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

Leonard Jayawardena leonardj at live.com
Tue Dec 28 05:10:10 EST 2010



 


Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2010 06:56:23 -0800
From: lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] 1 John 4:2 and 2 John 7
To: leonardj at live.com; b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org





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.
 
LJ: I, too, don't think that docetism existed in the first century, the time when these epistles were written, or, at least, if it existed, we don't have evidence for it unless such evidence be found in these verses as usually translated.

Mark L.: 
 
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

 
LJ: I hope all your questions have been answered in my reply to Barry H. 
 
Leonard Jayawardena




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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