The Johannine Letters

[John Reece]

1 John 4:21

Text (NA27):

καὶ ταύτην τὴν ἐντολὴν ἔχομεν ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ, ἵνα ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν θεὸν ἀγαπᾷ καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ.

Transliteration (Accordance):
Translation (RSV):

And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

ἀγαπᾷ : subjunctive of ἀγαπάω love.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:1

Text (NA27):

Πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ Χριστὸς, ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγέννηται, καὶ πᾶς ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν γεννήσαντα ἀγαπᾷ [καὶ] τὸν γεγεννημένον ἐξ αὐτοῦ.

Transliteration (Accordance):

Pas ho pisteuōn hoti Iēsous estin ho Christos, ek tou theou gegennētai, kai pas ho agapōn ton gennēsanta agapa̧ [kai] ton gegennēmenon ex autou.

Translation (RSV):

Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and every one who loves the parent loves the child.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

ὁ Χριστός : predicate the Christ/Messiah.
γεγέννηται : has been born already, perfect passive participle of γεννάω bear; faith is not the cause of rebirth but the effect.
ἀγαπῶν : participle of ἀγαπάω love.
γεννήσαντα : aorist participle, τὸν γεννήσαντα his father.
γεγεννημένον : perfect passive participle, τὸν γεγεννημένον ἐξ αὐτοῦ and so his brother.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:2

Text (NA27):

ἐν τούτῳ γινώσκομεν ὅτι ἀγαπῶμεν τὰ τέκνα τοῦ θεοῦ, ὅταν τὸν θεὸν ἀγαπῶμεν καὶ τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ ποιῶμεν.

Transliteration (Accordance):

en toutō̧ ginōskomen hoti agapōmen ta tekna tou theou, hotan ton theon agapōmen kai tas entolas autou poiōmen.

Translation (NRSV):

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

ἀγαπῶμεν : (2nd time) subjunctive (after ὅταν) same form as indicative.
ποιῶμεν : subjunctive do.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:3

Text (NA27):

αὕτη γάρ ἐστιν ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ θεοῦ, ἵνα τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ τηρῶμεν, καὶ αἱ ἐντολαὶ αὐτοῦ βαρεῖαι οὐκ εἰσίν.

Transliteration (Accordance):

hautē gar estin hē agapē tou theou, hina tas entolas autou tērōmen, kai hai entolai autou bareiai ouk eisin.

Translation (NRSV):

For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

αὕτη ... ἵνα : for infinitive epexegetical.
τηρῶμεν : subjunctive.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:4

Text (NA27):
Transliteration (Accordance):

hoti pan to gegennēmenon ek tou theou nika̧ ton kosmon; kai hautē estin hē nikē hē nikēsasa ton kosmon, hē pistis hēmōn.

Translation (NRSV):

For whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

νικάω : conquer, overcome.
κόσμος : world, at times denoting the kingdom of sin actively to God, at others, secular society estranged from and ignoring the kingdom of God.
νίκη : victory.
νικήσασα : aorist feminine participle, aorist effective.*

*252. The effective aorist. Just as the aorist of verbs indicating states may express the inception of the state, so the aorist of verbs indicating action directed to some end may express the actual attainment of that end (BG).

[John Reece]

1 John 5:5

Text (NA27):

Τίς [δέ] ἐστιν ὁ νικῶν τὸν κόσμον εἰ μὴ ὁ πιστεύων ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ;

Transliteration (Accordance):

Tis [de] estin ho nikōn ton kosmon ei mē ho pisteuōn hoti Iēsous estin ho huios tou theou?

Translation (RSV):

Who is it that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Translation (NRSV):

Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

νικῶν : participle of νικάω.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:6

Text (NA27):
Transliteration (Accordance):
Translation (NRSV):

This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

ἐλθών : aorist participle of ἔρχομαι come.
διά : resumed by ἐν, notion of concomitant circumstances combined with that of instrumentality.
ὕδωρ and αἷμα (water and blood) represent baptism and the cross, (probably in opposition to Cerinthus); not only he who was baptized was the Son of God but also he who was crucified.
μαρτυροῦν : participle of μαρτυρέω testify.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:7

Text (NA27):

ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες,

Transliteration (Accordance):

hoti treis eisin hoi martyrountes,

Translation (NRSV):

There are three that testify:

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

μαρτυροῦντες : participle of μαρτυρέω testify.

Comment from The Johannine Letters (Hermeneia: Augsburg Fortress, 1996), by Georg Strecker (via Accordance):

7

Comma JohanneumComma Johanneumcomma = sentence or clause), which made its way almost exclusively into the Latin texts of the Bible. In 1592 the Comma Johanneum was incorporated into the official Catholic edition of the Vulgate, the Sixto-Clementine, where it reads as follows (italicized):

7 Quoniam tres sunt, qui testimonium dant
in caelo: Pater, Verbum, et Spiritus Sanctus, et hi tres unum sunt.
8 Et tres sunt, qui testimonium dant in terra:
Spiritus et aqua et sanguis, et hi tres unum sunt.

