PastorFaithful abiding

1 John 2 — Greek text and reception

Saints Translation: 1 John [V2 Working Draft]

Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.

Chapter 2

The advocate, the commandment, and abiding

Advocacy and obedience

Verse 2:1

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The purpose not to sin and the provision if anyone sins are both retained. Advocate renders paraklētos. Reception [A1] (Homily I.7–8): Augustine joins sin’s prohibition with Christ’s advocacy for “us.”

Verse 2:2

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Hilasmos is rendered propitiation under the project convention; the term’s expiatory and reconciliatory dimensions require interpretation, not an added clause. Reception [A1] (Homily I.8): Augustine applies worldwide scope against restricting Christ’s Church to separatists.

Verse 2:3

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

And by this we know that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Present knowing and the perfect have come to know are distinguished. Reception [A1] (Homily I.9): Augustine reads knowledge and obedience through the command to love.

Verse 2:4

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The saying and the negative conduct remain linked; that person avoids confusing the human and divine referents. Reception [A1] (Homily I.9): Within 2:3–6, Augustine tests professed knowledge by love.

Verse 2:5

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

But whoever keeps His word, in that person the love of God has truly been brought to completion. By this we know that we are in Him.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Love of God preserves the genitive without choosing exclusively God’s love or love for God. Reception [A1] (Homily I.9): Augustine includes enemy-love in obedient, perfected charity.

Verse 2:6

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

The one who says that he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Also himself makes kai autos explicit; the believer’s himself and Christ’s He are distinct. Walk retains the conduct metaphor. Reception [A1] (Homily I.9): Augustine emphasizes charitable conduct, especially prayer for enemies.

Text [G]: NA28 reads αὐτὸς [οὕτως] περιπατεῖν in brackets (SBLGNT omits); the rendering above follows SBLGNT, and NA28 would read "ought himself also so to walk, just as He walked".[G][A1]

The old and new commandment

Verse 2:7

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word you heard.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Source G addresses beloved and does not repeat from the beginning at the verse’s end. Reception [A1] (Homily I.10): Augustine calls the already-received command old.

Verse 2:8

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Again, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Again preserves the deliberate old/new turn; already and the ongoing passing/shining remain explicit. Reception [A1] (Homily I.10): Augustine calls the command new through its renewing effect.

Verse 2:9

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

The one who says that he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness until now.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The contradiction between a claim and hatred is maintained, including until now. Reception [A1] (Homily I.11): Augustine rejects religious profession as an excuse for hatred.

Verse 2:10

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

The one who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause of stumbling in him.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Skandalon is cause of stumbling; in him retains the possible focus on his own stumbling or what he causes. Reception [A1] (Homily I.12): Augustine links unstumbling charity with ecclesial unity.

Verse 2:11

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The repeated darkness and both being and walking in it are retained. Reception [A1] (Homily I.13): Augustine applies hatred’s blindness to Donatist schism.

Children, fathers, and young men

Verse 2:12

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

I write to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Because translates hoti; the completed forgiveness and its connection to His name are explicit. Reception [A2] (Homily II.4): Augustine grounds forgiveness in Christ’s name, refusing allegiance to a human party leader.

Verse 2:13

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

I write to you, fathers, because you have come to know Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Source G places only these two addresses in 2:13; the following children address begins 2:14. Reception [A2] (Homily II.5–6): Augustine associates fathers with knowledge of the eternal Christ and the young with strength received from Him.

Verse 2:14

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

I have written to you, children, because you have come to know the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have come to know Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The shift from I write to I have written is retained. This row follows the three clauses assigned to 2:14 in G. Reception [A2] (Homily II.7): Augustine uses the repeated addresses to exhort steadfastness and humility, with strength grounded in God’s word.

Verse 2:15

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: World is interpreted by the desires in 2:16; no condemnation of created matter is inserted. Reception [A2] (Homily II.8–11): Augustine urges removal of worldly attachment to make room for divine love, while affirming created goods.

