴Ἱλαστήριον is the more concrete expression, construed as accusative masculine (see Sanday and Headlam’s Note ad loc.) —“a propitiatory person,” “in a propitiatory character”; ἱλασμός the more abstract “a (means of) propitiation,” one in whom propitiation is realized. The distinction between ἱλασμός and its synonyms is well stated by Dr Driver in the article above referred to: “The death of Christ is represented in the New Testament under three main aspects, as a λύτρον, ransoming from the power of sin and spiritual death; as aκαταλλαγή, setting ‘at one,’ or reconciling God and man, and bringing to an end the alienation between them; and as a ἱλασμός, a propitiation, breaking down the barrier which sin interposes between God and man, and enabling God again to enter into fellowship with him.”

³⁵ In the parallel passage, 1 John 5:2-3, at αἱἐντολαὶαὐτοῦ God’s commands; so ὁλόγοςαὐτοῦ in 1 John 1:10 = ὁλόγοςτοῦθεοῦ of 1 John 2:14 — never τοῦχριστοῦ, or the like, in this Epistle.

³⁶ English idiom, with only He to employ for αὐτός and ἐκεῖνος alike, lends itself to an ambiguity which embarrasses the interpretation of 1 John repeatedly.

³⁷A doubling of οἶδα occurs in John 16:30 (“Now we know that thou knowest all things”); but in this sentence there is no variation of tense, and the repetition has no special significance.

³⁸ St John’s perfecting of love by obedience has an instructive parallelin St James’ perfecting of faith by works: ἐκτῶνἔργωνἡπίστιςἐτελειώθη, James 2:22. The verb τελειόω in these instances has much the same force as when it is said, ἡγραφὴἐπληρώθη (John 19:28; more commonly, ἐπληρώθη, πεπλήρωται, in a case where some word of Scripture comes to its furthest realization and attains the ne plus ultra of its significance. Τελειόω has a further connotation, pointed out by Westcott, in this passage: “Both τελειοῦν and ἐπιτελεῖν are used of Christian action (Php 3:12; Galatians 3:3). But in τελειοῦν there is the idea of a continuous growth, a vital development, an advance to maturity (τελειότης, Hebrews 5:14; Hebrews 6:1). In ἐπιτελεῖν the notion is rather that of attaining a definite end (τέλος): contrast James 2:22 (ἐτελειώθη) with 2 Corinthians 7:1, ἐπιτελοῦντεςἁγιωσύνην, and Acts 20:24 (τελειῶσαιτὸνδρόμον) with 2 Timothy 4:7, τὸνδρόμοντετέλεκα.”

³⁹ On this and other points of grammatical interpretation Lucke, whose Commentar uber die Briefe des Evangelisten Johannes is too little known, shows a firmer grasp and a clearer judgement than either of the two great exegetes just mentioned.

⁴⁰Γινώσκομεν—“we perceive, come to know, recognize, that we are in Him.” The inversion, by ἐναὐτῷἐσμέν, emphasizes the verbum essentice.

⁴¹ The verb μένω occurs oftener in John’s Gospel and Epistles than in all the N.T. besides. The phrase μένεινἐν applied to spiritual objects (Christ, God, love, etc.), so conspicuously Johannine, is only found in 1 Timothy 2:15 and 2 Timothy 3:14 elsewhere.

⁴² Bengel analyses 1 John 2:3-6a somewhat differently, finding in them three stages of progress: the ἐγνωκέναιαὐτόν, εἶναιἐναὐτῷ, μένεινἐναὐτῷ,—“cognitio, communio, constantia.”

⁴³ In 1 Corinthians 4:11-13, ἕωςἄρτι (until now) at the end of the sentence repeats ἄρτιτῆςἄρτιὥρας (even until this present hour) at the beginning. compare John 2:10; John 5:17, John 16:24 also Matthew 11:12; 1 Corinthians 15:6.

⁴⁴ The verb ὑπάγω, “to go away,” implies destination, future destiny, since it denotes leaving the present scene. It occurs frequently in the Fourth Gospel as applied to the departure of Jesus; see John 8:14, John 8:21 f.; John 13:3, John 13:33, John 14:28, etc.

