[B-Greek] 1 John 4:2 and 2 John 7

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Mon Dec 27 08:47:04 EST 2010


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Leonard Jayawardena" <leonardj at live.com>
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: 27. december 2010 11:26
Subject: [B-Greek] 1 John 4:2 and 2 John 7


>
> 1 John 4:2: KAI PAN PNEUMA hO hOMOLEGEI IHSOUN CRISTON EN SARKI ELHLUTOTA EK 
> TOU QEOU ESTIN.
>
> 2 John 7: hOTI POLLOI PLANOI EXHLQON EIS TON KOSMON, hOI MH hOMOLOGOUNTES 
> IHSOUN CRISTON ERCOMENON EN SARKI ....
>
> All the translations I have been able to check except Moffat take  IHSOUN 
> CRISTON EN SARKI ELHLUTOTA as the object of hOMOLOGEW in 1 John 4:2 and IHSOUN 
> CRISTON ERCOMENON EN SARKI as the object of hMOLOGEW in 2 John 7, resulting in 
> the following translations:
>
> 1 John 4:2: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the 
> flesh is of God (KJV)
>
> 2 John 7: For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not 
> acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh .... (NASB).
>
> In commentaries that adopt the above interpretations of these two verses, it 
> is customary to call such denial an error of "docetic Gnosticism." But the 
> actual issue involved is simply the denial on the part of some that Jesus is 
> the  Christ (cf. 1 John 2:22; 5:1); therefore it is best to translate these 
> verses as follows, taking IHSOUN CRISTON in both cases as an object-complement 
> double accusative.
>
> 1 John 4:2: And every spirit that confesses that Jesus is Christ come in the 
> flesh is of God.
>
> 2 John 7: For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who deny that 
> Jesus is Christ coming in the flesh ....
>
> In both verses the idea is that the flesh and blood human being known to the 
> world as Jesus is the Christ.
>
> In John 9:22, we have the same verb hOMOLOGEW used with an object-complement 
> construction: EAN TIS AUTON hOMOLOGHSHi CRISTON--"if any one confessed him 
> [Jesus] to be Christ."
>
> Moffat, the only exception I have noted, translates 1 John 4:2 as "every 
> spirit that confesses Jesus as Christ incarnate comes from God."
>
> I checked with Wallace and was happy to see that he agrees with me on the 
> translation of the subject verses (see note 41 on p. 188).
>
> Leonard Jayawardena

Wallace is discussing Rom 10:9 on p. 188. He does talk about an 
object-complement construction here (or double accusatives), and in note 41 he 
refers to three other places where this verb takes an object-complement, namely 
John 9:22, 1 Jn 4:2 and 2 Jn 7. But I don't see him discussing the details of 
the two verses you refer to.

It could as well be that he takes IHSOUN CRISTON as the compound object and the 
following participles as the complement (second object). Confessing Jesus Christ 
as the one who has come in the flesh. That is how I would take it, and as you 
say, that is the normal understanding. However, the NET follows your 
understanding, and it is grammatically possible.

1 John does talk about people denying or believing that Jesus is the Christ, but 
he uses a different construction to show this as seen in 2:22 and 5:1.

Iver Larsen 




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