FOOTNOTES:

^a Or ‘know’

^b Traditionally, ‘revealed.’ This word phaneroo means ‘to make visible’ and is related to phaneros, ‘clearly visible’ and phane, ‘torch.’ The idea is that something shadowed or difficult to see has been illuminated and made easily and clearly visible. ‘Brought to light’ has that meaning and has the added benefit of the connection with illumination that is part of the word’s root meaning. It would also be appropriate to translate it as ‘made clear’ or ‘made visible’ or ‘exposed.’ The word ‘revealed’ could work but is often how apokalupto is translated, which has to do with uncovering or unveiling.

^c Literally, ‘he’ or ‘that one.’ 1 John uses ekeinos as a way to refer back to Jesus without spelling out “Jesus” again. It is more emphatic/specific than the simple autos, so it should refer to the primary subject of discussion and not just the most recent figure discussed.

^d The words hagnizo (purify) and hagnos (pure) are related to the word hagios (sacred, holy, dedicated for sacred purposes). The meaning has to do with being uncontaminated, undiluted, clear. It was sometimes used of clean water, safe for drinking and clear to the eye. It’s a purity that has to do with being comprised of one substance so that it is appropriate for a particular purpose, such as clear and clean water is appropriate for drinking. It is connected with the idea of ‘being clean or unclean’ but is not the same word. Worth noting is that nothing in the context specifies sexual behavior, which has often been the subject about which the church has used the word ‘pure.’ Instead, it seems that whether or not someone loves fellow Children of God is what is in view. This underlying meaning fits with Jesus’ discussion of being clean or unclean in Matthew 15 in that he sees it as having to do with how someone treats others rather than about rule keeping.

^e The word in Greek here is hamartia, traditionally translated ‘sin.’ The actual meaning is an archery term for missing the target; it’s a metaphor. Something like “ways of missing the target” might work, but it’s cumbersome and does not quite take into context the full imagery of what is in view. ‘Deviations’ shows something is out of place, not in sync with something. It leaves open numerous possibilities for how things are out of place, and there are many, including behaving in ways out of step with the Lord’s teaching or having a life impacted by others living out of step with the Lord’s teaching or even something like being disabled, which has nothing to do with behavior but still leads to being ritually unclean for temple worship and carries significant stigma, including assumption that it’s a result of judgment for some kind of wrongdoing. The idea is that it is ‘out of alignment’ or ‘off course’ with the Path laid out in Torah and by Jesus. The opposite is dikaiosune, traditionally, ‘righteousness,’ which means something like ‘straight’ or ‘aligned’ and has in view that it lines up with the teachings of Torah and Jesus. Even the word torah hints at this meaning. According to Wilda C. Gafney in Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne (2017), “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” (p. 17). In the biblical imagination, Torah was the arrow God provided to show the way forward, and hamartia is deviation from the path the arrow traced.

^f Traditionally, ‘lawlessness.’ However, it is not about laws in the sense of rules to follow or to break and incur penalty. When the Bible uses nomos, it is referring to the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, and sometimes used as shorthand for the whole Hebrew Bible. This word, anomia, is a state of lacking the nomos, the Torah, failing to pay attention to it and trace its Path.

^g Traditionally, ‘revealed.’ This word phaneroo means ‘to make visible’ and is related to phaneros, ‘clearly visible’ and phane, ‘torch.’ The idea is that something shadowed or difficult to see has been illuminated and made easily and clearly visible. ‘Brought to light’ has that meaning and has the added benefit of the connection with illumination that is part of the word’s root meaning. It would also be appropriate to translate it as ‘made clear’ or ‘made visible’ or ‘exposed.’ The word ‘revealed’ could work but is often how apokalupto is translated, which has to do with uncovering or unveiling.

^h The preposition en is being translated here as a ‘preposition of standard.’ Traditionally, it is translated as ‘in’; however, ‘in’ is appropriate only in instances of discussing location or duration. In other situations, ‘with’ is a commonly appropriate way to translate it, or as in this case, using it to designate what standard the verb is related to can be done.

ⁱ Or ‘understood’

^j This is a 3rd person mandative, which does not exist in English. It’s a command that is not phrased as being directed toward the audience but rather to a third party other than whomever the writer is addressing. It’s impossible to translate it as an exact equivalent because English has no such grammatical construction.

^k Traditionally, ‘deceive.’ It’s literally a verb about leading off course. It can be used figuratively about deceiving or misleading with information or perspective. It is another in the long list of metaphors related to walking a path.