2. Attestation

Greek manuscripts: The Comma Johanneum is absent from almost the whole of the Greek textual tradition, including the quotations in the church fathers. It is transmitted by only eight Greek minuscules, where it probably entered via the Latin textual witnesses. None of these examples can be dated before 1400, and only four of them appear in the text; the others are marginal additions.

The following minuscules contain the Comma Johanneum:

On the basis of this weak attestation, it is probable that the Comma Johanneum was never included in an older Greek text.

Latin manuscripts: The Comma Johanneum is also absent from the manuscripts of the Vetus Latina before 600 and the Vulgate before 750: a stronger Latin attestation is found beginning only with the ninth century. But even then, until the end of the millennium, the Comma Johanneum appears only in Spanish or Spanish-influenced texts. The most important witnesses are:


Other manuscripts: The Comma Johanneum is absent from all Coptic, Ethiopian, Arabic, and Slavic translations up to 1500. It entered a few late Syrian manuscripts by way of the Vulgate. In the first editions of the Syriac NT by Widmanstadt (1555) it was not accepted, but in the edition of 1569, edited by Tremellius, it appears as a marginal note. In the following century it was included in the text, owing to the impression that it had originally been part of it and had been excised by the Arians. The Comma Johanneum is also found in a few late Armenian witnesses and in the Armenian edition of Oskan (1662), which originated after the Vulgate.

Attestation in other authors prior to 650: Although the oldest textual witnesses of the Comma Johanneum occur in Latin manuscripts of the seventh century, it had already been cited by a number of Christian authors at an earlier period, so that one may pursue its traces farther back in time.

The oldest undoubted instance is in Priscillian Liber apologeticusComma Johanneum. However, there are signs of the Comma Johanneum, although no certain attestations, even before Priscillian, and they lead to the vicinity of North Africa.

An initial echo of the Comma Johanneum occurs as early as Tertullian Adv. Prax. 25.1 (CChr 2.1195; written ca. 215). In his commentary on John 16:14 he writes that the Father, Son, and Paraclete are one (unum), but not one person (unus). However, this passage cannot be regarded as a certain attestation of the Comma JohanneumDe ecclesiae catholicae unitateDicit dominus: ego et pater unum sumus (Joh 10:30) et iterum de patre et filio et spiritu sancto scriptum est: et tres unum suntComma JohanneumComma JohanneumComma Johanneum, but in his work Pro defensione trium capitulorum ad IustinianumDe civitate DeiComma JohanneumComma JohanneumComma JohanneumDe Trinitate and three books [i]Contra Varimadum[/i. Their authors and time of composition are unknown, but a date in the fifth century is probable. In addition one should mention the Historia persecutionis Africanae Provinciae by Victor, the bishop of Vita in North Africa (ca. 485), as well as the Responsio contra Arianos by Fulgentius (10; CChr 91.93); and finally a prologue to the Catholic Letters from the period before 550.

3. History of Influence

In the sixteenth century, after the Comma Johanneum had found entry into a number of Latin manuscripts, it again became the subject of controversy. In the first two editions of his Greek NT (1516 and 1519), Erasmus did not reproduce the Comma Johanneum. The Complutensis Polyglot by the Spanish Cardinal Primate Ximenes, previously printed (1514) but not published until 1522, contained it, but the Greek text of the Comma JohanneumComma JohanneumComma Johanneum in the third edition of the Paris edition of the Greek NT (1530). It also found entry into the Textus Receptus (Elzevir, 1633), the standard Greek text for the next several centuries.

Beginning in 1581, the Comma JohanneumComma Johanneum. Zwingli rejected it but Calvin reluctantly included it.

The inclusion of the Comma JohanneumComma Johanneum: its genuineness could neither be denied nor doubted. Pope Leo XIII confirmed this judgment two days later. On 2 June 1927, however, a new official declaration by the Holy Office, as the successor institution to the Sacred Congregation of the Inquisition, made Roman Catholic exegetes again free to discuss the question of the Comma Johanneum. From that time it has been generally recognized in Roman Catholic scholarship also that the Comma Johanneum is neither original nor authentic.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:8

Text (NA27):

τὸ πνεῦμα καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ τὸ αἷμα, καὶ οἱ τρεῖς εἰς τὸ ἕν εἰσιν.

Transliteration (Accordance):

to pneuma kai to hydōr kai to haima, kai hoi treis eis to hen eisin.

Translation (NRSV):

the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

τὸ πνεῦμα καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ τὸ αἷμα : by an extension of the association with baptism and the cross (verse 6), water and blood here refer to Christian baptism and the eucharist (celebrating Christ's death on the cross) are cited as witnesses.
εἰς τὸ ἕν εἰσιν : are united, are at one ; εἰς probably due to Hebraic influence.