⁴⁵2 Corinthians 4:4 affords a striking parallel to the thought of St John here: “The God of this world (αἰών) hath blinded the thoughts of the unbelievers,” etc. (compare also John 12:40 f.). There the blinding is that of an unbelief, which forbids from the outset the reception of the Christian light; here of a misbelief, which perverts the light when it has been intellectually received and makes a darkness of it.

⁴⁶ The erroneous reading of the T.R. “you heard (from the beginning)” —instead of “had” (ἠκούσατε for εἴχετε)—is doubtless due to these parallels, and is an example of the copyists’ errors due to conscious or unconscious “harmonistic correction.” Its effect has been to identify the clauses “you had from the beginning” and “you heard,” which are in point of fact antithetical.

⁴⁷ If εἴχετε (had) shared in the historical sense of ἠκούσατε, we should have expected to find it in the historical tense, viz. the aorist ἔσχετε, instead of the imperfect; or the present, ἔχετε, might have been used of a continuous possession, “from the first day until now.” The imperfect expresses a tentative, growing realization of that which is eternal its source.

⁴⁸ The double “true” of the E.V. in 1 John 2:8 represents two distinct Greek adjectives, ἀληθές and ἀληθινόν. The former signifies truth of statement, viz., of the statement made by the writer in 1 John 2:8a, which is verified by fact; the latter signifies truth of conception, the correspondence of the reality to the idea that is expressed. A “true light” as ἀληθινόν, is that which is light indeed and worthy of the name; a “true light” as ἀληθές, would be light that does not deceive or mislead. compare the use of ἀληθινός (a favourite epithet with St John) in 1 John 5:20, John 4:23; John 6:32, John 15:1; also in 1 Thessalonians 1:9.

⁴⁹Παράγεται, passive voice, again in Romans 1:17; more literally, “passes by.” Elsewhere the active voice bears this (neuter) sense: so in the Pauline parallel of 1 Corinthians 7:31, παράγειτὸσχῆματοῦκόσμουτούτου (compare Psalms 143:4 [LXX 142:4] καὶἠκηδίασενἐπ’ἐμὲτὸπνεῦμάμουἐνἐμοὶἐταράχθηἡκαρδίαμου [“Therefore my spirit was grieved in me; my heart was troubled within me”]), and (in the literal sense) John 9:1, Matthew 9:9. The verb conveys the idea not of a mere vanishing or cessation, but of a visible movement from the scene, as when clouds are sailing off and the sky clears. Possibly, there is a touch of distinction in the use of the passive, which does not occur in the same sense outside of these two verses. Not of its own motion is “the darkness” passing; it is “borne away” by the flood of incoming light.

⁵⁰ As, e.g., in 1 John 4:3, John 4:35; 2 Thessalonians 2:7, 2 Timothy 2:18, etc.

⁵¹ For the latter, compare John 7:14; John 11:17, John 19:28; Romans 1:10; 2 Timothy 4:6.

⁵² There is a shade of difference between τεκνία (1 John 2:12) and παιδία (1 John 2:13) which is not indicated in the E.V., for it renders both by “little children.” The former is a word of endearment and tenderness, connoting attachment in the persons concerned. The latter is a word of encouragement and appeal, implying dependence on the part of those addressed and help or direction to be given them. Παῖδες, παιδία was in everyday use in Greek (like “lads” in Northern English) by way of familiar address to servants or work-people of all ages; compare John 21:5; Luke 12:45; the Servant of Jehovah in the Deutero-Isaiah is ὁπαῖς (compare Acts 3:13, etc.).

⁵³For the force of ἐγνώκατε, see p. 139.

⁵⁴ See Chapter 14; also Chapter 19, and 1 John 4:1-6.

⁵⁵It is St John’s habit of mind to refer the disposition of each kind of existence, and the operation of every principle, to its origin; nature is, strictly, birth and birth determines potency and scope of being.

⁵⁶ In the Early Church, as it is still in the Eastern Churches, the rite of Unction, along with the Imposition of Hands, followed immediately upon Baptism and formed a part of the same Sacrament. It was not till the thirteenth century that the Roman Church separated the two latter acts from Baptism, making them a distinct Sacrament of Confirmation. Before this time, the chrism appears for a while to have been used in the West both at Baptism and the Imposition of Hands. The impartation of the Holy Ghost was specifically connected with the latter act, reserved for the bishop, while any priest baptizes.

