Ver. 11. Since, (1,140 cfr. Gosp. xiii. 14, 17, and other places), God hath so greatly (oürws, ver. 9, 10), loved us: we also must (imitating God in his love to man, or, from a feeling of the communion established between God's children by God's love in Christ), love one another as brothers in Christ, cfr. v. 1, 2.

Ver. 12. Here the interpretation is controverted. Carpzov connects Θεὸν οὐδεὶς πώποτε τεθέαται with ver. 14, as if St. John had written Jɛòv μèv oùdɛis TÚTOTE τεθέαται ——ἀλλ ̓ ἡμεῖς ἀληθῶς τεθεάμεθα, and his meaning had been as follows: nemo quidem deum conspicere naturam dógarov potest in vita hac, nedum comprehendere. Ipse tamen indicia dedit sui amoris luculenta, praecipue eo, dum se praebuit conspiciendum in Iesu ɛavdgúτ filio suo, quem in mundum miserat Ioan. xiv. 9. Eundem et ego (Ioannes) et apostoli reliqui, discipuli etiam complures, vidimus. omnes atque contemplati sumus, i. 1, sqq. But Lange has justly rejected this interpretation. intermediate proposition, from the beginning of ver. 12 to ver. 14, is not only too long, but its substance also is too essential, and does too much belong to the leading train of ideas, to be considered as a parenthesis. Nor is there any conjunctive particle indicating, even in the remotest degree, a mutual relation betwixt the two propositions of ver. 12 and ver. 14. Lastly, and this is most important, the proposition Θεὸν οὐδεὶς πώποτε τεθέαται is so categorically put, that, (in the absence of intermediate propositions

The

140 Concerning with the Præterite Indic. see Winer's Gramm p. 92, and Wahl's Clavis, p. 220.

respecting the visibility, or rather cognoscibility* of God latent in Christ, as defined in Gosp. xiv. 9,141 ver. 14, can by no means be considered as its limitation. The right interpretation of the passage appears to me to be this: Considering this as granted, that human love without a visible, without an immediately present object, is not easily kindled or supported, and likewise, in order to explain why he did not say in verse 11, since God hath thus loved us, let us love him again! but rather: Since God hath so greatly loved us, we must also love one another!-St. John evidently wishes to express as much as this: Man cannot immediately return to the invisible God, that love which he hath shewn to us, for no man hath ever seen God, (i. e. no man can ever see him). But when we love one another, (love the brethren who are visible,) then God remains in us, he is present to us with his favour, and thus the love to God, who is invisible yet spiritually present, cfr. ver. 19-21, is accomplished in us through the love to the brethren. These words in ver. 21, καὶ ταύτην τὴν ἐντολὴν ἔχομεν ἀπ ̓ αὐτοῦ, ἵνα ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν θεὸν ἀγαπᾷ καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ,—contains the key to our passage; and we have, in the interpretation of it, followed Ecumenius, Augustin and Grotius. It is rather on account of dogmatical timi

Cognoscibility. In the absence of any recognized English equivalent, the Translator has ventured to use cognoscibility for the German erkennbarkeit.

141 Inasmuch as in the Gospel xiv. 9, God's cognoscibility through Christ, and here evidently the impossibility of a bodily contemplation of God is spoken of, that passage cannot, by any means, be compared with the passage before us.

dity, than from valid exegetical reasons, that Calovius and others suppose that ἀγάπη αὑτοῦ means God's love to us. But this is at variance with the context, (for God's perfect love to us has already appeared in Christ,) and also with the usus loquendi of our epistle, where ἀγάπη τοῦ θεοῦ οι αὐτοῦ always* denotes the love to God, cfr. ii. 5; iii. 17; v. 3, and, with regard to the sense, cfr. also ver. 21.

