1 John 3:6 (WH): πᾶς ὁ ἐν αὐτῷ μένων οὐχ ἁμαρτάνει· πᾶς ὁ ἁμαρτάνων οὐχ ἑώρακεν αὐτὸν οὐδὲ ἔγνωκεν αὐτόν.
Four options are presented in the chapter as to how one should understand this passage. The main issue is whether John claims that true Christians are now sinless or can get to that point before this ungodly world ends. However, before addressing these questions, Merkle reviews aspects of the present indicative.
While it would seem that Greek present indicatives signify present action, and they certainly do, there are cases where present indicative verbs refer to past action, future action or action that is omnitemporal/gnomic. Present indicatives are imperfective vis-à-vis their aspect: this means that "the action is portrayed as progressive, internal, or incomplete" (Exegetical Gems, page 58). What ultimately determines how present indicatives function are marked features of discourse such as lexicality, grammar or context/linguistic setting. Here is an example of how markedness affects a present indicative verb's kind-of-action. The functions of these verbs include:
Progressive (1 John 2:8), durative (Luke 13:7), iterative (Acts 7:51), gnomic (Matthew 7:17), instantaneous (John 11:41), historical (Mark 1:40), futuristic (Revelation 1:7).
Getting back to 1 John 3:6, the point of contention is οὐχ ἁμαρτάνει: the verb is present active indicative third person singular of ἁμαρτάνω. See 1 John 5:18. Is John asserting that Christians never sin? Both experience and the very first epistle of John militate against such a view. Compare 1 John 1:8-10; 2:1; 5:16.
Robert Yarbrough reveals why it's not easy to untangle John's exact meaning (1-3 John, page 183 in the BECNT Series):
It is unlikely that John has forgotten what he wrote earlier or changed his mind in the interim. Nor is it advisable to resort to the understandable but unsatisfactory expedient of stressing the alleged continual nature of the sinning John has in mind (e.g., NIV/TNIV: “No one who lives in him keeps on sinning”). This may be true, but “keeps on sinning” (adopted also by ESV) probably overreads the verb tense (cf. Wallace 1996: 524–25; contra Kruse 2000: 120 and many other commentators). Smalley (1984: 159–60) effectively unmasks this misuse of the present tense, along with the dubious proposal that 2:1 in contrast uses aorist forms to connote isolated sinful acts. This is oversubtle. In addition, as Smalley points out, 5:16 uses the present tense to describe specific sinful acts, not chronic transgression. The present tense cannot bear the weight that the translation “keeps on sinning” places on it in 3:6, 9 (cf. Culy 2004: 73; yet note Caragounis 2006: 90: the issue is complicated!).Daniel Wallace proposes an eschatological reading of 1 John 3:6; in other words, he argues that John is using the present indicative gnomically to state a general truth about followers of Christ, but he's also looking forward to the eschaton when believers will be free of sin. Merkle just relates this proposal without truly supplying much interaction at this point. However, the most likely interpretation of 1 John 3:6, according to Exegetical Gems, is that ἁμαρτάνει is an iterative present which means that the action portrayed by the verb would be continuous, repetitive or customary.
Merkle thinks the verb is iterative based on the epistolary context of 1 John and the immediate context of 1 John 3:6. Christian perfectionism seems to be ruled out and it's doubtful that John's word apply eschatologically, given the context; neither idea fits the setting of John's letter or the surrounding verses of the passage in question. The chapter concludes by appealing to 1 John 3:9 and its grammar, then Merkle references and quotes The First John Reader by S.M. Baugh. I tend to concur with him that the verb in 1 John 3:6 likely functions iteratively rather than gnomically or duratively.
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