The Johannine Letters

[John Reece]

1 John 4:21

Text (NA27):

καὶ ταύτην τὴν ἐντολὴν ἔχομεν ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ, ἵνα ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν θεὸν ἀγαπᾷ καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ.

Transliteration (Accordance):

kai tautēn tēn entolēn echomen ap’ autou, hina ho agapōn ton theon agapa̧ kai ton adelphon autou.

Translation (RSV):

And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

ἀγαπᾷ : subjunctive of ἀγαπάω love.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:1

Text (NA27):

Πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ Χριστὸς, ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγέννηται, καὶ πᾶς ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν γεννήσαντα ἀγαπᾷ [καὶ] τὸν γεγεννημένον ἐξ αὐτοῦ.

Transliteration (Accordance):

Pas ho pisteuōn hoti Iēsous estin ho Christos, ek tou theou gegennētai, kai pas ho agapōn ton gennēsanta agapa̧ [kai] ton gegennēmenon ex autou.

Translation (RSV):

Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and every one who loves the parent loves the child.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

ὁ Χριστός : predicate the Christ/Messiah.
γεγέννηται : has been born already, perfect passive participle of γεννάω bear; faith is not the cause of rebirth but the effect.
ἀγαπῶν : participle of ἀγαπάω love.
γεννήσαντα : aorist participle, τὸν γεννήσαντα his father.
γεγεννημένον : perfect passive participle, τὸν γεγεννημένον ἐξ αὐτοῦ and so his brother.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:2

Text (NA27):

ἐν τούτῳ γινώσκομεν ὅτι ἀγαπῶμεν τὰ τέκνα τοῦ θεοῦ, ὅταν τὸν θεὸν ἀγαπῶμεν καὶ τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ ποιῶμεν.

Transliteration (Accordance):

en toutō̧ ginōskomen hoti agapōmen ta tekna tou theou, hotan ton theon agapōmen kai tas entolas autou poiōmen.

Translation (NRSV):

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

ἀγαπῶμεν : (2nd time) subjunctive (after ὅταν) same form as indicative.
ποιῶμεν : subjunctive do.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:3

Text (NA27):

αὕτη γάρ ἐστιν ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ θεοῦ, ἵνα τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ τηρῶμεν, καὶ αἱ ἐντολαὶ αὐτοῦ βαρεῖαι οὐκ εἰσίν.

Transliteration (Accordance):

hautē gar estin hē agapē tou theou, hina tas entolas autou tērōmen, kai hai entolai autou bareiai ouk eisin.

Translation (NRSV):

For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

αὕτη ... ἵνα : for infinitive epexegetical.
τηρῶμεν : subjunctive.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:4

Text (NA27):

ὅτι πᾶν τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ νικᾷ τὸν κόσμον· καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ νίκη ἡ νικήσασα τὸν κόσμον, ἡ πίστις ἡμῶν.

Transliteration (Accordance):

hoti pan to gegennēmenon ek tou theou nika̧ ton kosmon; kai hautē estin hē nikē hē nikēsasa ton kosmon, hē pistis hēmōn.

Translation (NRSV):

For whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

νικάω : conquer, overcome.
κόσμος : world, at times denoting the kingdom of sin actively to God, at others, secular society estranged from and ignoring the kingdom of God.
νίκη : victory.
νικήσασα : aorist feminine participle, aorist effective.*

*252. The effective aorist. Just as the aorist of verbs indicating states may express the inception of the state, so the aorist of verbs indicating action directed to some end may express the actual attainment of that end (BG).

[John Reece]

1 John 5:5

Text (NA27):

Τίς [δέ] ἐστιν ὁ νικῶν τὸν κόσμον εἰ μὴ ὁ πιστεύων ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ;

Transliteration (Accordance):

Tis [de] estin ho nikōn ton kosmon ei mē ho pisteuōn hoti Iēsous estin ho huios tou theou?

