1 John 2:7

2:7 Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. ¹  The old commandment is the word that you have already ²  heard.

1 John 2:13-14

2:13 I am writing to you, fathers, that ³  you have known him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, that ⁴  you have conquered the evil one. ⁵  2:14 I have written to you, children, that ⁶  you have known the Father. ⁷  I have written to you, fathers, that ⁸  you have known him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young people, that ⁹  you are strong, and the word of God resides in you, and you have conquered the evil one.

1 John 2:21

2:21 I have not written to you that ¹⁰  you do not know the truth, but that ¹¹  you do know it, and that ¹²  no lie is of the truth.

1 John 1:4

1:4 Thus ¹³  we are writing these things so that ¹⁴  our ¹⁵  joy may be complete. ¹⁶ 

¹ sn See John 13:34-35.

² tn “Already” is not is the Greek text, but is supplied for clarity.

³ tn See the note on “that” in v. 12.

⁴ tn See the note on “that” in v. 12.

⁵ sn The phrase the evil one is used in John 17:15 as a reference to Satan. Satan is also the referent here and in the four other occurrences in 1 John (2:14; 3:12; 5:18, 19).

⁶ tn See the note on “that” in v. 12.

⁷ sn The versification of vv. 13 and 14 (so also NAB, NRSV, NLT) follows that of the NA²⁷ and UBS⁴ editions of the Greek text. Some English translations, however, break the verses between the sentence addressed to children and the sentence addressed to fathers (KJV, NKJV, NASB, NIV). The same material has been translated in each case; the only difference is the versification of that material.

⁸ tn See the note on “that” in v. 12.

⁹ tn See the note on “that” in v. 12.

¹⁰ tn The interpretation of the three ὅτι clauses in v. 21 is very difficult: (1) All three instances of ὅτι (Joti) may be causal (so NASB, NIV, NEB). (2) The first two may be causal while the third indicates content (declarative or recitative ὅτι, so KJV, RSV, TEV, NRSV). (3) However, it is best to take all three instances as indicating content because this allows all three to be subordinate to the verb ἔγραψα (egraya) as compound direct objects. The author writes to reassure his readers (a) that they do indeed know the truth (first two uses of ὅτι) and (b) that no lie is of the truth (third use).

¹¹ tn See the note on the first occurrence of “that” in v. 21.

¹² tn See the note on the first occurrence of “that” in v. 21.

¹³ tn “Thus” is supplied to indicated the resultative nature of the Greek conjunction καί (kai) at the beginning of v. 4.

¹⁴ tn The ἵνα (Jina) here indicates purpose.

¹⁵ tc A number of mss, some of them important (A C K P 33 81 1505 1739 pm sy^h bo), read ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “your”) rather than ἡμῶν (Jhmwn, “our”), which is found in somewhat better witnesses (א B L Ψ 049 1241 pm sy^p sa). Although the majority of Byzantine minuscules are split between the two readings, the Textus Receptus reads ὑμῶν. It is possible that ὑμῶν represents a scribal assimilation to John 16:24. As far as the immediate context is concerned, either reading could possibly be original, since the recipients have already been mentioned in 1:2 (ὑμῖν, Jumin) and 1:3 (ὑμῖν), while it might seem more natural for the author to be concerned about the fulfillment of his own joy than his readers’ (cf. 2 John 4, 12; 3 John 3). Overall, the first person pronoun is preferred on both external and internal grounds.

¹⁶ tn Grk “be fulfilled.”