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Text and Translation
Greek Text
1. Ἴδετε ποταπὴν ἀγάπην δέδωκεν ἡμῖν ὁ πατὴρ ἵνα τέκνα Θεοῦ κληθῶμεν. διὰ τοῦτο ὁ κόσμος οὐ γινώσκει ἡμᾶς, ὅτι οὐκ ἔγνω αὐτόν.
2. ἀγαπητοί, νῦν τέκνα Θεοῦ ἐσμεν, καὶ οὔπω ἐφανερώθη τί ἐσόμεθα· οἴδαμεν δὲ ὅτι ἐὰν φανερωθῇ, ὅμοιοι αὐτῷ ἐσόμεθα, ὅτι ὀψόμεθα αὐτὸν καθώς ἐστι.
3. καὶ πᾶς ὁ ἔχων τὴν ἐλπίδα ταύτην ἐπʼ αὐτῷ, ἁγνίζει ἑαυτὸν, καθὼς ἐκεῖνος ἁγνός ἐστι.
English Translation
1. See what kind of love the Father has given us that he calls us the children of God. Through this the world does not know us, because it did not know him.
2. Beloved, now we are children of God and what we will be has not yet been revealed. But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, because we will see him just as he is.
3. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as that one is pure.
Graphical Grammar
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Weighty Words
- Ἴδετε – 2nd pl. aor. act. imp. ▶ εἶδον: see, perceive. The form looks like a present because second aorists of ὁράω take the old -δε imperative ending (Smyth §429). Note εἶδον is suppletive.1
- δέδωκεν – 3rd sing. perf. act. ind. ▶ δίδωμι; has given.
- κληθῶμεν – 1st pl. aor. act. subj. ▶ καλέω: said/told.
- ἔγνω – 3rd sing. aor. act. ind. ▶ γινώσκω: know. Pattern recognition cue: If a past-tense verb has no σα and looks simple, suspect a 2nd aorist with a changed stem.
- ὀψόμεθα – 1st pl. fut. mid. ind. ▶ ὁράω: to see. This one can be tricky. Let’s break it down.
- Recognize the ending: -ομαι, -ῃ, -εται, -όμεθα, -εσθε, -ονται = middle/passive endings (Smyth §408).
- Note the future tense marker: The -σ- before the ending is the future stem (like λύσω, λύσομαι).
- Find the root: Strip the future -σ- and the middle ending -όμεθα → what remains is ὀπ-.
- Irregular verb: ὁράω has a second aorist ἰδ-/εἰδ- and a future middle ὄψομαι (from old root \*ὀπ-).
- Cheat sheet: Any time you see ὀψ- + middle endings in future tense → future middle of ὁράω.
Syntax Sense
Ἴδετε is not neutral perception; it’s directive attention. English options you have as a translator, ranked by force:
- “See” (neutral)
- “Look”
- “Behold” (high register)
- “Consider” (interpretive)
Given John’s rhetoric here, “Behold” is actually quite good, though slightly archaic. I rendered as “see,” but behold might be a better choice.
Should διὰ τοῦτο be rendered “therefore” here? No. It’s a causal connector, not merely inferential. It often means: “for this reason” or “because of this.” “Therefore” is acceptable English, but it can sound more logical than causal.
Considering what has been given to believers, is there are stronger word for δέδωκεν that we could use, perhaps “bestowed”? The word δώδωκεν (perfect) emphasizes: (i) a completed act (ii) with continuing effect. The English “has given” already captures that quite well. “Bestowed” or “granted” are interpretive suggesting more than the word itself justifies.
ἀγαπητοί – Greek often addresses groups with plural adjectives where English prefers a collective singular.
ἐὰν φανερωθῇ – ἐὰν is normally “if,” why is it when here? ἐὰν + subjunctive is not a conditional, but a future contingency. It doesn’t express probability. Instead, it simply expresses “if/whenever this future event occurs.” Greek does not distinguish “if (uncertain)” vs “when (expected). English does. Here is the test: if the condition is assumed as certain in the author’s worldview, English “when” is justified; if not, “if” is safer.
Let’s evaluate that here. John immediately follows with “we know that…,” which is eschatological certainty with no hint of doubt. The revealing is assumed, not hypothetical.
Demystifying the Discourse
Verse 1 of chapter 3 is rhetorically dense John is doing:
- exhortation (Ἴδετε);
- theological grounding (δέδωκεν);
- identity formation (τέκνα Θεοῦ); and
- social alienation logic (διὰ τοῦτο).
If you had any feeling of being “stalled” here, that’s appropriate.
Also note the already/not-yet structure in verse 2:
- “now we are children of God”;
- “what we shall be has not yet been revealed”;
- “yet certainty remains.”
This passage is deeply anchored in present identity, future revelation, and the continuity between the two. That pattern is profoundly Johannine and recurs throughout his writings.
Your turn!
- This is a good place to take consideration for your parsing skills. How are you doing with your morphology? Were the parsings here easy or hard? Similarly, how is your vocabulary at this stage? Reading fluency is stalled out by vocabulary challenges, but ironically, the best way to build vocabulary is to keep reading. The point of this is not to create stress, but for your to take your pulse.
- This is one of those passages where translators have some flexibility in how they translate a few words, but subtle changes in the words that you use (so that, instead of that) can draw out different nuances from the Greek. Copy and paste your translation, and experiment with changing some of these words. Then see if you can identify any differences in the message the verses communicate, and if so whether the differences affect any theology. If not, what is the effect of the changes, if any?
- Compare this passage to 1 John 2:1-2. Do you see a relationship between these passages? If so, what do you see?
Previous passage: 2:28-29 | Next passage: 3:4-10
Return to TBWM – I John
See complete translation of I John here.
- You may remember the term from elementary Greek. Suppelation is the phenomenon where a word’s inflected forms (like past tense or plurals) are built using completely different, etymologically unrelated roots, rather than adding a standard suffix or prefix. Go and went are the usual English examples. The common Koine examples are also go and went (ἔρχομαι/ἦλθον), say and said (λέγω/εἶπον), bring and brought (φέρω/ἤνεγκα) and of course the word we are looking at. ↩︎