⁵⁷Οἴδατεπάντες not πάντα, is decidedly the best-attested reading. See R.V. margin, and Westcott’s Additional Note on 1 John 2:20.

⁵⁸ Compare the αὐτὸςἱλασμόςἐστιν of 1 John 2:2.

⁵⁹ See his Commentary (Eng. ed.), pp. 142 ff.

⁶⁰ compare 2 John 1:5; Acts 3:17; Acts 10:5, Acts 13:11, for καὶνῦν as a rhetorical form of transition, continuative and resumptive; for τεκνία, introducing a fresh topic, compare 1 John 2:1, 1 John 2:12; 1 John 3:7.

⁶¹ compare ἡζωὴἐφανερώθη, 1 John 1:2, and ἐὰνφανερωθῇ, 1 John 2:28; 1 John 3:2.

⁶² compare 1 Thessalonians 4:15, 1 Thessalonians 4:17; 1 Corinthians 15:51, for St Paul’s impression on the subject at a much earlier date, when he classed himself, provisionally, amongst “those that are left unto the coming of the Lord.” But no such expression recurs in his later Epistles.

⁶³ compare Revelation 1:12 ff., Revelation 2:1; John 14:18; Matthew 28:20. It is noticeable that the Apostle John uses φανερόω, as St Paul used ἀποκαλύπτω, alike of Christ’s first sand second coming. He conceives the eternal Word, the only Life and Light of men, as always present in creation and in humanity, but manifested—shining forth and made cognizable —at these two great epochs; compare John 1:10.

⁶⁴ Using the word παρρησία (= παν-ρῆσις, saying everything; then frankness of speech, unreservedness, publicity, confidence or courage of bearing), as also) in 1 John 3:21; 1 John 4:17, 1 John 5:14, St John might seem to be drawing again on the Pauline vocabulary; compare 2 Corinthians 3:12; Ephesians 3:12, 1 Timothy 3:13. The aorist σχῶμεν (not present, ἔχωμεν, as in the other places) after ἵνα seems to imply the gaining rather than the continued possession of courage, and points to the testing occasion of the Advent; “that we may take courage, and not be put to shame (aorist, αἰσχυνθῶμεν), shrinking from Him in His coming.” compare for the aorist of ἔχω, Romans 1:13, 2 Corinthians 1:15; 2 Corinthians 2:3; 2 Peter 2:16; in each of these instances it signifies not a continued state of mind, but an experience associated with some particular occurrence. For the pregnant ἀπό (of separation) in this connexion, compare 1 John 1:7; Romans 6:7; Romans 9:3; Colossians 2:20; and after; αἰσχύνομαι, Sirach 21:22; 41:17 ff., in the Septuagint. In Isaiah 1:29, Jeremiah 2:36; Jeremiah 12:13, αἰσχύνεσθαιἀπό means “to be ashamed of.”

⁶⁵ See in particular Psalms 11:7; Psalms 116:5, Psalms 145:17; Isaiah 59:17; John 17:25; Romans 1:17; Romans 3:26; 1 John 1:9; Revelation 16:5.

⁶⁶ See R.V. margin: the difference is practically very slight.

⁶⁷Γινώσκετε in the apodosis—the verb proper to truth of acquisition (compare 1 John 2:5, 1 John 2:18, 1 John 3:19, 1 John 3:24, 1 John 4:6); εἰδῆτε (οἶδα) in the protasis, “If you know,” indicating a truth of intuition, or established conviction, belonging to one’s realized stock of knowledge (compare 1 John 2:20 f., 1 John 5:13, 1 John 5:18 ff.).

⁶⁸ He uses ἴδετε, however, the proper imperative governing an accusative object—not the interjectional ἰδού or ἰδέ, the latter of which is common in St John’s Gospel. He wishes his readers actually to “see” what they had not adequately realized; compare Romans 11:22.

⁶⁹Δέδωκεν, “hath given us,” the perfect of abiding result; compare for the tense, and for the experimental bearing of δίδωμι, 1 John 4:13; 1 John 5:20; also the perfects in 1 John 1:1 f., 1 John 4:14.

⁷⁰ Compare Ephesians 1:4-5: ἐνἀγάπῃπροορίσσαςκ.τ.λ., “having in love foreordained us unto filial adoption to Himself.”

