Commentary: 1 John

Prologue (1:1-4)

Like the Gospel of John, 1 John begins with a prologue. In fact, many of its terms (including "the beginning," "the word" [Gk. logos], "life," "testify," "the Father," and the "Son") echo the Gospel's prologue. Some of these expressions are found throughout John, and others are at least distinctively Johan-nine: what we have heard and seen (John 3:32); and complete joy (John 3:29; 15:11; 16:24; 17:13). The prologue thus seems deliberately intended to plunge the reader into the Johannine world of language and thought, whether or not its author is also the author of the Gospel.

To grasp the structure of the prologue one must contend with its nearly impossible grammar. The first verse actually consists only of a series of relative clauses and a prepositional phrase standing in a kind of apposition to them. The Greek reader expects eventually to find a verb governing all these relative clauses, and that verb can only be "we declare" in verse 3. (Hence some English translations, including the NRSV, insert another "we declare to you" in v. 1.) Verse 2 is really an interruption explaining "the word of life." Verse 3 then resumes verse 1, finally delivering the main verb. But that is not quite all, for the "interruption" in verse 2 repeats "life" and "we have seen" from verse 1, and also introduces "we declare" and "the Father," which will appear in verse 3. Thus, verse 2 is not merely an interruption but a bridge between verses 1 and 3, and verse 3 summarizes both of the first two verses before moving onward. This is underscored by the repetition of "revealed" in an inclusion that ties together the beginning and the end of verse 2.

Though the result is grammatically poor and literarily awkward, this all seems quite deliberate. It succeeds in conducting the reader from the events of the past, when "the life" was revealed, to the present testimony of the author who is in fellowship both with the readers and with God. The placement of "his Son Jesus Christ" at the end of verse 3 both dramatically introduces by name the one who has been the subject all along, and sonorously rounds off the whole construction. Verse 4, however, is thereby left somewhat dangling.

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The deliberate echoes of the prologue to the Fourth Gospel may be meant to begin the author's critique of the interpretation of Johannine tradition put forward by the opponents. The Gospel's insistence on the divinity and preexistence of the one who came into the world would have supported the opponents' Christology very well. The author thus starts by attacking these opponents on what may have been some of their own favorite ground.

"What was from the beginning" (v. 1) is an obvious allusion to John 1:1, which itself alludes to Gen 1:1. There are some significant changes, however. First John uses a neuter pronoun ("what") instead of masculine ("who"), and says "from the beginning" rather than "in the beginning." In the Gospel "the beginning" clearly refers to the beginning of all things. Here, however, it seems to mean the beginning of the Christian tradition in the revelation of Jesus. The neuter pronoun, the incarnational language, and the absence of reference to the creation all suggest this, as does a comparison with the other instances of things heard "from the beginning" in these epistles (1 John 2:7, 24; 3:11; 2 John 5-6). First John is not concerned with the existence of the divine Word in the beginning, but with the persistence of the true message, "the word of life," since the beginning (see John 5:24; 6:63, 68; 8:51). Nevertheless, the allusion to the Gospel prologue inevitably reminds the reader of the absolute beginning, and it is clear from verses 2-3 that the subject of the message is the eternal divine life incarnate.

The emphasis on sense perception in verse 1, however, climaxing in "touched," recalls the physical human reality that was also part of the Johannine tradition "from the beginning." It underscores a central aspect of 1 John's message, that Jesus Christ truly came "in the flesh" (4:2; 2 John 7), that he was a real human being, not just a divine spirit, a reality that the opponents downplayed. In another classically Johannine formulation in verse 2, we learn that it was life itself, which had been in God's presence (see John 1:1), that was revealed in Jesus. This manifestation of life corresponds to the incarnation of the Logos in John 1:14. However, the author has again modified the Johannine terms. The Gospel of John never uses "life" in this fashion as virtually a title for Jesus, nor does it call the incarnation itself the "revelation" of the incarnate Christ (see also 1 John 3:5, 8; contrast John 1:31; 2:11; 7:4; 21:1, 14; usages similar to 1 John are found in 1 Tim 3:16; Heb 9:26; 1 Pet 1:20). By so closely identifying life with the incarnate one in whom it was revealed, 1 John underlines the need for a faith that takes in the full humanity of Jesus in order to receive the gift of eternal life (see also 2:22-25; 5:11-13). The result is a fully incarnational conception: the divine life was revealed in a visible and tangible person who was witnessed, and this revelation itself is embodied in the message that has been handed on since that beginning.

The stress on physical knowledge in verse 1 is often taken as evidence that 1 John was written by someone who knew Jesus himself. But the probable date of 1 John works against this; in any case, the text here is intended to give testimony, not to report the author's eyewitness status. The notion of testimony to what has been seen (see also 4:14) emphasizes the author's place in the Johannine tradition, indeed in a tradition stretching all the way back to John the Baptist (John 1:32-34; 3:11; 19:35). The use of the first-person plural in the prologue is related to this sense of being part of a corporate tradition. The Greek syntax in verse 3 can best be rendered "we declare in turn to you": the author, or the group that he represents, is a link in a chain of testimony extending from the events of the revelation of eternal life in Jesus to the readers of 1 John. This continuous witness to the message of the revelation authenticates the author's interpretation of that message for the readers.

The ordinary sense of the word "fellowship" (koinonia) is sharing or partnership, a usage that may have been common in the early Christian mission (see the comments on 2 John 11). Here it seems to correspond to the language of mutual indwelling with God and with Christ that is common in John and elsewhere in 1 John (see the comments on 2:6), though it suggests more strongly the importance of a community. Since the word is totally absent from John, its appearance four times in 1 John 1:3-7 is noteworthy. The application of fellowship language to God, which occurs only here in the entire Bible (although it is common in Greek thought), may have originated with the opponents (v. 6). If that is the case, then the author's invitation to fellowship implies an invitation away from them. By putting themselves outside the tradition of witness to the incarnation, thus separating themselves from the light of love, the opponents have cut...