Nielsen’s Nook

[a] ἀγγελία is only used in 1 John referring to a authoritative message or commandment, used only here and in 1:5.

[b] There seems to be an ambiguity here. Does ἀρχῆς refer to the beginning of the letter or the beginning of Jesus’ ministry that John now extends as an apostle?

[c] ἵνα communicates the idea of “in order that” or “with the result that.” It is crucial that we understand John’s argument here as it has moved from righteousness to love as the indicators of our life in Christ.

[d] δίκαια righteousness, righteous. Used 79 times in the NT and is what “is being revealed from heaven against ungodliness and wickedness” according to Paul (Ro 1:17).

[e] μισέω is an active abhorrence, one that takes action against the objects of hatred.

[f] μεταβεβήκαμεν to pass over or into. It is only used 11 times in the NT. John uses it twice (Jn 5:24, 7:3), the former being an important parallel use. There John speaks of those who hear and believe Jesus’ words and the One who sent him as passing over from the death realm to the life realm (same Gk construction, μεταβέβηκεν ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου εἰς τὴν ζωήν). The word is used four times in the Apocrypha (Wis 7:27, 19:19; 2 Mac 6:1,9,24), but apparently not at all in the LXX.

[g] ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου εἰς τὴν ζωήν suggests a very specific death and life. John would seem to be echoing the dichotomy that he described with Cain in 3:12, in which Cain was of the Evil One (and his death realm) and by implication, Abel was of the Righteous One (and his life realm).

[h] μένουσαν is a present active participle from μένω, meaning to abide or remain. It is the same word that Jesus uses in Jn 15:4 to command his followers to abide in him as a vine abides in the branches. As it is a matter of life and death for a vine to abide in its branch, so it is a matter of life and death to abide in Love Incarnate, demonstrating it in our lives to our brothers and sisters.

[i] The modern translations have opted to render this perfect active indicative as a mere present active indicative (e.g., “We know” NRSV, ESV, NIV [, KJV]). However, it seems that St. John’s argument is that we cannot speak of love apart from how we have come to know what it is, namely, That One who laid down his soul for us. Hence the perfect, “we have known” (ἐγνώκαμεν).

[j] ἐκεῖνος here is a rhetorical shorthand for Jesus Christ, as if John was in the room pointing to him.

[k] John purposefully does not use ζωὴν (v 15) or βίος (v 17) here, but speaks of the ψυχή (“life force”, “soul”) or immaterial animating part of a person, representing the whole. The implication would seem to be that while everyone has a soul, that is not sufficient to make them abiders in the life realm.

[l] βίον sustenance or livelihood. It is a different word for the semantic idea of life than St. John has previously used. Westcott sees contrast with ζωὴν αἰώνιον in v 15. [St. John, 114] The Parable of the Two Sons (Lk 15:12) uses τὸν βίον to describe that for which the foolish son asks.

[m] θεωρέω to relegate oneself (in this context) to the passive role of spectator.