1 John 5

Translator Notes

1. The perfect gegennētai ('has been born') indicates that divine birth precedes and enables faith — belief is the evidence, not the cause, of being born of God. The logic of the second clause is familial: to love the parent is necessarily to love the parent's children. This links faith (believing Jesus is the Christ) with love (for God and for fellow believers) as inseparable marks of divine birth.

Translator Notes

1. The logic here reverses the direction of 4:20-21. There, love for the brother was the test of love for God. Here, love for God and obedience to his commands verify that our love for fellow believers is genuine rather than merely sentimental. The two tests are mutually reinforcing — neither can stand alone.

Translator Notes

1. Love for God is defined not by emotion but by obedience — keeping his commands. The declaration that his commands 'are not burdensome' (bareiai ouk eisin) echoes Jesus's words in Matthew 11:30 ('my yoke is easy and my burden is light') and stands in contrast to the Pharisaic burden-making that Jesus condemned. The divine birth described in vv. 1 and 4 is what makes obedience possible rather than oppressive.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The neuter pan to gegennēmenon ('everything/everyone born of God') generalizes the principle. The present nika ('overcomes') describes an ongoing reality, while the aorist nikēsasa ('having overcome') treats the victory as accomplished. Faith is identified as the instrument of victory — not military power, political strategy, or ascetic discipline, but trust in God. The noun nikē ('victory') appears only here in the New Testament.

Translator Notes

1. The rhetorical question expects the answer 'no one else.' The present participle nikōn ('overcoming') and pisteuōn ('believing') indicate ongoing, characteristic activity. The confession 'Jesus is the Son of God' is the specific content of world-overcoming faith — it is christological, not vague spiritual optimism.

Translator Notes

1. The 'water' most likely refers to Jesus's baptism and the 'blood' to his crucifixion. The emphatic insistence — 'not by water only, but by water and by blood' — suggests the false teachers accepted Jesus's baptism (the beginning of his ministry) but denied the saving significance of his death. The Spirit provides ongoing testimony to the full reality of Christ. Calling the Spirit 'the truth' (hē alētheia) echoes Jesus's description of the Spirit as 'the Spirit of truth' (John 14:17, 15:26, 16:13).

Translator Notes

1. The SBLGNT text here is significantly shorter than the KJV. The KJV's expanded reading — 'in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth' — is known as the Comma Johanneum. This expansion is absent from all Greek manuscripts before the fourteenth century, absent from the earliest and best Latin manuscripts, and unknown to the Greek church fathers. It entered the Latin tradition through marginal glosses that were eventually incorporated into the text. It is not part of the original letter. The SBLGNT correctly omits it, and our rendering follows the critical Greek text.

Translator Notes

1. The three witnesses — Spirit, water, and blood — converge in a single testimony about Jesus Christ. The phrase eis to hen eisin ('are into the one,' i.e., 'agree as one') indicates not identity but unanimous testimony. Under Jewish law, two or three witnesses established a matter (Deuteronomy 19:15); God provides three converging witnesses to his Son. The Spirit witnesses through ongoing testimony in the community, the water through the baptism that inaugurated Jesus's ministry, and the blood through the death that completed it.
2. [TCR Cross-Reference] References Deuteronomy 19:15 — the TCR OT rendering of that text provides the Hebrew source and explains the translation decisions involved.

Translator Notes

1. The argument moves from the lesser to the greater: if human testimony is accepted in legal proceedings, how much more should divine testimony be trusted? The perfect memartyrēken ('he has testified') indicates that God's testimony is a completed and standing witness. The content of God's testimony is explained in v. 11.

Translator Notes

1. The believer possesses God's testimony internally — through the Spirit's witness (cf. 3:24, 4:13). The one who refuses to believe does something far worse than mere skepticism: he 'has made God a liar' (pseustēn pepoiēken auton). This is the ultimate insult — calling God's testimony about his own Son false. The perfect tenses (pepoiēken, pepisteuken, memartyrēken) emphasize settled states with ongoing consequences.

