Τῇ ἐπαύριον βλέπει τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἐρχόμενον πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ λέγει· ἴδε ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου. (John 1:29 NA28)
" The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (ESV)
Why does 1:29 say τὴν ἁμαρτίαν (singular) instead of the plural form "sins"?
Robert Mounce: Temple, 1:24, writes that John uses the singular (“sin”) because there is only one sin and it is characteristic of the entire world, “the self-will which prefers ‘my’ way to God's— which puts ‘me’ in the centre where only God is in place.”
See Mounce, Robert H.. John (The Expositor's Bible Commentary) (Kindle Locations 1758-1760). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Stanley Porter believes that 1:29 uses the singular form "to represent sin in its collective sense" (John, His Gospel, and Jesus, page 210). Compare Westcott (John, 1:40).
Rogers and Rogers claim the singular form appears in 1:29 in order to reference "the mass of sin and the subsequent guilt incurred (Godet; Hoskyns)."
On the other hand, before reading too much into the singular, maybe one should compare 1 John 3:5 and other texts that speak of the Lamb (Jesus) taking "sins" away.
What affect does the variant "our sins" for 1 john 3:5 have, if any?
ReplyDeleteCertain books suggest it's just two distinct ways of saying the same thing, that is, "takes sin away" versus "takes sins away." But others think the singular indicates collectivity or that John had one particular sin in mind.
ReplyDeleteJohn Painter (1, 2, and 3 John) believes that the singular also indicates collectivity, but probably has no significant difference in meaning from the plural form. He writes: "The collective singular views the multiplicity as a whole, whereas the plural retains a focus on multiplicity" (page 227).
Finally, he claims that the singular "sin" might intimate "guilt" as opposed to "sin" proper.