The Jewish Annotated New Testament (299 page)

23
:
Denies the Son
, possibly a reference to non-messianic Jews.

25
:
Eternal life
, the life of, or from, God, who is the only eternal being.

27
:
Abide in him
, or “abide in it,” referring to the anointing.

28
:
Coming
(Gk “parousia”), the judgment consequent on the Messiah’s return (see e.g., Mal 3.2 [referring to the “messenger” who precedes the coming of God]; 1 Cor 15.23; 1 Thess 2.19; 3.13; 4.15; 2 Thess 2.1).

2.29
–3.24: Behaving as the children of God.

3.2
:
We are God’s children
(also 3.1; 4.4; 5.19), perhaps by this repeated theme the author seeks to assure readers of their status.
We will be like him
, believers become Christ-like in the resurrection (Jn 1.12–13; 13.15). Jews frequently are referred to as God’s children in the Hebrew Bible (e.g., Deut 14.1–2) and in rabbinic literature (e.g.,
m. Avot
3.12). This imagery is used to convey the special, intimate nature of the relationship between God and the Jews—and how this special consecrated (or holy) status places certain moral and behavioral expectations upon the house of Israel, such as following dietary laws (Deut 14.3-21), and providing agricultural tithes that support the poor (Deut 14.28-29), which distinguish Israel from other nations.

3
:
Purify … pure
, necessary for coming into contact with God; see Isa 6.5–7; Mal 3.2.

4
:
Sin … lawlessness
, Gk “anomia” may imply the doctrine that believers can do without “nomos” (“law,” the LXX translation of “Torah”), a view that Paul also combated (see e.g., Rom 3.31; 6.15ff.).

5
:
No sin
, see also Heb 4.15: Jesus shared all human experience except those arising from human sin.

6
–10
:
No one who abides in him sins
, the author sets a very high standard of behavior (see vv. 8–10). The main forms of sin, however, seem to be the failure to
love their brothers and sisters
and denial of God and the Son (2.22).

8
:
Child of the devil
, perhaps a reference to those who withdrew (2.19); there is no indication here of the identification of Jews as children of the devil, as in Jn 8.44.

9
:
Seed
, perhaps the Holy Spirit; one’s “seed” is one’s offspring, here the deeds of love and faith in God.

11
:
Love one another
(see 3.14,16,18), love is one of the frequent themes of the Johannine literature (see Jn 13.34–35).

12
:
We must not be like Cain
, Cain was the first murderer (see Gen 4). The Hebrew Bible does not explain why God preferred Abel’s offering to that of Cain’s—an episode that prompted Cain’s feelings of hostility for Abel. One suggestion is that when comparing Gen 4.4, which describes Abel as bringing “the choicest of the firstlings of his flock,” with Gen 4.3, in which Cain brings “an offering … from the fruits of his soil,” it may be understood that Abel’s offer was the better, and more pious, of the two. Another explanation is that Abel was chosen over Cain because of the brothers’ different lifestyles. Abel was a shepherd, Cain a farmer, and numerous times in the Bible God shows a preference for the seminomadic, pastoral lifestyle of the shepherd (e.g., Moses [Ex 3.1] and David [1 Sam 16.11; 2 Sam 7.8] were shepherds before they were chosen by God to be leaders, and each was a younger brother as well). Various attempts to explain why Cain murdered Abel are found in Jewish postbiblical traditions.

13
:
The world hates you
, see Jn 15.18–19.

16
:
Laid down his life
, the rabbinic term “kiddush ha-Shem” denotes martyrdom, in particular, the willingness to die a martyr in order to sanctify (“kiddush”) God’s name (“ha-Shem”). Though the term is rabbinic, the concept is biblical, based on Lev 22.32, which states, “You shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel.” Choosing death was considered mandatory by the rabbis if life meant transgressing three commandments against idolatry, unchastity (including incest, adultery, and, under certain circumstances, any infraction of the code of sexual morality), and murder (
b. Sanh
. 74a).

19
–21
:
Hearts
, the Hebrew Bible views the heart as the seat of the emotional and intellectual inner life of a human being; the Hebrew word for heart, “lev(av),” was used metaphorically to refer to the source of the intellectual activities of a person (e.g., 1 Kings 8.48; Isa 10.7; Ezek 36.26). The laws of God were considered to have been written on the heart of humans (Ps 37.31). The rabbis also adopted the view that the heart was the seat of the emotions and intellect; most rabbinic references to the heart pertain to the sphere of ethics (e.g.,
m. Avot
2.9), and prayer is understood to be the “service of the heart” (
y. Ber
. 4.1; 7a).

21
:
Boldness
(Gk “parresia,” the confidence to speak one’s mind), see 2.28, “confidence”; 4.17, “boldness” resulting from knowledge of the love of God; 5.14, “boldness” in asking “according to [God’s] will.”

