[B-Greek] 1 John 1:5

MAKARIOIOIPRAEIS at aol.com MAKARIOIOIPRAEIS at aol.com
Wed Feb 16 00:52:12 EST 2005


> Question Part 1
>
> 1 John 1:5 says that God is light, O QEOS FWS ESTIN.
>
> What aspect of this verse can be understood as literal, if any? To what
> degree is the metaphor based upon the literal? Or must it be understood
only
> as metaphor?
>
> Charles D. Rempel
> 30 Year Student
> Without Portfolio

I read this and thought this quote was related to this topic: 

"The author proclaims in 1 John 4:8 (hO QEOS AGAPH ESTIN, "God is love"), but 
from a grammatical standpoint this is not a proposition in which subject and 
predicate nominative are interchangeable ("God is love" does not equal "love 
is God"). The predicate noun is anarthrous, as it is in two other Johannine 
formulas describing God, "God is light" in 1 John 1:5 and "God is Spirit" in John 
4:24. The anarthrous predicate suggests a qualitative force, not a mere 
abstraction, so that a quality of God's character is what is described here."
W. Hall Harris III , Th.M., Ph.D.

An example of the qualitative use of "light" I would consider John 12:36;
EWS TO FWS EXETE PISTEUETE EIS TO FWS INA UIOI FWTOS GENHSQE,
"While you have the light, believe in the light so that you may become sons 
of light"

Unless I'm wrong (anyone please correct me) it is not possible to simply 
insert QEOS for the phrase "sons of light" as identical to "sons of God". Light 
and God are not coextensive and interchangeable. TO FWS in John 12:35 is in 
contrast to TH SKOTIA, "...lest darkness overtake you." Light and darkness here 
are both metaphorical. (As in 1 Thess 5:4-5) 
Another thing is that the statement in 1 John 1:5 the predicate "FWS" does 
not have the artilce suggesting the more "qualitative" understanding. Only when 
two articular nouns connected by "is" agree in case, number, and gender can 
the two terms be considered equal and interchangeable. 

Richard Windisch




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