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

Mark Lightman lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Mon Dec 27 09:56:23 EST 2010


Hi Leonard,

Excellent post.  You (and the NET, thanks for the reference, Iver) have 
convinced me that these verses have more to do with Jesus' identify as the 
Messiah than with a denial of docetism, which may not have even existed at the 
time of these writings.

The only lingering question I have is whether EN SARKI ELHLUTOTA and ERCOMENON 
EN SARKI modify Jesus or the Christ.  I'm not sure one needs to make this 
distinction, or where you stand on it.  If modifying Jesus, John may be saying 
nothing more than "of Nazareth" or TOUTON  TON IHSOUN (Acts 2:36) or what we 
would today call "the historical" Jesus.  Cf. 2 Cor 5:16, KATA SARKA CRISTON, 
where, I think, a different point is being made. 


 Mark L



FWSFOROS MARKOS




________________________________
From: Leonard Jayawardena <leonardj at live.com>
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Mon, December 27, 2010 1:26:21 AM
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
                            
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