⁷¹Καλέω implies, beyond the mere naming or designating, an entitling, instating. St John uses the verb here only in his epistles and rarely in the Gospel (but see Revelation 19:9). For this pregnant sense of καλέω, compare Matthew 5:9, υἱοὶθεοῦκληθήσονται (parallel to τὸνθεόνὄψονται, Matthew 5:8, and to αὐτῶνἐστινἡβασιλείατῶνοὐρανῶν, Matthew 5:3, Matthew 5:10, Matthew 22:45), Luke 1:35; John 1:42; Romans 9:25 f., Hebrews 2:11, James 2:23; similarly λέγω ... φίλους in John 15:15. With St Paul, the κλῆσις, is already past.

⁷²Διὰτοῦτο, as regularly with St John, rests upon the foregoing context, and receives its confirmation and further explanation in the following ὅτι clause; compare John 5:18; John 8:47, John 12:18, John 12:39.

⁷³Οἴδαμεν: see note 67.

⁷⁴ Note the unconscious transition of the pronoun from God to Christ, in 1 John 3:1-2, the reverse of that made in 1 John 2:28-29 (see pp. 236- 237).

⁷⁵Ἐλπίδαἔχειν, as distinguished from ἐλπίζω, is to hold, possess a hope, thus regarded as a characteristic, or cherished belonging, of the man; compare παρρησίανἔχειν, 1 John 2:28, κοινωνίανἔχειν, 1 John 1:3; also Acts 24:15; Ephesians 2:12. Ἐλπίς (ἐλπίζω) ἐπί with dative occurs here only and in 1 Timothy 4:10; 1 Timothy 6:17, in the N.T.; and with accusative, in 1 Timothy 5:5; Romans 15:12, 1 Peter 1:13. The force of the preposition is the same that it has with πιστεύω, πέποιθα, and other verbs denoting mental direction; it signifies a leaning against, a reliance upon the object. Our Lord’s promises on this subject were the specific occasion and warrant of the hope in question. This ἐπί construction is common enough in the LXX.

⁷⁶ Hence the present ἐστίν.—“as He is (not was) pure,” since the example has become perpetual and holds good for ever; compare 1 John 4:17.

⁷⁷ The title of Fletcher of Madeley’s polemic on the subject of Holiness, one of the classics of Methodism.

⁷⁸Ἐκεῖνοςἐφανερώθη: the distinctive pronoun points, as it did in 1 John 3:3 and in 1 John 2:6, again in 1 John 3:7 below, to the historical Jesus; compare 1 John 2:6; 1 John 3:3, and p. 134.

⁷⁹ The perfectsοὐχἑώρακεναὐτὸνοὐδὲἔγνωκεν, connote facts that have taken effect, the settled results of action, the state into which one has passed thereby; 1 John 1:10 (ἡμαρτήκαμεν), 1 John 2:3 (see p. 139), and the perfect tense-forms in 1 John 2:12-13.

⁸⁰Ἵναλύσῃ, ut dissolvat (Vulgate), “that He might take to pieces” or “pull down.” “The works of the Devil are represented as having a certain consistency and coherence. They show a kind of solid front. Christ has undone the seeming bonds by which they were held together” (Westcott).

⁸¹ Compare the almost identical repetition in 1 John 3:3 and 1 John 2:5b.

⁸² Compare ὃἐάναἰτῶμεν in 1 John 3:22 below, and αἰτώμεθα in 1 John 5:15; ὃἐάνἐργάσῃ in 3 John 1:5; ὃτιἂνλέγῃὑμῖν, John 2:5; ὃτιἂναἰτήσητε, John 14:13, etc.

⁸³ The case is different in 1 Thessalonians 4:1, for example, where ἵνα (in the true text) is reinserted to pick up the thread of the main sentence, after the long parenthesis extending from the first καθώς to περιπατεῖτε.

⁸⁴ Compare the double ἐάν-clauses of 1 John 1:6-7, and again of 1 John 1:8-10; similarly in John 15:4, John 15:6-7, etc.

⁸⁵See e.g., 1 John 1:8-10; 1 John 3:2, 1 John 3:13 f., 1 John 4:4-6, etc.; but δέ in 1 John 1:6 f., 1 John 2:10 f.

⁸⁶ For παρρησία, see the references on p. 235.