^l This word is dikaiosune, traditionally ‘righteousness’ and the opposite of hamartia (deviation from the teachings of Torah). A literal translation could be ‘alignment (with the teachings of Torah).’ It also carries a strong connection with justice, particularly restorative and restitutionary justice that seeks equity for the oppressed rather than retributive justice, an emphasis on punishment for perpetrators of crimes.

^m Traditionally, ‘revealed.’ This word phaneroo means ‘to make visible’ and is related to phaneros, ‘clearly visible’ and phane, ‘torch.’ The idea is that something shadowed or difficult to see has been illuminated and made easily and clearly visible. ‘Brought to light’ has that meaning and has the added benefit of the connection with illumination that is part of the word’s root meaning. It would also be appropriate to translate it as ‘made clear’ or ‘made visible’ or ‘exposed.’ The word ‘revealed’ could work but is often how apokalupto is translated, which has to do with uncovering or unveiling.

ⁿ The Greek gennao has several ways it can be translated in English. In this verse, it is traditionally translated as ‘born of.’ Gennao can be used of Fathers producing children and is the word used in genealogies for ‘So-and-so was the father of so-and-so (So-and-so gennao so-and-so). It is also used of mothers giving birth to babies. Elizabeth gennao-ed John the Submerser in Luke 1:57. Related nouns are mean ‘beginning’ or ‘generation’ both in the sense of ‘act of generating’ and in the sense of a group of people with a common birth, whether by time period or by lineage. One could say that gennao means to ‘give a beginning’ to someone or to generate that person. It does not have a gendered meaning and should be translated based on the context.

^o Traditionally, ‘revealed.’ This word phaneroo means ‘to make visible’ and is related to phaneros, ‘clearly visible’ and phane, ‘torch.’ The idea is that something shadowed or difficult to see has been illuminated and made easily and clearly visible. ‘Brought to light’ has that meaning and has the added benefit of the connection with illumination that is part of the word’s root meaning. It would also be appropriate to translate it as ‘made clear’ or ‘made visible’ or ‘exposed.’ The word ‘revealed’ could work but is often how apokalupto is translated, which has to do with uncovering or unveiling.

^p Literally, ‘brother’ or ‘sibling’

^q Traditionally, ‘evil’

^r Literally, ‘brothers’ or ‘siblings’ or ‘brothers and sisters’

^s Reference to Deuteronomy 30:15-20

^t See Matthew 5:21-26

^u Or ‘staying’ or ‘residing’

^v Literally, ‘that one’ or ‘he’

^w Or ‘very self’ or ‘very being’

^x ‘kind of life’ is translating bios, the same word in 1 John 2:16 translated as ‘living.’ Bios appears only 9 times in the Bible but can have a wide range of uses related to life and how it is lived or the quality of life or what sustains life.

^y The image is of closing a door or gate to keep something enclosed within, not allowing it to escape.

^z This words is splanchnon and can be translated ‘compassion’ or more literally ‘bowels/intestines/guts’ or ‘womb.’ It is used in Colossians 3:12 and Philippians 2:1 as ‘compassion’ and in Philippians 1:8 as ‘deep feeling.’

^aa This is logos, the same word translated as ‘conversation’ in 1 John 1:1. See the note there.

^bb Or ‘with the truth’ or ‘truly’

^cc This phrase is the same as used earlier in 1 John, ek tou theou ([birthed] ‘by God’ and ‘from God’) and in According to John as ek tou patrou (‘from the Father’). Here it is ek tes aletheias (‘from Truth’) which could be a reference the ‘Spirit of Truth,’ meaning that it is implying ‘[birthed] by the spirit of truth’ or ‘from the spirit of truth.’

^dd In the culture of the time, ‘heart’ represented desires and motivation, and the part of the inner self that experienced emotions related to desire and motivation. It was not as broad as ‘the whole inner life’ or ‘all emotion’ but was more specific to motivations, needs, and desires.

^ee Literally, ‘greater’ or ‘bigger.’ This word has to do with status when it is not about literal size.

^ff The phrase ‘in the name’ and others like it appear many times. In many places, it has been translated as something along the lines of ‘as his representatives.’ Some places, like here, that way to translate it does not work well. When the phrase ‘in his name’ is describing an action, it works. When an action is being directed toward ‘the name’ the English word ‘name’ has been included. The concept of ‘name’ in scripture is more than the set of sounds or letters used to designate who is being discussed. It refers to their identity, character, and sometimes authority or cause which that person represents or leads. For instance, here, it could be loosely translated to mean something like “we place our trust in the character/identity/authority/way of being of his Son.”