[B-Greek] 1 John 3:6

Timothy Mitchell taztimmitchell at hotmail.com
Sun Feb 3 23:49:39 EST 2008


 
Bob,
 
I also have questioned the "continual action" or "habitual action" aspect of the present tense usually described as in force here in 1 John 3:6. I think that a "habitual action" aspect of the present tense is usually brought out by other influences in the sentence and is not solely found in the present tense itself. There is nothing necessarily in the context of 1 John that lends to the idea of a "habitual action" (except theological). Wallace in GGBB on pgs 524-25 describes some of the difficulties of taking the passage this way. You will also notice that most of his examples (pg 522) of a habitual present tense have other factors in the context to suggest such a habitual action. 
Some things that I have noticed about this verse
 
1 John 3:6 PAS hO EN AUTWi MEVWN OUC hAMARTANEI PAS hO hAMARTANWN OUC hEWRAKEN AUTON OUDE EGNWKEN AUTON.
 
In the first clause MEVWN and hAMARTANEI show a "contemporaneous" relationship to each other. Wallace describes this relation ship on pg 625 of GGBB..."The present participle is normally contemporaneous in time to the action of the main verb. This is especially so when it is related to a present tense main verb"...I really think this relationship is key to understanding what is going on here. "All who are in the process of remaining in him at the same time will not sin". This seems to be contrasted with the PAS hO hAMARTANWN in the second clause. I think that John is showing the reason that they are "in the process of sinning" (hAMARTANWN) because they are reaping the results of OUC hEWRAKEN AUTON OUDE EGNWKEN AUTON. hEWRAKEN and EGNWKEN both describe to me a "relational" idea that is in view here, "not seeing or knowing him" relationally. The perfect indicative tense of hEWRAKEN and EGNWKEN I think are also key because they are showing a result of a past action with which the results are being experienced now (at the time of writing). The perfect tense is focusing on the "present result" of a "past action" (GGBB pg 573) which relates well to the present participle of hAMARTANWN in such a way that I feel brings out a similar "in process" "contemporaneous" action. "All who are in the process of sinning have not seen (and are still not seeing) or known (and are still not knowing) Him". This lends to the idea that John is bringing out the two sources that believers have "in Christ". John really explains this in 3:7-9 the two sources are 1)the regenerated seed born of God (3:9) and 2)the sin present in all of us which is sourced in Satan (3:8). This idea is further enforced in my eyes in 3:10 that we can see who is sourced in Satan (child of Satan) and who is sourced in God (children of God). 
I think I better stop there because it is way off list topic rules, but as Bob pointed out, theological interpretation of the passage is a part of the grammatical framework and sometimes needs to be discussed to be able to understand what is happening in a given passage, which is why I think there is a confusion of what is going on here because there are differing theological opinions out there that govern how we take in 1 John 3:6.
 
thank you all for a great list!
 
Tim
 
_________________________________________________________________
Climb to the top of the charts! Play the word scramble challenge with star power.
http://club.live.com/star_shuffle.aspx?icid=starshuffle_wlmailtextlink_jan


More information about the B-Greek mailing list