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1Jn_2:25. Καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ ἐπαγγελία κ . τ . λ .] αὕτη may be referred either to what precedes, or to the concluding words of this verse: τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον . In the first case the meaning is: and this remaining is what He has promised, namely, eternal life. Gagnejus: “Manere in filio et patre promissio est, quam nobis pollicitus est orans pro nobis patrem Dominus Joh_17:20. Bene ergo ait de hoc Johannes: haec est promissio, quam pollicitus est nobis, quae quidem est vita aeterna; vita enim aeterna est manere in Deo eoque frui hic per gratiam, in futuro per gloriam;” τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον then forms an apposition, by which that very remaining is described as happiness; this view in Oecumenius, and among modern commentators in Sander, Besser, Weiss. In the second case the thought is: “and eternal life is the promise which He has given us;” taking this view, a new thought, it is true, enters with 1Jn_2:25, and it requires something to be supplied to connect it with the preceding, perhaps what a Lapide gives: si in ipso maneamus (Spener: that is the promise if we remain in the Word, and consequently in the Father and the Son); but nevertheless it is, in accordance with the analogy of John’s mode of expression, to be preferred; comp. chap. 1Jn_1:5, 1Jn_5:14; similarly also chap. 1Jn_3:23, 1Jn_5:11; in the last two passages the connection with what precedes appears clearly enough by both being connected with the same idea, whereas here there is no previous mention of the ἐπαγγελία ; but even here the connection is not to be mistaken, because the ζωὴ αἰώνιος is directly connected with the μένειν ἐν τῷ υἱῷ κ . τ . λ . This second interpretation in a Lapide, Grotius, Lorinus, Russmeyer, Spener, Lücke, de Wette, Düsterdieck, Erdmann, Myrberg, Ebrard, Braune, and others.
καί is not used here αἰτιολογικῶς (Oecumenius), but is the simple copula.
ἡ ἐπαγγελία : “the promise.” Lücke unnecessarily conjectures that instead of this perhaps ἀπαγγελία is probably to be read, or that ἐπαγγελία has here the meaning: “proclamation,” for neither is it the case that the idea of the promise refers only to the distant future life, nor, according to John, that Christ does not bestow any promise.[178]
αὐτός is Christ, who in this whole passage forms the centre round which all the statements of the apostle move.
On the accusative τὴν ζωήν , which has occurred through the attraction of the verb in the relative clause, comp. Winer, p. 552; VII. p. 583; Buttmann, p. 68.
[178] From this passage it is clear that with John ζωὴ αἰώνιος and the knowledge of God are not by any means, as Weiss thinks, identical ideas, for if John here, according to the view of Weiss, describes the abiding in the Son and in the Father as the ζωὴ αἰώνιος , he then mentions what this consists in, as something plainly transcending the idea of knowledge; but if αὕτη is directly connected with τὴν ζ . τ . αἰών ., then the abiding in the Son and the Father is considered as the condition of the ζωή ; it is impossible, however, for it to be the condition of knowledge, for it rather presupposes the latter.