Saints Translation

By Vincent Melli

1 John — Greek text and reception

ApostleAssured faith

1 John 5 — 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 5

Faith, testimony, life, and prayer

Faith and victory

Verse 5:1

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the One who begot also loves the one begotten of Him.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The begetting family is retained. The latter one can be read in relation to the believing child; the next verse speaks of God’s children. Reception [A10] (Homily X.1–2): Augustine distinguishes living faith working through love from the demons’ verbal recognition of Christ.

Verse 5:2

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and do His commandments.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Source G has do the commandments here, distinguished from keep in 5:3. Reception [A10] (Homily X.3–4): Augustine relates love of God’s children to their membership in the Son’s body.

Verse 5:3

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

For this is the love of God: that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The commandment clause explains love of God in this context; the sentence continues into the reason in 5:4. Reception [A10] (Homily X.4–5): Augustine contrasts the delight of charity with the burden imposed by covetous desire.

Verse 5:4

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

because everything born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The Greek neuter everything and the repeated victory/overcome language are retained. Reception [CAL] (comments on 5:4, pp. 225–226): Calvin grounds continuing struggle in faith’s already-given victory.

Verse 5:5

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

And who is the one who overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The rhetorical question identifies the believing subject and preserves Son of God. Reception [CAL] (comments on 5:5, p. 226): Calvin derives victory from Christ, not self-sufficiency.

The testimony to the Son

Verse 5:6

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

This is He who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ—not in water only, but in water and in blood. And the Spirit is the one who bears witness, because the Spirit is the truth.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The water/blood contrast is retained without replacing either noun with a sacramental or historical explanation. Reception [CAL] (comments on 5:6, pp. 227–228): Calvin relates water and blood to purification and expiation, also invoking Christ’s pierced side. [CLEM] (Fragments I.III, entry combining 5:6 and 5:8): The transmitted Clement fragment interprets water as regeneration through faith and blood as knowledge; this is symbolic exposition.

Verse 5:7

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

For there are three who bear witness:

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: This is the complete verse in G. No Father–Word–Holy Spirit heavenly-witness clause is present in the selected main text. Reception [CAL] (comments on 5:7, pp. 228–229): Calvin accepts the disputed heavenly witnesses; this later textual reception does not govern G.

Verse 5:8

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

the Spirit and the water and the blood, and the three agree as one.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Agree as one renders eis to hen in the testimony context. All three witnesses named in G are retained. Reception [CAL] (comments on 5:8, pp. 229–230): Calvin connects the witnesses’ agreement with receiving Christ’s benefits. [CLEM] (Fragments I.III, entry combining 5:6 and 5:8): The transmitted Clement fragment links Spirit with life, alongside its symbolic water and blood interpretations.

Verse 5:9

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater, because this is God’s testimony: He has borne witness concerning His Son.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The comparative greater and God’s completed testimony are explicit; the second hoti is read as introducing its content. Reception [CAL] (comments on 5:9, pp. 230–231): Calvin argues that divine testimony deserves greater trust than human testimony.

Verse 5:10

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony within himself. The one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony God has borne concerning His Son.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Believing in the Son and believing God are both retained; himself refers to the believer. Reception [CAL] (comments on 5:10, pp. 231–232): Calvin calls unbelief a denial of God’s truthfulness.

Text [G]: NA28 reads ἐν αὐτῷ, with Tregelles and Byz (NA27 and SBLGNT reflexive ἐν αὑτῷ); the rendering above follows SBLGNT, and NA28 would read "has the testimony in him".[G][CAL]

Verse 5:11

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Gave and is are distinguished; the life is explicitly located in His Son. Reception [CAL] (comments on 5:11, p. 232): Calvin emphasizes eternal life as God’s gift in Christ.

Verse 5:12

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

The one who has the Son has life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The parallel positive and negative clauses are complete, including the fuller title in the second. Reception [CAL] (comments on 5:12, pp. 232–233): Calvin locates possession of life exclusively in the Son.

Life, prayer, and final cautions

Verse 5:13

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The addressee phrase is moved forward for readable English; no second purpose clause absent from G is added. Reception [CAL] (comments on 5:13, p. 234): Calvin sees instruction as strengthening existing faith; his quotation includes a second purpose absent from G.

Verse 5:14

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

And this is the confidence we have toward Him: if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: According to His will qualifies the request; the condition is not omitted. Reception [CAL] (comments on 5:14, pp. 234–235): Calvin subjects confident prayer to God’s will rather than unrestricted wishes. [CLEM] (Fragments I.III, entry at 5:14): The transmitted Clement fragment limits the request to what ought to be asked.

Verse 5:15

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests we have asked of Him.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Both knowing clauses and the completed asking remain; no timing of fulfillment is inserted. Reception [CAL] (comments on 5:15, pp. 235–236): Calvin joins patient confidence with continuing prayer.

Verse 5:16

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not leading to death, he is to ask, and he will give him life—to those sinning not toward death. There is sin leading to death; I am not saying that he should make a request concerning that.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The second he has no named subject: God as giver or the petitioner instrumentally giving life are possible. Lowercase preserves this uncertainty. The source says not saying to ask, without an added universal prohibition. Reception [CAL] (comments on 5:16, pp. 237–239): Calvin urges restorative intercession, interprets deathward sin as apostasy, and cautions against rash despair.

Verse 5:17

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Every unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The universal first clause and qualified second clause are both retained. Reception [CAL] (comments on 5:17, p. 239): Calvin distinguishes all wrongdoing’s sinfulness from sin unto death.

Verse 5:18

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the one born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Source G reads keeps him, not keeps himself. The first birth expression is perfect, the second aorist. The keeper’s identity remains debated; lowercase does not decide whether Christ is intended. Reception [CAL] (comments on 5:18, pp. 239–240): Calvin expounds “keeps himself”; G’s different “keeps him” remains controlling here.

Text [G]: NA28 reads τηρεῖ ἑαυτόν (SBLGNT τηρεῖ αὐτόν); the rendering above follows SBLGNT, and NA28 would read "keeps himself".[G][CAL]

Verse 5:19

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the evil one.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The contrast with the world and the preposition in are retained; the phrase is not converted into a geographical claim. Reception [CAL] (comments on 5:19, pp. 241–242): Calvin draws an exhortation to holiness from the world’s captivity. [CLEM] (Fragments I.III, entry at 5:19): The transmitted Clement fragment identifies the world here with worldly people rather than creation.

Verse 5:20

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the True One. And we are in the True One, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: This retains the demonstrative whose precise antecedent is debated; the translation does not insert either Father or Jesus as a replacement. Reception [CAL] (comments on 5:20, pp. 242–243): Calvin takes “This” as Christ; the translation preserves the disputed demonstrative. [CLEM] (Fragments I.III, entry at 5:20): The transmitted Clement fragment relates understanding to knowledge received through faith.

Verse 5:21

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The final imperative is plural. Source G ends without an appended Amen. Reception [CAL] (comments on 5:21, pp. 243–244): Calvin extends the warning to religious images; that polemical application is not a lexical definition.