1 John 2:29

29. For εἰδῆτε ([549][550][551], Vulgate) [552][553][554] and some Versions read ἴδητε. Before πᾶς insert καὶ with [555][556][557], Peschito, Thebaic, and Vulgate against [558][559][560]. [561] and some Versions omit both καὶ and πᾶς.

[549] 4th century. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the monastery of S. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and now at Petersburg. All three Epistles.
[550] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
[551] 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.

[552] 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.
[553] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[554] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[555] 4th century. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the monastery of S. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and now at Petersburg. All three Epistles.
[556] 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.
[557] 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.

[558] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
[559] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[560] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[561] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.

In nearly all these cases [562] preserves the original text. The combination [563][564] in no instance yields a doubtful reading.

[562] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
[563] 4th century. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the monastery of S. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and now at Petersburg. All three Epistles.
[564] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.

1 John 2:29 to 1 John 3:12. THE CHILDREN OF GOD AND THE CHILDREN OF THE DEVIL

29. ἐὰν εἰδῆτε ὅτι δίκαιός ἐστιν. This probably does not mean Christ, although the preceding verse refers entirely to Him. ‘To be born of Christ,’ though containing “nothing abhorrent from our Christian ideas,” is not a Scriptural expression; whereas ‘to be born of God’ is not only a common thought in Scripture, but is specially common in this Epistle and occurs in the very next verse. And clearly ‘He’ and ‘Him’ must be interpreted alike: it destroys the argument (ὁ δίκαιος δικαίους γεννᾷ, justus justum gignit, as Oecumenius and Bengel put it) to interpret ‘He is righteous’ of Christ and ‘born of Him’ of God. Moreover, this explanation gets rid of one abrupt change by substituting another still more abrupt. That ‘He, Him, His’ in 1 John 2:28 means Christ, and ‘He, Him’ in 1 John 2:29 means God, is some confirmation of the view that a new division of the letter begins with 1 John 2:29. That ‘God is righteous’ see 1 John 1:9 and John 17:25. But S. John is so full of the truth that Christ and the Father are one, and that Christ is God revealed to man, that he makes the transition from one to the other almost imperceptibly. Bede interprets both δίκαιός ἐστιν and ἐξ αὐτοῦ of Christ.

γινώσκετε. Once more we are in doubt as to indicative or imperative: see on 1 John 2:27. The Vulgate has scitote, and hence Wiclif and the Rhemish, as also Tyndale and Cranmer, have the imperative. But the indicative is more in harmony with 1 John 2:20-21 : Ye know that everyone also, i.e. not only Christ, but every righteous believer, is a son of God. Beza has nostis, which the Genevan mistranslates ‘ye have known’. Note the change from εἰδῆτε to γινώσκετε, the one expressing the knowledge that is intuitive or simply possessed, the other that which is acquired by experience: ‘If ye are aware that God is righteous, ye must recognise, &c.’ Contrast 1 John 2:11; 1 John 2:20-21 with 1 John 2:3-5; 1 John 2:13-14; 1 John 2:18. Comp. ὃ ἐγὼ ποιῶ σὺ οὐκ οἶδας ἄρτι, γνώσῃ δὲ μετὰ ταῦτα (John 13:7): πάντα σὺ οἶδας σὺ γινώσκεις ὅτι φιλῶ σε (John 21:17): and conversely, εἰ ἐγνώκειτέ με, καὶ τὸν πατέρα μου ἂν ἤδειτε (John 14:7).

ὁ ποιῶν. ‘That habitually doeth:’ not the fact of having done a righteous act here and there, but the habit of righteousness, proves sonship. Morality in the highest sense can come of no lower source than God. τὴν δικαιοσύνην. The article possibly means His righteousness, or the righteousness that is rightly known as such; but it is safer to omit it in translation. The omission of the article before abstract nouns is the rule; but the exceptions are very numerous, and among the exceptions are the many cases in which the article is used for a possessive pronoun. Winer, 148. Again, “the Article is rightly prefixed to words by which a system of action, familiar to the mind as such, is intended to be signified” (Green, Grammar of the N.T. p. 17). It is difficult to decide between these two explanations, but the latter seems better. Comp. ποιεῖν τὴν�.

ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεγἐννηται. Of Him hath he been begotten and His child he remains: ἐξ αὐτοῦ first for emphasis. Just as only he who habitually walks in the light has true fellowship with the God who is light (1 John 1:6-7), so only he who habitually does righteousness is a true son of the God who is righteous. Thus the writer to Diognetus says that the Christian is Λόγῳ προσφιλεῖ γεννηθείς, while the Son is πάντοτε νέος ἐν ἁγίων καρδίαις γεννώμενος (xi.). Other signs of the Divine birth are love of the brethren (1 John 4:7) and faith in Jesus as the Christ (1 John 5:1). Righteousness begins in faith and ends in love.