In verse 13, the context and the sense is this: The love to God is founded on a mutual communion with him, but that communion depends on our consciousness of the Holy Ghost which we have received from God operating within us, cfr. iii. 24, through whose power, and in the faith in the Son

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No, not always,—not, for example, in iv. 9, where Dr. Lücke translates άyarn To Do like everybody else, by God's love to man, and where indeed it is evident it cannot be otherwise translated. What here is meant by Calovius's dogmatical timidity is this: that Calovius dared not establish man's perfect love to God as a possible case; but, after all, I see no great objection to Calovius's interpretation, nor that it it is irreconcileable either to the context or to Dr. Lücke's excellent interpretation of the preceding passage; for making άyáŋ aurou God's love to man, I would thus explain: No man hath ever seen God, (and no man can therefore be said to love God directly,) yet if we love one another God abides with us, (is present to us with his favour,) or rather God then abides with us, because there then prevails amongst us a spirit and temper which is pleasing to God; or, more metaphysically thus: If we love one another, God abides in us essentially (why? because God is love, verse 9,) and God's love is perfected in us, i. e. there does then appear in our life and conversation a perceptible effect of God's love to us. If we love one another it will appear that God hath loved us to some purpose.-Transl.

of God, as Redeemer of the world, we are God's children. The construction is here somewhat different from iii. 24. There we read ἐν τούτῳ γινώσκομεν —ἐκ τοῦ πν., here ἐν τούτῳ γιν.-ὅτι ἐκ τ. πν. αὑτοῦ déownev uv, and accordingly the sense is here somewhat different: our abiding in God, and his abiding in us, we know from this, that he has communicated to us, and still does communicate of (x) his Spirit. The daigsis Tv xagioμáτwv, 1 Cor. xii. 4, 11, is therefore here more distinctly expressed than in iii. 24.*

Inasmuch as, according to St. John, verse 9-12, the love to God and to the brethren is first lively awakened and excited by the pavégwors of God's love in the άor of his Son, for the redemption of the world, it is a matter of the highest importance that this ἀποστολὴ and σωτηρία, be well ascertained, and that it be by Christians rightly recognized, believed, and known. Thus ver. 14, 15, and 16, are connected with the preceding passage, ver. 7—13.

Verse 14. The apostolical testimony of Christ's mission for σωτηρία τοῦ κόσμου is founded on the ocular evidence of the Apostles, (here specially on that of St. John,) τεθεάμεθα καὶ μαρτυροῦμεν, cfr. i. 1, sqq.

Verse 15. He then (ös av duoλoyźon, 142 Gosp.

• And even here I should say that the διαίρεσις τῶν χαρισμάτων, is so indistinctly expressed as to leave room for a doubt whether it is at all alluded to: the preposition in appears to me too slight a foundation for such an exegesis.- Transl.

142 Winer's Grammar, p. 95. 2.

R

iii. 17,) who, conformably with this testimony in faith, confesses, cfr. ii. 22, 23, that Jesus is the Son of God: abides in communion with God, is born of God, and, as such, loves the brethren who are God's children, v. 1.

Verse 16. And thus we have (μɛîs, St. John and his readers, cfr. ver. 6,) in the faith and confession of Christ, confessed and believed, cfr. Gosp. vi. 69, 143 God's love to us, (in the mission of Christ). Tàv ἀγάπην most immediately refers to ἐγνώκαμεν as the principal notion ; πεπιστεύκαμεν, seems only to be a more precise limitation of ἐγνώκαμεν, and to be put absolutely or neutrally. The conclusion of verse 16 having a retrospect to verses 7 and 8, contains a concise result of what is before stated.

Verse 17. ̓Αγάπη μεθ ̓ ἡμῶν is by some authors understood as meaning God's love to

us, by others The reading

in the sense of ἀγάπη τῶν ἀλλήλων. To so after άyάŋ is but a frail support to the former interpretation, for being found only in a few and insignificant authorities, it clearly owes its existence to this very interpretation, which certainly is very ancient. This is in its favour, that immediately before, verse 16, the Apostle speaks of God's love to us, and that the confidence in the day of judgment is ultimately founded on God's love to us in Christ. But this is all that can be said in its favour. For, not to mention that 2 Cor. xiii. 13, on which has been founded a justification of taking the disharmonizing words 'v in the sense of towards us, (erga

143 See the Author's Commentary on this pasage.