Comment from The Johannine Letters (Hermeneia: Augsburg Fortress, 1996), by Georg Strecker (via Accordance):

817:6; 19:152 Cor 13:1). The evangelist Matthew also cites 17:6; Deut 19:15Matt 18:16John 8:17; cf. also Heb 10:28John 1:16; Eph 1:23; 4:10Matt 19:5 (καὶ ἔσονται οἱ δύο εἰς σάρκα μίαν; cf. Gen 2:24) or Luke 3:5 (cf. Isa 40:41 Cor 14:222:27). When, in the Fourth Gospel, the Revealer makes the claim that his testimony is true (8:14), he stands within a series of witnesses to the truth extending from John the Baptizer (5:32) to the disciple beneath the cross (19:35) and to the evangelist (21:2414:6

[John Reece]

1 John 5:9

Text (NA27):
Transliteration (Accordance):

ei tēn martyrian tōn anthrōpōn lambanomen, hē martyria tou theou meizōn estin; hoti hautē estin hē martyria tou theou hoti memartyrēken peri tou huiou autou.

Translation (NRSV):

If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

μαρτυρία : testimony.
μείζων : comparative of μέγας great.
ὅτι : (first time) for.
μεμαρτύρηκεν : perfect of μαρτυρέω testify.

Comment from The Johannine Letters (Hermeneia: Augsburg Fortress, 1996), by Georg Strecker (via Accordance):

9 Verse 9 follows seamlessly. The conclusion a minori ad maius interprets the testimony of the three: if human testimony is accepted within society and must be accepted, since without trust among human beings any kind of order within this world would come apart at the seams, this is all the more the case with the μαρτυρία

[John Reece]

1 John 5:10

Text (NA27):

ὁ πιστεύων εἰς τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ ἔχει τὴν μαρτυρίαν ἐν ἑαυτῷ, ὁ μὴ πιστεύων τῷ θεῷ ψεύστην πεποίηκεν αὐτόν, ὅτι οὐ πεπίστευκεν εἰς τὴν μαρτυρίαν ἣν μεμαρτύρηκεν ὁ θεὸς περὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ.

Transliteration (Accordance):

ho pisteuōn eis ton huion tou theou echei tēn martyrian en heautō̧, ho mē pisteuōn tō̧ theō̧ pseustēn pepoiēken auton, hoti ou pepisteuken eis tēn martyrian hēn memartyrēken ho theos peri tou huiou autou.

Translation (RSV):

He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne to his Son.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

πιστεύω τῷ θεῷ : believe God, to be distinguished from πιστεύω εἰς τὸν υἱόν [believe in God].
ψεύστης : liar.
πεποίηκεν : perfect of ποιέω; disbelief being tantamount to an accusation of lying.
αὐτόν : i.e. God.
πεπίστευκεν : perfect of πιστεύω believe.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:11

Text (NA27):

Καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ μαρτυρία, ὅτι ζωὴν αἰώνιον ἔδωκεν ἡμῖν ὁ θεός, καὶ αὕτη ἡ ζωὴ ἐν τῷ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ ἐστιν.

Transliteration (Accordance):

Kai hautē estin hē martyria, hoti zōēn aiōnion edōken hēmin ho theos, kai hautē hē zōē en tō̧ huiō̧ autou estin.

Translation (RSV):

And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

ἔδωκεν : aorist of δίδωμι give, by the incarnation of the Son, cf Jn 3:16.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:12

Text (NA27):
Transliteration (Accordance):

ho echōn ton huion echei tēn zōēn; ho mē echōn ton huion tou theou tēn zōēn ouk echei.

Translation (RSV):

He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

ἔχων : participle of ἔχω have.
ζωή : life.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:13

Text (NA27):

Ταῦτα ἔγραψα ὑμῖν ἵνα εἰδῆτε ὅτι ζωὴν ἔχετε αἰώνιον, τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ.

Transliteration (Accordance):

Tauta egrapsa hymin hina eidēte hoti zōēn echete aiōnion, tois pisteuousin eis to onoma tou huiou tou theou.

Translation (NRSV):

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

ἔγραψα : I am writing (epistolary) aorist of γράφω.
εἰδῆτε : subjunctive of perfect present οἶδα know.
τοῖς πιστεύουσιν : who believe, dative plural participle in apposition to ὑμῖν to you.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:14

Text (NA27):

Καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ παρρησία ἣν ἔχομεν πρὸς αὐτόν ὅτι ἐάν τι αἰτώμεθα κατὰ τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ ἀκούει ἡμῶν.

Transliteration (Accordance):

Kai hautē estin hē parrēsia hēn echomen pros auton hoti ean ti aitōmetha kata to thelēma autou akouei hēmōn.

Translation (NRSV):

And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

παρρησία : complete confidence, πρός τινα confidence in one.
ὅτι : [that] explains αὕτη [this].
αἰτώμεθα : subjunctive middle of αἰτέω ask, petition for, beg, beseech.