Translation (RSV):

Who is it that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Translation (NRSV):

Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

νικῶν : participle of νικάω.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:6

Text (NA27):

οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ἐλθὼν δι᾿ ὕδατος καὶ αἵματος, Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, οὐκ ἐν τῷ ὕδατι μόνον ἀλλ᾿ ἐν τῷ ὕδατι καὶ ἐν τῷ αἵματι· καὶ τὸ πνεῦμά ἐστιν τὸ μαρτυροῦν, ὅτι τὸ πνεῦμα ἐστιν ἡ ἀλήθεια.

Transliteration (Accordance):

houtos estin ho elthōn di’ hydatos kai haimatos, Iēsous Christos, ouk en tō̧ hydati monon all’ en tō̧ hydati kai en tō̧ haimati; kai to pneuma estin to martyroun, hoti to pneuma estin hē alētheia.

Translation (NRSV):

This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

ἐλθών : aorist participle of ἔρχομαι come.
διά : resumed by ἐν, notion of concomitant circumstances combined with that of instrumentality.
ὕδωρ and αἷμα (water and blood) represent baptism and the cross, (probably in opposition to Cerinthus); not only he who was baptized was the Son of God but also he who was crucified.
μαρτυροῦν : participle of μαρτυρέω testify.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:7

Text (NA27):

ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες,

Transliteration (Accordance):

hoti treis eisin hoi martyrountes,

Translation (NRSV):

There are three that testify:

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

μαρτυροῦντες : participle of μαρτυρέω testify.

Comment from The Johannine Letters (Hermeneia: Augsburg Fortress, 1996), by Georg Strecker (via Accordance):

7 The subsequent verses are, according to Rudolf Bultmann, a “redactional gloss” that should be marked off from the original context. Indeed, verse 10 can, if necessary, be interpreted as a continuation of verse 6 (with the key words being μαρτυροῦν and μαρτυρία), so that verses 7–9 would represent a secondary insertion. However, the transition from verse 9 to verse 10 presents no problem, especially since not only the key word indicated but also the expression “Son of God” appears in both verses. Moreover, the trio of “water, blood, and Spirit” (verse 6) reappears in verses 7–8. In distinction from the preceding verse 6, here water and blood are described as “witnesses.” Thus these two verses must be understood as an appropriate continuation and interpretation of what has preceded: as the Spirit reveals the eschatological meaning of water and blood (verse 6), this epiphanic reality is to be found in the stages of Jesus’ earthly journey, that is, in his baptism and sacrificial death, as well as in the sacraments. Even though the witnessing cannot take place without the Spirit, the sacraments themselves, and not only the Spirit, are “witnesses.” Thus verse 7 continues the idea of “giving testimony” that was already expressed in verse 6. The particle ὅτι has this function of continuation and can be translated by an indefinite “for.” This meaning is not fundamentally altered if one supposes that ὅτι stands elliptically for εἰς ἐκεῖνο ὅτι and should be translated “in consideration of the fact that.”

Excursus: The Textual Tradition of the “Comma Johanneum”

1. Basis

The textual tradition contains an addition to 1 John 5:7–8, called the Comma Johanneum or “Johannine Comma” (comma = sentence or clause), which made its way almost exclusively into the Latin texts of the Bible. In 1592 the Comma Johanneum was incorporated into the official Catholic edition of the Vulgate, the Sixto-Clementine, where it reads as follows (italicized):

7 Quoniam tres sunt, qui testimonium dant
in caelo: Pater, Verbum, et Spiritus Sanctus, et hi tres unum sunt.
8 Et tres sunt, qui testimonium dant in terra:
Spiritus et aqua et sanguis, et hi tres unum sunt.

2. Attestation

Greek manuscripts: The Comma Johanneum is absent from almost the whole of the Greek textual tradition, including the quotations in the church fathers. It is transmitted by only eight Greek minuscules, where it probably entered via the Latin textual witnesses. None of these examples can be dated before 1400, and only four of them appear in the text; the others are marginal additions.