23
:
Name
, one’s essential nature, including inherent authority; see 2.12–14n.

4.1
–5.12: Identifying children of God.

4.1–2
:
Test the spirits
, the author warns his community to be vigilant against
false prophets
, who may speak a word as if from God but propagate false teaching (see Deut 13.1–5; Jer 14.13–16); the “test” is the confession of
Jesus Christ … in the flesh
(i.e., not an illusion of being a human person). This statement implies that the opponents, presumably those who have recently separated, do
not
believe that Jesus came in the flesh. In the Tanakh, being able to distinguish between true and false prophets was a perplexing issue. Deut 18.20–22 attempts to provide two criteria: (1) true prophets speak only on behalf of the God of Israel alone (i.e., not on behalf of other gods), and (2) a true prophecy will come to pass. These criteria were not fail-safe; for example, if a false prophet is recognized as such by the failure of his or her prophecy, how is one to decide in the present? The rabbis likewise were concerned about the distinction between true and false prophets; they warned, for example, that false prophets would entice Jews to transgress Mosaic law by promising great rewards (e.g.,
Pesiq. Rav Kah
. 24.15). Rabbis were particularly concerned about the relationship between prophecy and law, and which had more authority: “Until now [in the age of Alexander the Great] the prophets prophesied through the medium of the Holy Spirit; from now on, incline your ear and hearken to the words of the sages” (
Seder Olam Rab
. 30).

5
:
From the world
, the area of opposition to God; see 2.15n.

6
:
Spirit of truth … error
, the Holy Spirit contrasted with the spirit of the world or the devil (3.10). In the DSS there are references to two competing spirits, one good, and one bad. The good spirit, at times called the “spirit of truth,” is associated with light, truth, and righteousness, and the bad spirit, sometimes labeled the “spirit of deceit” or “Belial” (lit., “of no worth”) is associated with darkness, sin, and evil (1QS 3.17–21; 4.7–25).

7
–12
:
Let us love one another
, see 3.11. The
love
that the members of the community have for each other is participation in God’s love, shown when
God sent his only Son … to be the atoning sacrifice
(see 2.2n.).

12
:
No one has ever seen God
, Jn 1.18; visions of God (Moses, Ex 34.5–6; Isa 6.1; Ezek 1) are presumably either partial (back, lower body) or manifestations of visibility only for purposes of communication, not what God “really” is.

13
:
Spirit
, here capitalized to indicate that translators read it as being God’s Spirit.

14
:
Savior of the world
, see Jn 4.42; the purport is that the Son is the (potential) Savior of all, not of a particular group.

17
:
Day of judgment
, this expression is not found in the Tanakh. Instead “day of the Lord” is used (e.g., Isa 13.6–13; Joel 1.15; 2.1; 3.4; 4.14; Am 5.18–20; Ob 15; Zeph 1.17–18; Mal 3.23), a somewhat vague phrase understood to refer to a future point in time in which the wicked will be punished and justice will be achieved; it is strongly associated with the motifs of darkness and doom. The images connected with the “day of the Lord” contributed to the subsequent development of the day of judgment and its eschatology. Within Jewish tradition, the concept or term “day of judgment” appears in texts written during the Greco-Roman period (such as Dan 7.9–27 [the term is not used here]; Jdt 16.17;
Jub
. 5.10–14;
T. Levi
3.2–3).

5.1
:
Born of God
, remade in the image of God (Gen 1.26–27; Jn 1.12–13: “born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God”).

2
–3
:
We … obey his commandments
, see Jn 14.15–17.

4
–5
:
Conquers
, overcomes, is no longer subject to the power of (the world). The rabbis understood that human beings were engaged in a constant internal struggle between following their “evil inclination” (“yetzer ha-ra”) or following their “good inclination” (“yetzer ha-tov”). Righteous behavior and following the law were keys to “conquering” (kovesh) the evil inclination, but it was possible to receive forgiveness if one periodically faltered and allowed the evil inclination to prevail (
b. Sanh
. 43b: “R. Joshua b. Levi said: He who sacrifices his [evil] inclination and confesses [his sin] over it, Scripture imputes it to him as though he had honored the Holy One, blessed be He, in both worlds, this world and the next; for it is written, Whoso offereth the sacrifice of confession honoreth me.”

6
–8
:
Water … blood … Spirit
, probably another connection with the Gospel of John, which refers (19.34) to a spear being thrust into Jesus’ side, from which blood and water emerge.
Water
is baptism, in the sense of cleansing from impurity (see, e.g., Lev 14.9);
blood
is sacrifice (e.g., Lev 4); the
Spirit
is the true witness (Jn 16.13).

5.13
–21: Sin and eternal life. 16–17
:
There is sin that is mortal
, the author’s precise meaning is not clear, but possibly
mortal
refers to sin that prevents one from attaining eternal life (see 2.25n.).