⁸⁷ The immediate connection, which lies in the nature of things, and is directly asserted in John 15:7, between confident address to God and successful petition, is destroyed by the stop interposed in the English Version (A.V. or R.V.) between 1 John 3:21 and 1 John 3:22. The division of verses makes an unreal interruption of sense. The double on clause of 1 John 2:22b (“because we keep . . . and do,” etc.,) goes to support both the above sentences together—παρρησίανἔχομενπρὸςτὸνθεὸνκαὶὃἐὰναἰτῶμενλαμβάνομενἀπ’αὐτοῦ (verse 21).

⁸⁸Πιστεύω takes a dative of the person believed; τὸὄνομα is virtually personified by the use of this construction.

^88bπιστεύσωμεν, however, the reading of some good mananuscripts and editors.

⁸⁹ See Chapter 18.

⁹⁰ See Chapter 19.

⁹¹Γινώσκετε must be read as imperative in 1 John 4:2, in the strain of 1 John 4:1. The Apostle is not appealing to what his readers do know, but supplying a test by which they may or should know the true Spirit of God.

⁹²The Latin rendering qui solvit Jesum, which dissolveth (destroyeth) Jesus, presents a critical problem of extreme interest, both in textual and doctrinal history. Though ὃμὴὁμολογεῖ stands in all the extant Greek codices, earlier and later, ὃλύειτὸνἸησοῦν is vouched for by Irenaeus and Origen (in Latin translations), by Tertullian, Lucifer, and Augustine. The patristic Socrates, in his Hist. Ecclesiae, vii. 32, approves the reading λύει, stating that “it had been so written in the old copies,” and argues from it against the Nestorians; he even asserts, on the testimony of “the old interpreters,” that the disappearance of λύει from the current text was due to its depravation by heretics! This is strong evidence for the actuality of the Greek reading λύει; the other witnesses might be all of them, possibly, accounted for by the Latin Version; but a Greek Father like Socrates—dealing, moreover, with an Eastern heresy—would hardly have spoken in the terms quoted, as Westcott suggests, about what he supposed to be a mere Latin rendering. Nor is it likely that the first Latin translators would have introduced this bold variant on their own account. Its internal character bespeaks for the reading in question an Eastern origin, on the battlefield of the Gnostic controversy. On the other hand, its un-Johannine turn of expression and the incongruity of the verb dissolve with the single name Jesus (Jesus Christ, or Christ Jesus, were “dissolved” by Gnostics into two beings), together with the array of external evidence for ὃμὴὁμολογεῖ, sufficiently condemn the reading of Socrates, which is in reality a typical “Western” paraphrase or gloss of the second century. It becomes more and more clear that the so-called “Western” text was Eastern in its provenance. The addition of the clause “come in flesh” to the negative sentence (so in T.R. and A.V.) is not strongly attested; this is an obvious completion of the parallelism. The article τόν before Ἰησοῦν is well-established, and gives point to the shorter reading: “Every spirit which does not confess the Jesus” in question—the Jesus of the Church’s faith and the Apostle’s testimony.

⁹³John 3:10 and John 3:10-14, like Galatians 4:4, represent “God,” or “the Father,” as “sending the Son”; in John 1:1-18 it is “the Word,” or “Only-begotten,” who “became flesh.” In the prayer of John 17:1 “Jesus” indeed recalls His preincarnate “glory” and claims from the Father its restoration, but in the character of “thy Son”; and when in John 17:3 “Jesus Christ” appears—a combination exceptional and indeed anomalous in the Gospels—this expression describes Him whom the Father “has sent,” who acquired this name by His mission, as in the passage above by His coming.

⁹⁴ The testimony of John the Baptist had been adopted at an early date in a small Jewish community of Ephesus (Acts 19:2-7); there is evidence of the persistence of this group of followers of the Baptist into Post-apostolic times.

⁹⁵ See Chapter 11 and Chapter 17.