Verse 2:16

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

For everything in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the boastfulness of life—is not from the Father, but is from the world.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The three expressions remain distinct. Bios can concern worldly life and means of living; boastfulness retains the source’s prideful display. Reception [A2] (Homily II.12–14): Augustine interprets the three desires as bodily appetite, curiosity, and pride, relating them to Christ’s temptations. [BUN] (Part One, §175): Bunyan personifies the three desires as Adam the First’s daughters in Faithful’s account.

Verse 2:17

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

And the world is passing away, and its desire; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The continuing contrast passing away/abides is preserved. Reception [A2] (Homily II.10, 14): Augustine contrasts passing temporal attachments with holding fast to Christ; his quoted concluding expansion is absent from G.

Antichrists and anointing

Verse 2:18

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Children, it is the last hour. And just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we know that it is the last hour.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Singular antichrist and plural antichrists are distinguished; the author’s temporal claim is not assigned a modern date. Reception [A3] (Homily III.1, 3): Augustine uses the last hour to urge spiritual growth, without treating an “hour” as a fixed short duration.

Verse 2:19

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But this happened so that it might become clear that they are not all of us.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Of us is repeated to preserve the belonging argument. The final not all construction has debated logical scope; the preceding denial remains explicit. Reception [A3] (Homily III.4–5): Augustine applies the departure to heresy and schism as revealing estrangement from the community.

Verse 2:20

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

And you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Source G reads pantes, all of you, not panta, all things. No object is supplied to turn this into unlimited knowledge. Reception [A3] (Homily III.5): Augustine identifies the anointing with the Spirit, relating inward reality to visible chrism; his English text has “all things,” unlike G.

Verse 2:21

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is from the truth.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Both reasons for writing and the universal denial about lies are retained. Reception [A3] (Homily III.6): Augustine insists that falsehood cannot derive from Christ’s truth. [BUN] (Part One, §335): Bunyan has Christian reuse the verse against Atheist’s denial of the heavenly city.

Verse 2:22

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Who is the liar except the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Greek negative reinforcement inside the denial is rendered by idiomatic English denies that, not a reversal of the confession. Reception [A3] (Homily III.6–9): Augustine extends denial of Christ to contrary deeds as well as words, applying the argument against schism.

Verse 2:23

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Both clauses of source G are retained, including the positive confession clause. Reception [A3] (Homily III.10): Augustine rejects a claim to possess the Father while rejecting the Son.

Verse 2:24

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

As for you, let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The command, condition, and result are distinguished; the order Son and Father follows G. Reception [A3] (Homily III.11): Augustine urges perseverance in the received confession under threats and trials.

Verse 2:25

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

And this is the promise He Himself promised us: eternal life.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The promise/promised repetition and emphatic He Himself remain visible. Reception [A3] (Homily III.11): Augustine opposes the promised eternal life to the world’s threats and inducements.

Verse 2:26

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

I have written these things to you about those who are leading you astray.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The source describes a present activity of deception without naming the opponents. Reception [A3] (Homily III.12): Augustine warns against deception by temporal promises when eternal life has been promised.

Verse 2:27

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

And as for you, the anointing that you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it taught you, abide in Him.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The broad teaching claim is retained in its context of deception. Final menete is read as an imperative; an indicative reading is possible. Reception [A3] (Homily III.12–13): Augustine says the inward teacher makes outward preaching fruitful; he does not abolish human instruction.

Confidence at His coming

Verse 2:28

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He is manifested we may have confidence and not shrink from Him in shame at His coming.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The manifestation and coming concern Christ in context. The switch to we may have remains. Reception [A4] (Homily IV.2): Augustine relates abiding in faith to confidence at Christ’s manifestation.

Verse 2:29

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The source moves from righteousness to divine begetting; no forced distinction between the Father and Son is inserted into the pronouns. Know renders ginōskete as indicative; an imperative understand is also possible. Reception [A4] (Homily IV.3): Augustine locates the beginning of righteousness in truthful confession and dependence on God.

Text [G]: NA28 reads ὅτι [καὶ] πᾶς in brackets (SBLGNT omits); the rendering above follows SBLGNT, and NA28 would read "that everyone also who practices righteousness".[G][A4]