[B-Greek] 1 Jn 2:5 hH AGAPH TOU QEOU
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Fri Jun 4 02:01:57 EDT 2004
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] 1 Jn 2:5 hH AGAPH TOU QEOU
>
> hOS D'AN THRHi AUTOU TON LOGON, ALHQWS ***EN TOUTWi hH AGAPH TOU QEOU
> TETELEIWTAI ***. . .
>
> This is the question of what kind of genitive this may happen to be --
> again. Is it subjective ("God loves . . .") or is it objective ("love
> for God"). Here I think many translations have made the wrong choice.
> The versions you mentioned take it to be an objective genitive, but the
> question is "how does one choose?" In this particular instance we may
> have some help. In 1 Jn 4.12 we have a very similar phrase.
>
> QEON OUDEIS PWPOTE TEQEASAI. EAN AGAPWMEN ALLHLOUS, hO QEOS EN hHMIN
> MENEI KAI ***hH AGAPH AUTOU EN hHMIN TETELEIWMENH ESTIN***.
>
> Here it can hardly be questioned that it is God's love rather than love
> for God which is in view. I would suggest due to the similarity of the
> two passages that the same is true in 1 Jn 2.5 as well.
>
> gfsomsel
This illustrates to me the danger of relying on categories like "subjective"
and "objective" genitive. The danger is that one might think we are dealing
with two options only, either subjective or objective. But there are other
options, such as source (love from God) or description (Godly love). The
common idea of subjective or objective is based on the fact that the English
genitive can accommodate both. But that is language specific. In my
language, the genitive "God's love" cannot be objective, but it can be
source or description. (I cannot say "love of God" in my language, only
"God's love"). It is better to start out with a clean slate and just say
that "love" and "God" have been connected, and the relationship between the
two is indicated through the other words used in the context.
In 1 John 2:5 a crucial word is TELEIOW. So one has to ask what that means.
It is too easy to translate into "perfect" and then continue the exegesis
from the range of meaning of that English word. It is better to look up all
the occurrences of TELEIOW in the GNT (or look up in and study carefully the
Greek dictionaries).
If we think of "perfect", it does not sound right to say that God's love
(subjective) needs to be perfected, because it being God's love, it is
already perfect. It is easier to see that the love that people have for God
(objective) needs to be perfected. My guess is that this is the reason for
the translation "love for God".
But TELEIOW means "bring to completion" or "carry through to its goal". If
we take it this way, the genitive may express "Godly love" or "the kind of
love that comes from God and that God inspires and develops". I think this
is what lies behind the NCV translation: "But if someone obeys God's
teaching, then in that person God's love has truly reached its goal."
One needs to look carefully at the words TELEIOW and AGAPH in the context of
the whole book of 1 John. As a start one can look at the 4 places where
TELEIOW appears in 1 John, i.e. 2:5, 4:12, 4:17, 4:18. In all of these the
word co-occurs with AGAPH. So, after having looked at all of these together
within their contexts, one has a better background for deciding what may be
the intended meaning in each one of them. I think the genitive under
discussion is neither objective nor subjective, but if you are a
dichotomist, the subjective seems closer than the objective.
This, by the way, also illustrates the repeated failure of literal
translations to adequately express the meaning of a text in another
language.
Iver Larsen
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