Chapter 1 – One God Translation

1 John

1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our own eyes, what we have observed and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life — 2 and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you that life of the age to come which was with the Father,[1510] and which was revealed to us. 3 What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you too, so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Messiah. 4 So we are writing these things to you so that our joy may be complete.
5 This is the message we have heard from him and announce to you: God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him but keep on walking in darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son,[1511] purifies us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, forgiving our sins and purifying us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Gospel-word is not in us.

1 John

[1510]

This provides exactly the necessary commentary of John on his own gospel in John 1:1. It was the promise of life in the age to come, immortality and thus the immortality Plan which was “with God” (pros ton theon and here pros ton patera, “with the Father,” defining God as the Father, as 1300 times in the NT). Pros means “with” in John 1:1, but not “with” meaning two persons next to each other. John in his gospel uses meta and para for one person with another. Gal. 2:5 is an example of the Gospel truth “with [pros] you.” The meaning of pros there is “in your thinking,” “in the mind of.” In Heb. 2:17 (NJB) Jesus is a high priest “for their relationship to [pros] God.” John 1:1 does not say that “the word” was the Son. There is no justification for writing “Word” instead of, correctly, “word.” “It is a common but patent misreading of the opening of John’s gospel to read it as ‘In the beginning was the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was God’” (Colin Brown, Ex Auditu, Vol. 7, p. 89). All English translations before the KJV in 1611 read “all things were made by it,” (Jn. 1:3) and many did not capitalize “word.”

[1511]

The blood of Jesus, the Son, proves of course that the Son of God was mortal and thus not the One God, who alone has immortality, and thus cannot die (1 Tim. 6:16).