sented as having a certain consistency and coherence. They show a kind of solid front. But Christ, by His coming, has revealed them in their complete unsubstantiality. He has ‘ un- done’ the seeming bonds by which they were held together ” (Westcott).
9. Whosoever is born (as 0 yeyevynuévos). On the form of expression, see on ver. 4. Rev., begotten. The perfect participle indicates a condition remaining from the first: he who hath been begotten and remains God’s child.
His seed. The divine principle of life.
Cannot. See on ver. 6. Conceived as a perfect ideal, life in God excludes the possibility of sin. Compare Rom. vi. throughout.
10. In this (€v rovTm). See on ii. 3.
Children of the devil (réxva tod dtaBorov). The only oc- currence of the phrase. Compare Acts xiii. 10, and see John viii. 44.
Righteousness. Here the article is wanting, compare ver. 7. Righteousness is regarded, not in its completeness, but as bearing a particular character. It will be interesting to follow out the same distinction between the following words with and without the article: dpaptia sin; ayarn love; Con life; anrndeca truth.
11. From the beginning. See oni. 1.
That (wa). The purport and aim of the message. See on John xy. 13.
12. Cain who was (Kaiv jv). Who is not in the Greek. The construction is irregular. Lit., as Rev., not as Cain was of the evil one.
Slew (éodafev). The verb occurs only in John, and only here outside of the Apocalypse. Originally, to slay by cutting the throat ; so in Homer, of cattle:
‘« the suitor train who slay (opd(over) His flocks and slow-paced beeves with crooked horns.” ‘‘ Odyssey,” i, 92.
To slaughter victims for sacrifice :
‘¢ Backward they turned the necks of the fat beeves, And cut their throats (éopatav), and flayed the carcasses.’’ “‘ Tliad,” i., 459.
Thence, generally, to slay or kill.
Wherefore (ydpw rivos). Lit., on account of what. Xdapw for the sake of, on account of, is elsewhere placed after the genitive. See Eph. iii. 1,14; 1 Tim. v. 14; Gal. ili. 19.
13. Brethren (adeAgo/). The only occurrence of this mode of address in the Epistle.
Hate (ucez). Indicative mood, pointing to the fact as exist- ing: if the world hate you, as 27 does.
14. We know. Emphatic; we as distinguished from the world.
Have passed (ueraBeByxapev). Lit., have passed over.
From death (é« Tod Savdrov). Lit., owt of the death. The article marks it as one of the two spheres in which men must be; death or life. The death, the life, present one of those sharp oppositions which are characteristic of the Epistle; as love, hatred ; darkness, light ; truth, a lie. “O Javatos the death, occurs in John’s Epistles only here and in the next clause. In the Gospel, only v. 24. Personified in Apoc. i. 18; vi. 8; ix. 6; xx. 13.
Unto life (eis ryv Swyv). Rev., better, zrto. Compare enter into the life, Matt. xviii. 8; xix. 17.
FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. ool
Because. The sign of having passed into life; not the ground.
We love the brethren (ayarrapev tovs adeAgovs). The only occurrence of the phrase. Elsewhere, dove one another, or love his brother. See on ii. 9.
His brother. Omit.
15. Murderer (avSpwroxtovos). Manslayer. Only here and John viii. 44, of the devil.
Hath eternal life, etc. The contrast is suggestive between the sentiment embodied in this statement and that of Pagan antiquity respecting murder, in the Homeric age, for instance. “‘ With regard to the practice of homicide, the ordinary Greek morality was extremely loose. . . . Among the Greeks, to have killed a man was considered in the light of misfortune, or, at most, a prudential error, when the perpetrator of the act had come among strangers as a fugitive for protection and hospi- tality. On the spot, therefore, where the crime occurred, it could stand only as in the nature of a private and civil wrong, and the fine payable was regarded, not (which it might have been) as a mode, however defective, of marking any guilt in the culprit, but as, on the whole, an equitable satisfaction to the wounded feelings of the relatives and friends, or as an actual compensation for the lost services of the dead man. The religion of the age takes no notice of the act whatever ” ( Glad- stone “ Homer and the Homeric Age,” ii., 436).