Translator Notes

1. The content of God's testimony is now made explicit: he has given eternal life, and that life is located exclusively in his Son. The aorist edōken ('gave') points to the definitive gift accomplished through Christ's death and resurrection. The phrase 'this life is in his Son' means that eternal life is not an independent commodity but is inseparable from the person of Jesus Christ.

Translator Notes

1. The statement is perfectly balanced and admits no middle ground. 'Having the Son' means possessing a living relationship with Christ through faith. The addition of 'of God' (tou theou) in the second clause adds formal weight to the negative statement. This verse is the letter's sharpest expression of the exclusive connection between Christ and eternal life.

Translator Notes

1. This verse parallels the purpose statement of John's Gospel (John 20:31). The Gospel was written 'so that you may believe'; the letter is written 'so that you may know that you have eternal life.' The audience is those who already believe — the letter's purpose is assurance, not evangelism. The SBLGNT does not include the second clause found in some manuscripts ('and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God').

Translator Notes

1. The word parrēsia ('confidence, boldness') appears for the fourth time in the letter (2:28, 3:21, 4:17). Prayer confidence is not presumption — it is conditioned by alignment with God's will (kata to thelēma autou). The verb akouei ('hears') carries the Hebrew sense of hearing that includes responding and acting.

Translator Notes

1. The logic is: if God hears (v. 14), and we know he hears (v. 15a), then we already possess what we have asked (v. 15b). The present echomen ('we have') expresses a certainty so firm that the future answer is treated as already in hand. This is the prayer of faith — not manipulating God but trusting his character and alignment with his purposes.

Translator Notes

1. The distinction between sin 'not leading to death' (mē pros thanaton) and sin 'leading to death' (pros thanaton) is the most debated passage in the letter. In context, the 'sin leading to death' most likely refers to the deliberate, settled denial of Christ that characterizes the secessionists — a willful apostasy that places one beyond the reach of intercessory prayer. John does not forbid prayer for such sin but declines to command it. Ordinary sin within the community should prompt intercessory prayer, and God will respond with life.

Translator Notes

1. John clarifies that all wrongdoing (adikia, 'unrighteousness, injustice') is genuinely sin — he is not trivializing non-fatal sin. But the reassurance is clear: not all sin is the irrecoverable apostasy described in v. 16. Most sin within the community can be addressed through confession and intercessory prayer.

Translator Notes

1. The first of three 'we know' (oidamen) statements that close the letter. The SBLGNT reading ho gennētheis ek tou theou ('the one who was born of God') likely refers to Christ, not the believer — Christ protects the one born of God. The aorist passive gennētheis (referring to Christ's unique divine birth) is distinguished from the perfect gegennēmenos (referring to the believer's new birth). The evil one 'does not touch' (ouch haptetai) — the verb implies grasping or laying hold of, suggesting that Satan cannot seize or control the one Christ guards.

Translator Notes

1. The second 'we know' statement. The contrast is stark: believers are 'from God' (ek tou theou), while the entire world-system 'lies in the evil one' (en tō ponērō keitai). The verb keitai ('lies') suggests a passive, helpless state — the world lies in the devil's grip without resistance. The dative/locative en tō ponērō is better rendered 'in the power of the evil one' than the KJV's abstract 'in wickedness.'

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The third and climactic 'we know' statement. The verb hēkei ('has come') is present tense with perfect force — he has come and is present. The word dianoian ('understanding, insight, mind') denotes the faculty of spiritual comprehension that Christ has given. The final sentence — houtos estin ho alēthinos theos kai zōē aiōnios ('this one is the true God and eternal life') — is among the strongest christological affirmations in the New Testament. The pronoun houtos ('this one') most naturally refers to the nearest antecedent, Jesus Christ, identifying him directly as 'the true God and eternal life.'

Translator Notes

1. The letter's abrupt closing has puzzled commentators. The imperative phylaxate ('guard, protect, keep') is an aorist suggesting decisive, urgent action. In context, the 'idols' (eidōlōn) likely refer not to pagan statues but to the false conceptions of God promoted by the secessionists — any substitute for the 'true God' just identified in v. 20. After a letter devoted to distinguishing truth from falsehood, the final word warns against every counterfeit. The SBLGNT does not include the 'Amen' found in some manuscripts.