Ver. 6. That He might destroy the works of the devil.] The word here used for Satan (diáßoλos) is found in John vii. 70, viii. 44, xiii. 2; Apoc. ii. 10, xii. 9, 12, xx. 2, 10. One class of miracles is not specifically recorded by St. John in his Gospel-the dispossession of demoniacs. Probably this terrible affliction was less common in Jerusalem than in Galilee. But the idea of possession is not foreign to his mode of thought. John vi. 70, viii. 44, 48, x. 20, xiii. 27. He here points to the dispossessions, so many of which are recorded by the Synoptics. III. ver. 9. His seed abideth in him.] Of these words only two interpretations appear to be fairly possible. (1) The first would understand "His seed" as God's seed," the stock or family of His children who are the true D, seed of God (Mal. ii. 15). In favour of this intrepretation it may be urged: first, that "seed" in the sense of "children, posterity, any one's entire stock and filiation," in perhaps nearly two hundred passages of the LXX., is the Greck rendering of many different Hebrew words. (See σrépμa in Num. xxiv. 20; Deut. xxv. 1; Jer. 1. 16; Gen. iii. 15; Isa. xiv. 20, 30, xv. 9; Num. xxiii. 10; 2 Chron. xiv. 27.) Secondly, no inapt meaning is given in the present text by so understanding the word. "He is unable to go on in sin, for God's true stock and family (they who are true to the majesty of their birth) abide in Him.” (2) But a second meaning appears preferable "Seed" (σñéрμa) would then be understood as a metaphorical application of the grain in the vegetable world which contains the possible germ of the future plant or tree; and would signify the possibility, or germinal principle, given by the Holy Spirit to the soul in regeneration. For this signification in our passage there is a strong argument, which we have not seen adverted to, in St. John's mode of language and of thought. "His seed abideth in him ” (σπέρμα αὐτοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ μένει) is really a quotation from the LXX. (οῦ τὸ σπέρμα αὐτοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ—note the repetition of the words Gen. i. 11, 12). Now the Book of Genesis seems to have been the part of the Old Testament which (with the Psalms) was chiefly in St. John's mind in the Epistle. (Cf. 1 John i. 1, Gen. i. 1.—iii. 8, Gen. ii.—iii. 12, Gen. iv. 8— iii. 15, Gen. xxvii. 41.) St. John, also, connects the new birth of the sons of God, as did our Lord, with the birth of the creation, whose first germ was "the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters" (Gen. i. 2; John iii. 5). This parallel between the first creation and the second, between creation and regeneration, has always commended itself to profound Christian exegesis as being deeply set in the mind of Scripture. Witness the magnificent lines. Plebs ut sacra renascatur, Per Hunc unda consecratur, In rerum exordium. Fons, origo pietatis, Fons emundans a peccatis, Fons de fonte Deitatis, Fons sacrator fontium ! Adam of St. Victor, Seq. xx., Pentecoste. It is instructive, to study the treatment of our Lord's words (John iii. 5) by a commentator so little mystical as Professor Westcott. St. John, then, might point at this as another hint of regeneration in the parable of creation, viewed spiritually. The world of vegetation in Genesis is divided into two classes. (1) Herbs = all grasses and plants which "yield seed." (2) Trees "≥ 1y = shrubs and arboreous plants which have their seed enclosed in their fruit (Gen. i. 11, 12). Such are the plants of God's planting in His garden. Of each the "seed" from which he sprung, and which he will reproduce unless he becomes barren and blighted, "is in him." "He cannot sin." It is against the basis of his new nature. Of the new creation as of the old, the law is—“his seed is in him.” The rest of this verse is interpreted in the Discourse upon I John v. 4. GREEK. ἐν τούτῳ φανερά ἐστιν χάριν ἔσφαξεν ὅτι τὰ ἔργα LATIN. non In hoc manifesti sunt iusta. fratres mundus. nos terutrum, non Cain ex maligno erat, et occidit fratrem suum. Et propter quid occidit eum? quoniam opera eius maligna erant, eius autem fratris ἦν, τὰ αὐτοῦ πονηρὰ Nolite mirari δὲ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ αὐτοῦ si odit μὴ θαυμάζετε, δίκαια. Nos scimus ἀδελφοὶ, εἰ μισεῖ ὑμᾶς ὁ quoniam translati κόσμος. Ημεῖς οἴδαμεν morte in sumus de ὅτι μεταβεβήκαμεν ἐκ vitam, quoniam diliτοῦ θανάτου εἰς τὴν gimus fratres : qui non ζωὴν, ὅτι ἀγαπῶμεν diligit, manet in morte. τοὺς ἀδελφούς· ὁ μὴ Omnis qui odit fratrem ἀγαπῶν μένει ἐν τῷ suum homicida est, et πᾶς ὁ μισῶν θανάτῳ scitis quoniam omnis τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ ἀνhabet homicida θρωποκτόνος ἐστίν· καὶ non SECTION VI. AUTHORISED VERSION. In this the children For this is We know that in REVISED VERSION. In this the children ANOTHER VERSION. In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil: every one who is not doing righteousness is not of God, neither he that is not brother. his loving For this is For this is the message the message which ye that ye heard from the heard from the beginthat beginning ning, that we should should love one love one another: not Not as Cain other. as Cain was of the evil was of the wicked one and slew his one, and slew his brother brother. And where(shall we be). fore slew he him? wherefore works his evil, and his him? Because brother's righteous. We know that ye an And slew he his works were evil, but We know marvel not if the world vitam æternam in se Caris- hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down Our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby know we love, because He laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath the world's goods, and beholdeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how doth the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither with the tongue; but in deed and truth. Hereby shall we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our heart before him, whereinsoever our heart condemn us; because God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us abideth in the death. Every one who hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby know we The Love because He laid down His life for us and we are bound to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath the living of the world and gazes on his brother having need and shuts out his heart from him, how doth the love of God abide in him? Children let us not love in word, nor with the tongue, but in work and truth. Hereby shall we know that we are of the truth and shall persuade Our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things we not, we have boldness toward and God; whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment, that should believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one as He another, even gave us commandment. And he that keepeth commandments His abideth in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He gave us. soever we Beloved, if our heart condemn us not then have we boldness toward God, and whatask we receive of Him, for we observe His commandments, and are doing those things that are pleasing in His sight. commandAnd His ment is this, that we believe the should name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another as He gave commandment. And he who is observing commandments His abideth in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know that He abideth in us-out of the fulness of the Spirit whereof He gave us. |