1 John 2:23-25

2:23 Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either. The person who confesses the Son has the Father also. ¹ 

2:24 As for you, what you have heard from the beginning must remain ²  in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 2:25 Now this ³  is the promise that he ⁴  himself made to ⁵  us: eternal life. ⁶ 

[2:23]  ¹ tc The Byzantine text, almost alone, lacks the last eight words of this verse, “The person who confesses the Son has the Father also” (ὁ ὁμολογῶν τὸν υἱὸν καὶ τὸν πατέρα ἔχει, Jo Jomologwn ton Juion kai ton patera ecei). Although shorter readings are often preferred (since scribes would tend to add material rather than delete it), if an unintentional error is likely, shorter readings are generally considered secondary. This is a classic example of such an unintentional omission: The τὸν πατέρα ἔχει of the preceding clause occasioned the haplography, with the scribe’s eye skipping from one τὸν πατέρα ἔχει to the other. (Readings such as this also suggest that the Byzantine text may have originated [at least for 1 John and probably the general epistles] in a single archetype.)

[2:24]  ² tn The word translated “remain” may also be translated “reside” (3 times in 2:24). See also the notes on the translation of the Greek verb μένω (menw) in 2:6 and in 2:19. Here the word can really have both nuances of “residing” and “remaining” and it is impossible for the English reader to catch both nuances if the translation provides only one. This occurs three times in 2:24.

[2:25]  ³ tn It is difficult to know whether the phrase καὶ αὕτη ἐστιν (kai Jauth estin) refers (1) to the preceding or (2) to the following material, or (3) to both. The same phrase occurs at the beginning of 1:5, where it serves as a transitional link between the prologue (1:1-4) and the first major section of the letter (1:5-3:10). It is probably best to see the phrase here as transitional as well; thus καί (kai) has been translated “now” rather than “and.” The accusative phrase at the end of v. 25, τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον (thn zwhn thn aiwnion), stands in apposition to the relative pronoun ἥν (Jhn), whose antecedent is ἡ ἐπαγγελία (Jh epangelia; see BDF §295). Thus the “promise” consists of “eternal life.”

[2:25]  ⁴ tn The pronoun could refer to God or Jesus Christ, but a reference to Jesus Christ is more likely here.

[2:25]  ⁵ tn Grk “he himself promised.” The repetition of the cognate verb “promised” after the noun “promise” is redundant in English.

[2:25]  ⁶ sn The promise consists of eternal life, but it is also related to the concept of “remaining” in 2:24. The person who “remains in the Son and in the Father” thus has this promise of eternal life from Jesus himself. Consistent with this, 1 John 5:12 implies that the believer has this eternal life now, not just in the future, and this in turn agrees with John 5:24.