there is not love, there is hatred ; the heart is not empty. — noZ, where) and whither. — Ir-jp'kuffi, has blinded) Darkness not only sur- rounds him, but has also blinded him.
12. "Eypa^a vjuTv, rexv/u, I have written to you , my sons) John, throughout the whole of the Epistle, and in this chapter, calls all to whom he writes, rexvia, sons ; but in ver. 13-27, he particularly divides them into fathers , young men , and <raibiu, or children. Wherefore rsxvia and ncahiu are not synonymous. Writing to rexvia, his sons, ch. ii. 1, he says, at the beginning of the paragraph, I write, ver. 1 (comp. ver. 7 and 8) ; and here, at the conclusion, he sub- joins, I have written; not changing the things already mentioned, but confirming them again and again : ver. 12. Comp. 1 Pet. v. 12, I have written. Thence he suitably addresses three degrees of age, which are according to nature, but variously imbued with grace : and he addresses as fathers , those who had witnessed the time of Jesus Christ engaged on earth : as young men, those who, having overcome the wicked one, ought also boldly to have subdued the world lying in the wicked one, and the lust of the world : as •ra/d/a, little children, those whom, after the departure of the fathers and the young men, the last hour was unexpectedly1 coming upon, and in it Antichrist. This address has a proposition or statement, and a dis- cussion of the subject. In the statement he says : I write to you , fathers : I write to you , young men : I write to you, <xaihia, little chil- dren: ver. 13; but in the discussion of the subject, he says, I have written to you , fathers, ver. 14 : / have written to you , young men, ver. 14-17 : I have written to you , Kcuhla, little children , ver. 18-27 ; the word, I have written, being itself twice inserted at ver. 21 and 26. The method of these passages very closely resembles that of the beginning and conclusion of the Epistle : for ch. i. 4, he uses the verb, of writing, in the present tense; but in ch. v. 13 he says, I have written. Having ended the threefold address, he returns to them collectively, again addressing them as rexvia, beloved sons, ver. 28. From this division the various readings in 12th2 and following verses, noticed in the Apparatus, are more easily refuted. — vfiTv, to you) The doc- trine of the remission of sins belongs to the fathers also, respecting whom we have just spoken. — apeuvrai, are remitted) The apostle
1 Occupo, like used in the sense of taking by surprise. lie warns
them that the last time, in which Antichrist should appear, was about to come. The last time was in a certain sense already come, but its decided development was to be after the death of the fathers and young men. — T.
2 Inferior authorities read ra.i^iu for rtKuiu in ver. 13. — E.