The following minuscules contain the Comma Johanneum:

Gregory 61 Codex Montfortianus, early 16th century
Gregory 629 Codex Vatic. Ottobonianus, 14th/15th century or later
Gregory 918 Spanish 16th–century manuscript (Escorial)
Gregory 2318 Rumanian 18th–century manuscript (Bucharest)
Gregory 88vl Later marginal note, 16th century, in Codex Regius (12th century), Naples
Gregory 221vl Addition to a 10th–century manuscript, Oxford
Gregory 429vl Addition to a 16th–century manuscript, Wolfenbüttel
Gregory 636vl Addition to a 15th–century manuscript, Naples

On the basis of this weak attestation, it is probable that the Comma Johanneum was never included in an older Greek text.

Latin manuscripts: The Comma Johanneum is also absent from the manuscripts of the Vetus Latina before 600 and the Vulgate before 750: a stronger Latin attestation is found beginning only with the ninth century. But even then, until the end of the millennium, the Comma Johanneum appears only in Spanish or Spanish-influenced texts. The most important witnesses are:

a palimpsest from Léon, 7th century
the Freising fragments (q or r), 7th century
Codex Cavensis, 9th century
Codex Complutensis, 10th century
Codex Toletanus, 10th century
Codex Theodulphianus, 8th/9th century (Franco-Spanish)
a few St. Gallen manuscripts, 8th/9th century (Franco-Spanish)

Other manuscripts: The Comma Johanneum is absent from all Coptic, Ethiopian, Arabic, and Slavic translations up to 1500. It entered a few late Syrian manuscripts by way of the Vulgate. In the first editions of the Syriac NT by Widmanstadt (1555) it was not accepted, but in the edition of 1569, edited by Tremellius, it appears as a marginal note. In the following century it was included in the text, owing to the impression that it had originally been part of it and had been excised by the Arians. The Comma Johanneum is also found in a few late Armenian witnesses and in the Armenian edition of Oskan (1662), which originated after the Vulgate.

Attestation in other authors prior to 650: Although the oldest textual witnesses of the Comma Johanneum occur in Latin manuscripts of the seventh century, it had already been cited by a number of Christian authors at an earlier period, so that one may pursue its traces farther back in time.

The oldest undoubted instance is in Priscillian Liber apologeticus 1.4 (CSEL 18.6). Priscillian was probably a Sabellianist or Modalist, whose principal interest would have been in the closing statement about the heavenly witnesses (“and these three, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, are one”). Here he found his theological opinions confirmed: that the three persons of the Trinity are only modes or manners of appearance of the one God. This observation caused some interpreters to suppose that Priscillian himself created the Comma Johanneum. However, there are signs of the Comma Johanneum, although no certain attestations, even before Priscillian, and they lead to the vicinity of North Africa.

An initial echo of the Comma Johanneum occurs as early as Tertullian Adv. Prax. 25.1 (CChr 2.1195; written ca. 215). In his commentary on John 16:14 he writes that the Father, Son, and Paraclete are one (unum), but not one person (unus). However, this passage cannot be regarded as a certain attestation of the Comma Johanneum.

More important is the evidence in Cyprian (†258). He writes in De ecclesiae catholicae unitate 6 (CChr 3.254): “Dicit dominus: ego et pater unum sumus (Joh 10:30) et iterum de patre et filio et spiritu sancto scriptum est: et tres unum sunt” (“The Lord says: I and the Father are one [John 10:30] and again it is written of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit: and the three are one”).

