Conservative Friends Bible Study of 1 John #09 Chapter 4 Verses 2-6

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Show notes #09 1 John 4:2-6

This wide-ranging podcast opens with a quick review of session eight concerning 1 John 4:2. The podcast then continues with a reexamination of 1 John 4:2-6, which is an additional exploration of biblical translation and interpretation.

Interwoven through the rest of the podcast are points on the linguistic and grammatical structure of English in the King James Bible (KJV), contrasted with English today. For instance, the KJV use of a then grammatically correct expression “He is come”, would today be, “He has come.”

Regarding 1 John 4:2, one of the basic understandings of early Friends (different from most other Christians) relates to the phrase Jesus Christ has come “in the flesh”. Most Christians see that verse referring to Jesus’ being physically in the world, “in the flesh.” However, early Friends understood that phrase “in the flesh” to mean that Jesus had come in our flesh . . . in the believer’s flesh. He was, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)

This session moves freely, between verses, as questions arise regarding individual verses. The notes below are largely presented in the order in which they come in the podcast:

Verse 4
“Nikaō” is translated “overcome, conquer”.

Early Friends emphasized the concept of Christ being in the follower of Jesus, underscored in: “Greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world.”

Verse 6
“Alētheia”, (“truth”) is important in this verse, but should be “Truth” (with a capital “T”), a synonym for “messiah” / “Christ”.

Verse 1
“Pneuma” (Greek: breath/wind, i.e., “a moving current”, “movement”) can include these: “the spirit of satan”, “the spirit of the devil”, “the lying spirit”, or “the spirit of the world” (in the negative sense of “world/worldliness”.

Verse 2
“Spirit” is frequently capitalized in English when it is referring to God’s Spirit. Ancient Greek had only uppercase letters. Lower case letters were introduced only several centuries later.

Verse 6
“Planē” frequently translated “falsehood” in Greek has a basic meaning of “error”, “deceit', “delusion”, “lie" and “deception”.

“Martus” means witness, and subsequently also martyr. Our English word, “martyr” is borrowed from it. We cannot gloss over the total commitment of the early church (and also of early Quakers) to be witnesses for Christ, even to the point of a painful, physical death as a martyr.
The advice in our introduction is from page 30 of the Ohio Yearly Meeting's Book of Discipline.

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