The spirit of error (76 wvetpa THs anrdvns). The phrase oc- curs nowhere else in the New Testament. Compare mvetvpace mrdvous misleading spirits, 1 Tim. iv. 1.
T. Of God (é« Tod Ocod). Flows from God.
8. Knoweth not (ov« éyva). The aroist tense: did not know, from the beginning. He never knew.
Is love (aydrn éoriv). See on God ts light (i. 5), and the truth (i. 6); also God is spirit (John iv. 24). Spirit and light are expressions of God’s essential nature. Love is the expres- sion of His personality corresponding to His nature. See on love of God (ii.5). Truth and love stand related to each other. Loving is the condition of knowing.
9. Was manifested. See on John xxi. 1; 1 John iii. 5.
Toward us (év jyiv). Wrong. Not “among us,” as John i. 14, nor “in us;” but as Rev., in margin, in our case.*
Sent (dmécradxev). John describes the incarnation as @ sending, more frequently than in any other way. "AzrooTéAXw is to send under commission, as an envoy. The perfect tense, hath sent, points to the abiding results of the sending. See on iii. 5.
His only-begotten Son (tov vidv adtod Tov povoyerh). Lit., His Son, the only-begotten (Son). A mode of expression com- mon in John, enlarging upon the meaning of a noun by the addition of an adjective or a participle with the article. Seei. 25 ii. 7, 8, 25; v.4; John vi. 41, 44, 50, 51; xv.1, etc. On only- begotten, see on John i. 14.