⁹⁶Ἡμεῖςἐγνώκαμενκαὶπεπιστεύκαμεντὴνἀγάπηνκ.τ.λ. (1 John 4:16). “The two verbs form a compound verb, in which the idea of belief qualifies and explains what is, in this case, the primary and predominant idea of knowledge” (Westcott), repeated from 1 John 4:14. This accounts for the accusative following πεπιστεύκαμεν, under the regimen of the dominant ἐγνώκαμεν; otherwise, πιστεύω, with the accusative means to “entrust.” The perfect tense indicates the settled, effective character of the faith signified. On the form ἔγνωκα, see p. 139. The expression “the love which God hath in us” (ἐνἡμῖν)—not “for us,” “toward us” (ἡμῖν, ὑπὲρἡμῶν, or πρὸς or εἰςἡμᾶς)—points to Christian believers as those in whom God’s love is lodged, invested; in whom it finds its sphere and the object on which it rests; compare 1 John 4:12 (pp. 339-340).

⁹⁷ For παρρησία, the “confidence” already spoken of in 1 John 2:28 and again in 1 John 5:14, see note to p. 235.

⁹⁸Ἐκεῖνος, i.e. the historical Jesus, compare pp. 134, 249.

⁹⁹Ὁφόβος, with the definite article, means “the fear” in question,—that which seizes a man when he remembers that “we must all appear before the judgement-seat of Christ.” The article can scarcely have its generic force in this passage; St John is not speaking of fear at large, nor laying down abstract propositions, in 1 John 4:18.

¹⁰⁰ Again the emphatic we (ἡμεῖς), which we noted in 1 John 4:14 and 1 John 4:16 (see p. 345). In a loveless age, a world full of men “hateful and hating one another,” St John sees in the Christian brotherhood alone the light of love shining; within the home of the Church a warm and clear hearth-fire is burning, outside is darkness and cold hatred (1 John 2:10-11; 1 John 3:13).

¹⁰¹See John 4:4-26; John 6:8-9, John 11:20, John 11:49-53, John 19:31-37, John 19:39, John 20:6-8.

¹⁰² See further, on St John’s idiosyncrasy, Chapter 5.

¹⁰³ For this manner of combining witnesses, compare John 5:31-47; John 8:13-18; John 10:25-38, John 14:8-13, John 15:26-27.

¹⁰⁴ See the Notes on Select Readings, pp. 103-105, in Vol. II of Westcott and Hort’s New Testament in Greek; or Tischendorf’s Novum Testamentum Graece (8^th editio major), ad loc.

¹⁰⁵ Is it possible that the expression “came through water” was borrowed from St John’s opponents, and that he adds to it “and blood” so as to traverse its Gnostic use? This might account for what seems otherwise a forced and awkward phrasing. cc with the genitive is rare in St John (1 John 4:9 gives the only other example in this Epistle; compare Hebrews 9:12), whereas the ἐν with dative substituted for this in the next sentence, is exceedingly frequent and characteristic. In such uses of διά the instrumental is grafted on a quasi-local force; see Winer-Moulton’s Grammar of N.T. Greek, pp. 473-475. There may be a reminiscence, at the same time, of Psalms 66:12 [LXX 65:12]: διήλθομενδιὰπυρὸςκαὶὑδατοςκ.τ.λ. “We came through fire and water; and thou broughtest us out into abundance” (εἰςἀναψυχήν, LXX, “unto refreshing”). Psalms 66:1-20 is Messianic, as it relates Israel’s triumph won through affliction and deep distress. Psalms 66:16-19 seem to be recalled, along with Psalms 22:1-31, in Hebrews 2:12 and Hebrews 2:7; and Hebrews 2:18 is certainly echoed in John 9:31.

¹⁰⁶Ὁἐρχόμενος, Matthew 11:3; John 1:15, John 1:27; John 11:27Hebrews 10:37; Revelation 1:4, Revelation 1:8, etc.

¹⁰⁷ Observe the repeated ἐν of the critical text. For the emphasis of this double ἐν, compare 1 John 2:8; and for the force of ἐν with a verb of coming, where it denotes the defective accompaniment—that which makes the coming valid and authentic—compare Luke 1:17; Romans 15:19; Hebrews 9:25.

¹⁰⁸As Th. Zahn points out in his Einleitung in das N.T., § 70, Anm. 7, the Sacramental interpretation would require ὁἐρχόμενος instead of ὁἐλθών, to describe “a repeated coming in the Sacraments,” whereas the aorist can only signify the historical “coming” of the Redeemer along His appointed path. Zahn takes ἔρχεσθαιδιά in this passage to be equivalent to διέρχεσθαι, with the sense to go through, experience, submit to; but lexical support is wanting for such a rendering of the combination.

