Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

1 John 2:24

24. After the first ὑμεῖς omit οὖν with [510][511][512][513] and Versions against [514][515].

[510] 4th century. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the monastery of S. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and now at Petersburg. All three Epistles.
[511] 5th century. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. All three Epistles.
[512] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
[513] 5th century. A palimpsest: the original writing has been partially rubbed out and the works of Ephraem the Syrian have been written over it. In the National Library at Paris. Part of the First and Third Epistles; 1 John 1:1 to 1 John 4:2; 3 John 1:3-14. Of the whole N.T. the only Books entirely missing are 2 John and 2 Thessalonians.

[514] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[515] 9th century. All three Epistles.

24. ὑμεῖς ὃ ἠκούσατε. The οὗν is an erroneous insertion in many of the inferior MSS. which omit the second half of 1 John 2:23 : it weakens the force of the charge. As for you (with great emphasis, in contrast to these antichristian liars), let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning. For the nominativus pendens comp. John 6:39; John 7:38; John 14:12; John 15:2; John 17:2; Revelation 2:26; Revelation 3:12; Revelation 3:21 : Winer, 718. Ἠκούσατε should be rendered as an aorist: as in 1 John 2:7 and 1 John 3:11, it points to the definite time when they were instructed in the faith. ‘Hold fast what ye first heard, and reject these lying innovations’.

In this passage the arbitrary distinctions introduced by the translators of 1611 reach a climax. The same Greek word (μένειν) is translated in three different ways in one verse; ‘abide … remain … continue’. Elsewhere it is rendered in four other ways, making seven English words to one Greek; ‘dwell’ (John 1:39; John 6:56; John 14:10; John 14:17), ‘tarry’ (John 4:40; John 21:22-23), ‘endure’ (John 6:27), ‘be present’ (John 14:25). The translators in their Address to the Reader tell us that these changes were often made knowingly and sometimes of set purpose. See Trench On the A.V. of N.T. pp. 85–87. They are generally regretable, and here are doubly so: (1) an expression highly characteristic of S. John (Gospel, 1 and 2 Epp., Rev.) and of deep meaning is blurred, (2) the emphasis gained by iteration, which is also characteristic of S. John, is entirely lost. ‘Let the truths which were first taught you have a home in your hearts: if these have a home in you, ye also shall have a home in the Son and in the Father’. The Son is mentioned first because it is by abiding in Him that we abide in the Father. Bede quaintly suggests another reason: ne dicant Ariani, Filium minorem Patre propterea credendum, quia nunquam ante Patrem nominatus inveniatur. But there was ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ &c.’ (2 Corinthians 13:14) to forbid so weak an argument.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

1 John 2:24

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