Re: 1 John 2:1

From: Steven Craig Miller (scmiller@www.plantnet.com)
Date: Tue Dec 21 1999 - 20:25:53 EST


To: Grant Polle,

As an aside, I've noticed in my short time participating on this list that there are a lot of questions asked about First John. Either the grammar of First John is more perplexing than most other books of the NT, or people must love reading First John more than other books.

<< Is hAMARTHTE a specific sin or sin in general? >>

Although hAMARTANW is just a common Greek term meaning "miss, fail, err" in the NT is generally means "sin." And anyone who has spent time going from one religious group to another soon learns that a community's notion of "sin" varies from group to group. One might say that from a sociological point of view, "sin" is merely the violation of a religious community's norms.

<< Is he here referring to the inherited sin that Romans 5:12 mentions or rather a sin that would involve a wrongdoing different from regular imperfection? >>

The term itself does not specify how one might understand the notion of "sin."

<< I just found it quite strange that he "writes so that they do not commit a sin" when 1 John 1:8 tells us that to make the statement: "We have no sin" then constitutes us as a liar. I seriously doubt John was contradicting himself a few verse later. He most likely had something else in mind. Does the Greek reveal anything I am missing? >>

The verb hAMARTHTE is 2nd person aorist active subjunctive, and so it is NOT "they do not commit sin" but rather ("I am writing these things to you so that") "you may not sin." There is no contradiction between recognizing that one commits sins even though one should not. If one wants to look for a contradiction in First John, one would do better comparing First John 3:9 with 1:8.

-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller@www.plantnet.com
Disclaimer: "I'm just a simple house-husband (with no post-grad degree), what do I know?"
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