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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 John 3:13 - 3:13
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
13–24. LOVE AND HATE: LIFE AND DEATH
μὴ θαυμάζετε. Comp. Joh 5:28, and contrast 1Jn 3:7. The antagonism between the light and the darkness, between God and the evil one, between righteousness and unrighteousness, has never ceased from the time of the first sin (1Jn 3:8) and of the first murder (1Jn 3:12). The moral descendants of Cain and of Abel are still in the world, and the wicked still hate the righteous. Therefore Christians need not be perplexed, if the world (as it does) hates them.
Both in Jewish (Philo, De sacr. Abelis et Caini) and in early Christian (Clem. Hom. III. XXV., xxvi.) literature Abel is taken as the prototype of the good and Cain as the prototype of the wicked. For the wild sect of the Cainites, who took exactly the opposite view, see Appendix C. It is possible that some germs of this monstrous heresy are aimed at in 1Jn 3:12.
ἀδελφοί. The form of address is in harmony with the subject of brotherly love. It occurs nowhere else in the Epistle. In 1Jn 2:7 ἀδελφοί is a false reading. εἰ μισεῖ ὑμᾶς ὁ κ. As R.V., if the world hateth you: the fact is stated gently, but without uncertainty. The construction θαυμάζειν εἰ is the more common in Attic. The hypothetical εἰ is gentler and more considerate than the blunt matter-of-fact ὅτι. Both constructions occur in N.T.: with εἰ Mar 15:44; with ὅτι Luk 11:38; Joh 3:7; Gal 1:6. In Gal 1:6 the bluntness is quite in keeping with the passage. This verse is another echo of Christ’s last discourses as recorded in the Gospel: εἰ ὁ κόσμος ὑμᾶς μισεῖ (pres. indicative with εἰ, as here), γινώσκετε ὅτι ἐμὲ πρῶτον ὑμῶν μεμίσηκεν. Comp. μεγέθους ἐστὶν ὁ Χριστιανισμός, ὅταν μισῆται ὑπὸ ὑπὸ τοῦ κόσμου (Ign. Rom. III.).