¹⁰⁹ In the next verse the witnesses are personified: “Three they are that bear witness” (τρεῖςεἰσὶνοἱμαρτυροῦντες, τὸπνεῦμα, κ.τ.λ.). For the definite article with participial predicate, indicating that the activity in question is the proper function of those concerned, compare John 5:32, John 5:39; John 14:21; Romans 8:33; Php 2:13.

¹¹⁰ See John 14:17; John 15:26; 1 John 4:6; compare John 4:23-24.

¹¹¹ “The idea is not that of simple unanimity in the witness; but of their focussing (so to speak) on the one gospel of Christ come in the flesh, to know which is eternal life” (Westcott). For εἰς with this sense, compare John 11:52; John 17:23.

¹¹² Observe the Greek perfect tenses in the verbs of 1 John 5:9-10, implying a decisive and settled fact.

¹¹³ Here we note St John’s favourite construction, ὁπιστεύωνεἰς. The Christian believer by giving credence to God’s word concerning Christ, attaches himself to Christ and is united with Him ; while the unbeliever(ὁμὴπιστεύωντῷθεῷ) refuses to God’s testimony about His Son that bare credence which men commonly give to the word of their fellows (1 John 5:9). There is the like graduation of meaning between πιστεύω with the dative and πιστεύωεἰς in John 6:29-30 and John 8:30-31. See also for the dative, John 4:21, John 4:50, John 5:24, John 5:46-47, John 10:38, John 14:11; for εἰς and accusative, John 1:12; John 2:11, John 3:16, John 3:18, John 6:29, John 6:35, John 6:40, John 7:38-39, John 9:35-36, John 11:25-26, John 12:36-37, John 14:12, John 16:9, etc.

¹¹⁴ See 1 John 2:5; 1 John 3:10, 1 John 3:19, 1 John 3:24, 1 John 4:17, 1 John 5:2, 1 John 5:4, 1 John 5:18 compare John 7:38; John 14:12.

¹¹⁵ The second purpose-clause of the T.R. and A.V. in 1 John 5:13, “and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” ( ἵναπιστεύητεκ.τ.λ.), probably crept in as a marginal gloss, suggested by John 20:31.

¹¹⁶Ἵναεἰδῆτε: for the force of οἶδα, see p. 238, note 67. It signifies an abiding conviction, resting on known facts; compare οἶδαμεν, 1 John 5:18-20.

¹¹⁷ See John 4:34; John 5:30; John 6:38-40.

¹¹⁸ See Romans 8:26-27; Jude 1:20.

¹¹⁹See John 11:41-42.

¹²⁰ Compare note 64 on p. 235.

¹²¹1 John 5:11; compare John 5:21; John 6:32-35, John 10:28.

¹²² See 1 John 2:22-23; 1 John 4:1-6; compare 2 John 1:7, 3 John 1:10.

¹²³ See Romans 5:12; Romans 8:2; 1 Corinthians 15:56.

¹²⁴ This classification, which has played so large a part in ecclesiastical ethics and discipline, had already been made by the Jewish rabbis and legists, and was developed with great minuteness by them.

¹²⁵ Compare Chapter 16.

¹²⁶Philology of the Gospels, pp. 234 ff. The saying, addressed to Joseph by “ the Angel of the Lord,”; τὸγὰρἐναὐτῇγεννηθὲνἐκπνεύματόςἐστινἁγίου (Matthew 1:20), is really parallel to 1 John 5:18 (and to John 1:13, upon the reading of Blass), since it ascribes the origin of Jesus to no human but to a Divine begetting.

¹²⁷ The aorist participle must be understood of the historical birth of our Lord (compare τὸγεννώμενονἅγιον . . . υἱὸςθεοῦ), Luke 1:35; and τὸνυἱὸναὐτοῦ,γενομένονἐκγυναικός, Galatians 4:4); also the aorist ἐλθών, 1 John 5:6 above, and the aorist ἐφανερώθη of 1 John 3:5, 1 John 3:8, etc.

¹²⁸John 17:12; Matthew 28:20; 1 Peter 2:25.

¹²⁹ Trace again the connection of thought in 1 John 3:1-10; compare Chapter 15 and Chapter 16.

