FOOTNOTES:

^a The words ‘here is’ are not in the Greek. This first verse seems to be a summary of the contents of the letter and form a list that otherwise don’t make a complete sentence.

^b Traditionally, ‘Word.’ The Greek word is logos. While ‘word’ is one of a long list of possible ways to translate logos, it has become something of religious jargon and loses its ability to convey the meaning intended in this passage. It is also used many times throughout John, and the uses are somewhat different. There is strong historical precedent for translating it as ‘conversation.’ According to Victoria Loorz in Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred (2021), “Up until the fourth century, Boyle points out, theologians and bishops and translators consistently translated the Greek word logos into Latin, the language of the church, as sermo, which means not ‘word’ but ‘conversation.’ Sermo indicates not a one-way sermon but a lively discourse, a dialogue, a manner of speaking back and forth: a conversation. A noun created from the root verb serō, which means to weave or join, sermo is the intimate living of life together, living among, familiarity, intimate conversation, the act of living with. Sermo was the Latin translation that best fit the meaning of logos” (p. 109). It seems to be ‘conversation’ or ‘discussion’ or ‘what was discussed’ or ‘what was said in the conversation.’ A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd Edition (BDAG) lists the definition of logos as “a communication whereby the mind finds expression.” Incorporating this definition into the understanding described by Loorz leads to the experience of God communicating the divine consciousness in a way meant to be understood, received by hearers and seers (verbs for ‘see’ occur dozens of times in John, including what is usually translated as ‘know’ or ‘understand’ which more literally means ‘has seen’) in a sacred conversation that transforms the consciousness of those in conversation with God. In the Hebrew Bible, torah and davar seem to have related meanings. Davar has also traditionally been translated as ‘word.’ One example of its use is in Exodus 20:1. It’s about divine communication here, other types of communication in other contexts. According to Wilda C. Gafney in Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne (2017), “The Torah is instruction, revelation, and sometimes law. Torah (with a capital T) is the first five books of the Scriptures and all that is in them: story, song, genealogy, geography, legal material, and lessons from the ancestors. Torah (with a little t) is instruction and jurisprudence. So, while there is torah in Torah, not all Torah is torah, and there is torah outside of the five books of the Torah! Toroth (plural of torah) can be found in any of the many genres of Torah. [. . .] The Torah is a locus of divine revelation (and divine self-revelation). The word torah comes from the verb y-r-h, ‘to throw’ (e.g., ‘to cast lots’) or ‘to shoot’ (arrows). With regard to torah, y-r-h also means ‘to throw’ rain or instruction from the heavens; [. . .] In a mystical sense, Torah can be seen as an embodiment of divine Wisdom and for some as the Word of God (with a capital W)” (p. 17). The connection with Wisdom is also strong. While the Bible primarily uses logos in this sense of conversation or what is said in a discussion or as communication, another way it was used in the Greek speaking world had to do with ‘logic’ or philosophy or ‘wisdom.’ Much connection has been made between the logos in John 1 and the personified Lady Wisdom (Chokmah in Hebrew, Sophia in Greek) in Proverbs (see especially Proverbs 8).

^c Everything in 1 John is addressed to the group, the Assembly, the Church as a collective, as a whole, not to individuals. All instances of ‘you’ and ‘your’ are plural. There are also many instances of ‘we’ and ‘our.’

^d ‘Partake in’ here is meant to convey a sense of participation that is experiential, an active sense of being, becoming part of the unity that is reciprocal, both contributing and receiving.

^e An older but appropriate word would be ‘communion’ which is ‘com-‘ (with) and ‘union’ meaning, being one with each other.

^f Or ‘communion’ or ‘being one together with’

^g Probably referring to Jesus, but the grammar is unclear, leaving open the possibility of referring to ‘the Father’ in verse 3.

^h Or ‘have communion’

ⁱ Or ‘have communion’

^j Or ‘leading away from the path’ or ‘causing to wander off course’

^k The word homologeo very literally means ‘speak the same’ and has a variety of uses that all have to do with speaking in a way that is consistent with something or in agreement with something. Traditionally, this has been translated as ‘confess,’ which in its original meaning works perfectly: ‘con-‘ (with/together) + ‘-fess’ (admit/disclose). The word does not only have to do with admitting guilt. It has to do acknowledging anything openly that consistently affirms the truth of something, agrees with reality or other people or even is consistent with what has been expressed previously in some way.

^l Traditionally, ‘unrighteousness.’ The word has to do with being aligned to something (or in this case, being misaligned). It is one of the many images related to walking the Path that is prescribed in Torah and clarified by Jesus. The word ‘just’ has to do with being ‘straight’ or ‘aligned.’