That You May Know (I Jn 5:13-15)

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Text and Translation

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Graphical Grammar

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Weighty Words

• πιστεύουσιν – pres. act. ptc. masc. pl. dat. ▶ πιστεύω: see discussion below.
• εἰδῆτε – perf. subj. act. ▶ οἶδα: οἶδα itself is a perfect-form verb with present meaning; aspectually: stative result, not past action. See discussion below.

Syntax Sense

Verse 13

τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα

There are a lot of interesting things happening grammatically with the phrase τοῖς πιστεύουσιν. But the grammar is not that complicated, but it may be worth devoting some study to if you don’t have a strong feel for it.¹ One thing that I do want to point out is that πιστεύουσιν is a “gnomic” participle, like we faced in 1 Jn 5:4-5. Remember that gnomic means, simply, category-defining) and identity-marking (as we’ve discussed repeatedly in 1 John).² The force of πιστεύουσιν bears directly on the point of this verse, and that is what I really want to call to your attention.

Can translators render εἰς as “in” here? When a stative verb is used with a transitive preposition, the preposition’s natural directional force is compressed into the stative idea of the verb.”³ This deserves some breaking down.

First, is πιστεύουσιν truly stative? This is not a perfect or a pluperfect. We’ve covered this kind of construction many times before, but this is a different look at it, so let me explain. You remember well that a substativized participle functions as a noun, and when this happens, the imperfective aspect can function in a category-defining or identity-marking way.

Second, is εἰς a “transitive” preposition? Yes, a transitive preposition requires an object complement to complete it. As a transitive preposition, εἰς is normally showing direction into a place.

So, what happens here is that when you have a verb conveying state that follows a normally directional preposition, the preposition’s normal directional force recedes into the stative idea of the verb. Only the stative idea [you who believe] stands.

What of εἰδῆτε?

How can translators bring out the perfect part of the tense faithfully? As described in the weighty words, is a perfect subjunctive active of οἶδα. Here we have another stative result. It’s not “that you may come to know” (ingressive) or “that you knew” (simple past). The sense is “that you may be in the state of knowing.”

Verse 14 – one small reminder re ἀκούει ἡμῶν.

This is the point we touched earlier, and it’s worth reinforcing. Remember that ἀκούω regularly takes a genitive for the person whose voice is heard. Thus, ἡμῶν is genitive plural: of us. But in English, verbs like hear do not take genitive objects. So we translate functionally, not formally. Greek genitive with verbs of hearing are rendered as a direct object in English. Therefore: ἀκούει ἡμῶν is “He hears us” and not “He hears of us,” or “He hears our.” Clearly, those would misrepresent the relationship.

Verse 15 – What are the What ἂν(s) doing here?

In this verse, ἄν appears twice: ἐὰν οἴδαμεν; and ὃ ἂν αἰτώμεθα. These are not doing the same job.

In ὃ ἂν αἰτώμεθα, we have a relative pronoun + ἄν + subjunctive, that reflects indefiniteness or generality. Together, this construction means “whatever” or “anything that.” This is a relative + ἄν construction, and its function is to make the relative clause indefinite and open-ended.

Literally it is “whatever we might ask,” but English does not usually translate ἄν explicitly here.

English drops ἄν without losing meaning, because English has built-in words that already carry the force of ἄν:

• whatever;
• whoever;
• whenever; and
• wherever.

Let’s look at some contrasts just to drive it home. If John had written simply “ὃ αἰτούμεθα,” that would mean “what we ask” (specific, known items). But he wrote “ὃ ἂν αἰτώμεθα,” which means no matter what, any request at all, without limitation.

The same thing happens later in the verse. Observe the parallel:

• ὃ ἂν αἰτώμεθα,” = whatever we ask; and
• “ἃ ᾐτήκαμεν” = the requests which we have asked.

The first is indefinite. The second is definite (looking back). Here is a helpful “rule” to follow: Relative pronoun + ἄν + subjunctive = “-ever” word in English.

John is being very precise.

Demystifying the Discourse

In verse 13, John’s emphasis is not on how they came to know, but on certainty, settled assurance, and present possession. That’s why the next clause is ὅτι ζωὴν ἔχετε αἰώνιον. Present possession again.

I do not want to tip the scale here (because I want you to address this issue in the first Your Turn prompt). This passage (and maybe the whole A stream?) revolves around (i) settled assurance, (ii) relational confidence, and (iii) present possession as the basis for prayer confidence.

The progression in this passage alone is (i) assurance of life, which leads to (ii) confidence toward God, which leads to (iii) confidence in prayer. Finally, (iv) this builds up to his foundational touchstone: through all that believers have relational certainty grounded in present possession.

Your turn!

• This passage may be the culmination of John’s “A stream.” Why don’t you compare all of the passages in the A stream: 1 Jn 5:5-10 — 2:17, 2:28-3:24, and 4:7-21. That’s a lot of ground to cover, but you’ve been doing it progressively already.
• Think about why John may have chosen the dative participle, πιστεύουσιν, to convey a stative claim? Do you agree that πιστεύουσιν is stative here? After all, John used a perfect verb in the very same verse: οἶδα. So, he clearly knows the difference. Support your answer as best you can using both syntax and semantics.

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See complete translation of I John here.

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1. For a thorough discussion of apposition vs. simple apposition, see Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), starting at 95ff [genitive in simple apposition], and 152 [dative in simple apposition]. ↩︎
2. There is a discussion in Wallace that breaks all of this down. It may be helpful to review if you have access to his Exegetical Syntax. Anyway, he expresses it this way: “The idea seems to be both gnomic and continual: ‘everyone who continually believes.’ This is not due to the present tense only, but to the use of the present participle of πιστεύω, especially in soteriological contexts in the NT.” Wallace, 620-21. ↩︎
3. Wallace, 359. ↩︎