Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

1 John 3:12

12. A brother’s love suggests its opposite, a brother’s hate, and that in the typical instance of it, the fratricide Cain.

οὐ καθὼς Κάϊν. As R.V., Not as Cain was of the evil one. In A.V. the definite article has been exaggerated into a demonstrative pronoun, ‘that wicked one.’ The same fault occurs John 1:21; John 1:25; John 6:14; John 6:48; John 6:69; John 7:40. For ὁ πονηρός see on 1 John 2:13. In ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς ἁμαρτάνει (1 John 3:8) S. John took us back to the earliest point in the history of sin. The instance of Cain shewed how very soon sin took the form of hate, and fratricidal hate. It is better not to supply any verb with ‘not’; although the sentence is grammatically incomplete, it is quite intelligible. ‘We are not, and ought not to be, of the evil one, as Cain was.’ Commentators quote the “strange Rabbinical view” that while Abel was the son of Adam, Cain was the son of the tempter. Of course S. John is not thinking of such wild imaginations: Cain is only morally ‘of the evil one.’ Here, as elsewhere in the Epistle (1 John 2:13-14; 1 John 5:18-19), S. John uses ‘the evil one’ as a term with which his readers are quite familiar. He gives no explanation. To render τοῦ πονηροῦ ‘that wicked one’ while πονηρὰ is translated ‘evil,’ mars the Apostle’s point. Cain’s πονηρὰ ἔργα prove that he is ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ.

καὶ ἔσφαξεν τ. ἀδελφόν. This is special proof of his devilish nature. The devil ἀνθρωποκτόνος ἦν�ʼ ἀρχῆς (John 8:44). Σφάζειν is a link between this Epistle and the Apocalypse: it occurs nowhere else in N.T. Its original meaning was ‘to cut the throat’ (σφαγή), especially of a victim for sacrifice. In later Greek it means simply to slay, especially with violence. But perhaps something of the notion of slaying a victim clings to it here, as in most passages in Revelation (1 John 5:6; 1 John 5:9; 1 John 5:12; John 6:9; John 13:3; John 13:8; John 18:24).

καὶ χάριν τίνος. S. John puts this question to bring out still more strongly the diabolical nature of the act and the agent. Was Abel at all to blame? On the contrary, it was his righteousness which excited the murderous hate of Cain. Cain was jealous of the acceptance which Abel’s righteous offering found, and which his own evil offering did not find: and ‘who is able to stand before envy?’ (Proverbs 27:4). Cain’s offering was evil, (1) because it ‘cost him nothing’ (2 Samuel 24:24); (2) because of the spirit in which it was offered. The καί emphasizes the question. Comp. καὶ τίς ἐστιν, κύριε; (John 9:36): καί τίς ἐστί μου πλησίον; (Luke 10:29): καὶ τίς δύναται σωθῆναι; (Luke 18:26). Winer, 545. Elsewhere in N.T. χάριν follows its case, as commonly in classical Greek. The exceptional arrangement seems to emphasize the χάριν: ‘And because of what?’

δίκαια. This is the last mention of the subject of δικαιοσύνη, with which the section opened in 1 John 2:29 : comp. 1 John 3:7; 1 John 3:10. Neither δικαιοσύνη nor δίκαιος occurs again in the Epistle, righteousness being merged in the warmer and more definite aspect of it, love. This is a reason for including from 1 John 2:29 to 1 John 3:12 in one section, treating of the righteousness of the children of God. Comp. ‘By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had witness borne to him that he was righteous’ (Hebrews 11:4).

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

1 John 3:12

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