¹³⁰ The Greek verb is ἥκω (adsum), which is used nowhere else in the Epistle, but in John 2:4; John 4:47, John 6:37, John 8:42. The last of these passages is instructive: “I came forth from God, and am come”—as much as to say, “and here I am!” Jesus confronts His enemies with the Divine fact of His presence, of His works and character. In ἥκω “the stress is laid wholly on the present” (Westcott); whereas under the perfect tense (ἐλήλυθα) of 1 John 4:2, John 16:28; John 18:37, the present is viewed as springing out of the past.

¹³¹ Here the verb is γινώσκωμεν, not the οἴδαμεν of the three great assertions, for our knowledge of God is in the making. This is not the ascertainment of a definite fact, but the apprehension of an infinite reality; compare the note 67 on p. 238.

¹³² For the use of διάνοια (mind), see Matthew 22:37; Colossians 1:21; 1 Peter 1:13; 2 Peter 3:1.

¹³³Τὸνἀληθινόν is a phrase distinctive of St John; it occurs nine times in his Gospel, thrice in this Epistle, and ten times in the Apocalypse five times only in the rest of the New Testament. It signifies truth of being, verity; while ἀληθής; signifies truth of statement, veracity. “The true light” of 1 John 2:8 above and John 1:9, the “true worshippers” of John 4:23, “the true vine” of John 15:1, and “true tabernacle” of Hebrews 8:2, are all ἀληθινά—things that verify their names, realities behind the appearance. See also note 48 on p. 171.

¹³⁴1 John 2:5-8, 1 John 2:20, 1 John 3:14, 1 John 3:19, 1 John 4:16 f.; John 1:9.

¹³⁵Ἐντῷπονηρῷκεῖται: “The phrase answers to the εἶναιἐντῷἀληθινῷ that follows, and to the characteristic Pauline ἐνΧριστῷ; compare 1 John 3:24; 1 John 4:15. The connection shows that τῷπονηρῷ is masculine, and the converse of κεῖσθαιἐντῷπονηρῷ is given in John 17:15ἵνατηρήσῃςἐκτοῦπονηροῦ. A close parallel to this expression is found in Sophocles, Œd. Col. 247, ἐνὑμῖνὡςθεῷκείμεθατλάμονες” [“as though you were a god”] (Westcott).

¹³⁶ How is it that the Revisers failed to restore this antithesis? Westcott, of course, notes it, and makes much of it: “The third affirmation is introduced by the adversative particle (οἴδαμενδέ). There is—this seems to be the line of thought—a startling antithesis in life of good and evil. We have been made to feel it in all its intensity. But, at the same time, we can face it in faith.” St John uses δέ seldom as compared with καί, and never without distinctive meaning; compare p. 304.

__________ Additional Footnotes

θεοποίησις [Theopoiēsis], ἡ, deification, making divine, ref. John 10:35πῶςδὲκαὶθεοποίησιςγένοιτ’ἂνχωρὶςτοῦλόγου; [“And how can there bedeifying apart from the Word?”] Ath. Ar. I. 39 (M. 26. 93A); ἡπαρατῆςσοφίαςμεταδιδομένητοῖςἀνθρώποιςθεοποίησις,καὶχάρις [“thedeifyingimparted from wisdom to men, and grace”] (G. W. H. Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon. Oxford University Press, 1961. s. v.)

κ.τ.λ., καὶ τα λοιπά (kai ta loipá) = καὶ (kai, “and”) + τὰ (ta, “the”) + λοιπά (loipá, “rest, remaining”). Same as the Latin etc. = etcetera. 

Septuagint (LXX) Readings

Sirach 21

²²ποὺς μωροῦ ταχὺς εἰς οἰκίαν, ἄνθρωπος δὲ πολύπειρος αἰσχυνθήσεται ἀπὸ προσώπου.

²²A foolish man’s foot is soon in his neighbour’s house: but a man of experience is ashamed of him. 

Sirach 41

¹⁷αἰσχύνεσθε ἀπὸ πατρὸς καὶ μητρὸς περὶ πορνείας καὶ ἀπὸ ἡγουμένου καὶ δυνάστου περὶ ψεύδους, ¹⁷Be ashamed of whoredom before father and mother: and of a lie before a prince and a mighty man;