Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 John 3:24 - 3:24

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Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 John 3:24 - 3:24


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24. καὶ ὁ τηρῶν τ. ἐντ. This looks back to the same phrase in 1Jn 3:22, not to καθὼς ἔδωκεν ἐντ. in 1Jn 3:23, which is parenthetical. Therefore αὐτοῦ means God’s, not Christ’s. A.V. again spoils S. John’s telling repetition of a favourite word by translating μένει first ‘dwelleth’ and then ‘abideth’: see on 1Jn 2:24. “Let God be a home to thee, and be thou a home of God” (Bede). Comp. ‘Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations’ (Psa 90:1). This mutual abiding expresses union of the strongest and closest kind: comp. 1Jn 4:13; 1Jn 4:16; Joh 6:56; Joh 15:4-5. S. John once more insists on what may be regarded as the main theme of this exposition of Christian Ethics; that conduct is not only not a matter of indifference, but is all-important. We may possess many kinds of enlightenment, intellectual and spiritual; but there is no union with God, and indeed no true knowledge of Him, without obedience: comp. 1Jn 1:6, 1Jn 2:4; 1Jn 2:6; 1Jn 2:29; 1Jn 3:6-7; 1Jn 3:9. ‘He that willeth to do His will shall know’ (Joh 7:17).

καὶ ἐν τούτῳ. And herein, as in 1Jn 3:16; 1Jn 3:19; 1Jn 2:3; 1Jn 2:5; 1Jn 4:9-10; 1Jn 4:13; 1Jn 4:17; 1Jn 5:2. This probably refers to what follows; but the change of preposition in the Greek, a change obliterated in both A.V. and R.V., renders this not quite certain. S. John writes, not ἐν τούτῳ γιν … ἐν τῷ πνεύματι, nor ἐκ τούτου γιν … ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος, either of which would have made the connexion certain, but ἐν … ἐκ, which leaves us in doubt: comp. 1Jn 4:12-13. The Vulgate preserves the change of preposition: in hoc … de Spiritu. The indwelling of God is a matter of Christian experience (γινώσκομεν not οἴδαμεν), and the source (ἐκ) whence the knowledge of it springs is the Spirit. This is the first express mention of the Spirit in the Epistle; but in 1Jn 2:20 He is plainly indicated. It was at Ephesus that S. Paul found disciples who had not so much as heard whether the Holy Spirit was given (Act 19:2). There was perhaps still need of explicit teaching on this point.

οὗ ἡμῖν ἕδωκεν. Which He gave us. Although this is a case where the English perfect might represent the Greek aorist, yet as the Apostle probably refers to the definite occasion when the Spirit was given, the aorist seems better. This occasion in S. John’s case would be Pentecost, in that of his readers, their baptism. Thus in our Baptismal Service we are exhorted to pray that the child “may be baptized with water and the Holy Ghost”; and in what follows we pray, “wash him and sanctify him with the Holy Ghost”; and again, “give Thy Holy Spirit to this infant, that he may be born again”: after which follows the baptism.

It would be possible to translate ‘by the Spirit of which He has given us,’ a partitive genitive, meaning ‘some of which’ as in Macbeth, I. iii. 80,

“The earth hath bubbles as the water has,

And these are of them.”

And in Bacon’s Essays, Of Atheisme, “You shall have of them, that will suffer for Atheisme, and not recant.” But the Greek genitive here is probably not partitive but the result of attraction. S. John commonly inserts a preposition (ἐκ) with the partitive genitive (2Jn 1:4; Joh 1:24; Joh 7:40; Joh 16:17; Rev 2:10; Rev 11:9; comp. Joh 21:10). Tyndale here translates ‘Therby we knowe that ther abydeth in us of the sprete which He gave us,’ making ‘of the Spirit’ (= a portion of the Spirit) the nominative to ‘abideth’; which is grammatically possible, but scarcely in harmony with what precedes. The change from Tyndale’s rendering to the one adopted in A.V., and (with change of ‘hath given’ to ‘gave’) in R.V. also, is due to Coverdale.

Once more (see notes between 1Jn 2:28-29 and on 1Jn 3:10) we are led to a fresh section almost without knowing it. In the last six verses of this chapter (19–24) the transition from verse to verse is perfectly smooth and natural; so also in the previous six verses (13–18). Nor is the transition from 1Jn 3:18 to 1Jn 3:19 at all violent or abrupt. By a very gradual movement we have been brought from the contrast between love and hate to the gift of the Spirit. And this prepares the way for a new subject; or rather for an old subject treated from a new point of view. Like the doublings of the Maeander near which he lived, the progress of the Apostle at times looks more like retrogression than advance: but the progress is unmistakable when the whole field is surveyed. Here we seem to be simply going back to the subject of the antichrists (1Jn 2:18-28); but whereas there the opposition between the Holy Spirit in true believers and the lying spirit in the antichrists is only suggested (1Jn 2:20; 1Jn 2:22; 1Jn 2:27), here it is the dominant idea.

“The Apostle speaks first of the Spirit by which we know that God dwells in us; then of other spirits that were in the world which might or might not be of God … They require to be tried. And he intimates very distinctly that there were men in his day who were turning the faith in spiritual influence to an immoral account” (Maurice).