Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

1 John 2:6

6. Before περιπατεῖν omit οὕτως with [459][460] against [461][462][463].

[459] 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.
[460] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
[461] 4th century. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the monastery of S. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and now at Petersburg. All three Epistles.
[462] 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.

[463] 9th century. All three Epistles.

6. ὁ λέγων. He who declares his position is morally bound to act up to the declaration which he has made. To profess to abide in God involves an obligation to imitate the Son, who is the concrete expression of God’s will. Μένειν is another of the Apostle’s very favourite expressions, a fact greatly obscured in A.V. by capricious changes of rendering: see on 1 John 2:24. ‘To abide in’ implies habitual fellowship. Note the climax; to know Him (1 John 2:3), to be in Him (1 John 2:5), to abide in Him (1 John 2:6): cognitio, communio, constantia (Bengel). Profession of such close intimacy involves a debt (ὀφείλει, debet). S. John does not say ‘must’ (δεῖ, oportet) which might seem to imply constraint. The obligation is internal and personal. ‘Must’ (δεῖ), frequent in the Gospel and Revelation, does not occur in these Epistles. See on 1 John 3:16.

καθὼς ἐκεῖνος π. Not simply ὡς, as, but καθώς, even as: the imitation must be exact. It is always well in translation to mark the difference between ὡς and καθώς. For καθώς comp. 1 John 2:18; 1 John 2:27; 1 John 3:2; 1 John 3:12; 1 John 3:23, and for καθὼς ἐκεῖνος, 1 John 3:3; 1 John 3:7; 1 John 4:17. Ἐκεῖνος in this Epistle is always Christ: 1 John 3:3; 1 John 3:5; 1 John 3:7; 1 John 3:16; 1 John 4:17. Nomen facile supplent credentes, plenum pectus habentes memoria Domini (Bengel). S. Peter says of Christ, ὑμῖν ὑπολιμπάνων ὑπογραμμὸν ἵνα ἐπακολουθήσητε τοῖς ἴχνεσιν αὐτοῦ (1 Peter 2:21); and (still more closely to S. John) S. Paul says περιπατεῖτε ἐν�, καθὼς καὶ ὁ Χριστὸς ἠγάπησεν, ὑμᾶς (Ephesians 5:1). Comp. Romans 15:5; Hebrews 12:2; and the Collect for the Second Sunday after Easter. In all cases it is His loving self-sacrifice that is to be imitated. Hence the next section.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

1 John 2:6

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