If the Comma Johanneum is behind this, it would already have been a part of the oldest Latin Bible. But it is possible that it is merely a reflection on the Trinity by Cyprian, similar to Tertullian’s (or perhaps even occasioned by the latter). An African witness contemporary to Cyprian, commonly called Pseudo-Cyprian, in his tract De rebaptismate, does not attest the Comma Johanneum, even though he twice cites the text of 1 John 5:7–8 (15 and 19; CSEL 3/3.88 and 92). In addition, Facundus of Hermiane, in the sixth century, does not know the Comma Johanneum, but in his work Pro defensione trium capitulorum ad Iustinianum (1.3.9–14; CChr 90A. 12–14) he interprets the usual text allegorically in reference to the Trinity. Except for a brief remark in De civitate Dei (5.11; CChr 47.141), where he says of Father, Word, and Spirit that the three are one, Augustine (†430) does not cite the Comma Johanneum. But it is certain on the basis of the work Contra Maximum 2.22.3 (PL 42.794–95) that he interpreted 1 John 5:7–8 in trinitarian terms.30 The Comma Johanneum is unknown to other Latin church authors of this period, for example, Hilary of Poitiers (†367), Ambrose (†397), Leo the Great (†461), and Gregory the Great (†604). Thus, although there is no clear attestation of the Comma Johanneum in the time before Priscillian, after him the addition is cited more frequently, most often in order to adduce a proof for the Trinity—contrary to Priscillian’s own ideas. As examples one may cite the twelve books De Trinitate and three books [i]Contra Varimadum[/i. Their authors and time of composition are unknown, but a date in the fifth century is probable. In addition one should mention the Historia persecutionis Africanae Provinciae by Victor, the bishop of Vita in North Africa (ca. 485), as well as the Responsio contra Arianos by Fulgentius (10; CChr 91.93); and finally a prologue to the Catholic Letters from the period before 550.

3. History of Influence

In the sixteenth century, after the Comma Johanneum had found entry into a number of Latin manuscripts, it again became the subject of controversy. In the first two editions of his Greek NT (1516 and 1519), Erasmus did not reproduce the Comma Johanneum. The Complutensis Polyglot by the Spanish Cardinal Primate Ximenes, previously printed (1514) but not published until 1522, contained it, but the Greek text of the Comma Johanneum was translated from the Vulgate. After Erasmus had been criticized by D. Lopez de Zuñiga (“Stunica”), the editor of the Complutensis, and by the Englishman E. Lee for omitting the Comma Johanneum, he decided against his better judgment to include the text in the third edition of his NT (1522). The most persuasive argument for him was that the Comma Johanneum was found in Codex Montfortianus (= minuscule 61). Erasmus’s authority was used to support the acceptance of the Comma Johanneum in the third edition of the Paris edition of the Greek NT (1530). It also found entry into the Textus Receptus (Elzevir, 1633), the standard Greek text for the next several centuries.

Beginning in 1581, the Comma Johanneum was included by the Frankfurt printers, and after 1596 in the Wittenberg edition as well. It was even in Martin Luther’s German edition of the NT, although he himself had expressed criticism regarding the genuineness of the Comma Johanneum. Zwingli rejected it but Calvin reluctantly included it.

The inclusion of the Comma Johanneum in the Catholic church’s official edition of the Vulgate, the Sixto-Clementine of 1592, was highly important. From that time, its genuineness was considered indisputable, and it was also printed in the English translations of the NT (KJV and Rheims). Johann Salomo Semler was the first who again questioned its originality (in 1764). From that time its secondary character has been considered proved.

The Sacred Congregation of the Inquisition issued a decretal on 13 January 1897, forbidding anyone to question the authenticity of the Comma Johanneum: its genuineness could neither be denied nor doubted. Pope Leo XIII confirmed this judgment two days later. On 2 June 1927, however, a new official declaration by the Holy Office, as the successor institution to the Sacred Congregation of the Inquisition, made Roman Catholic exegetes again free to discuss the question of the Comma Johanneum. From that time it has been generally recognized in Roman Catholic scholarship also that the Comma Johanneum is neither original nor authentic.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:8

Text (NA27):

τὸ πνεῦμα καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ τὸ αἷμα, καὶ οἱ τρεῖς εἰς τὸ ἕν εἰσιν.

Transliteration (Accordance):

to pneuma kai to hydōr kai to haima, kai hoi treis eis to hen eisin.

Translation (NRSV):

the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

τὸ πνεῦμα καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ τὸ αἷμα : by an extension of the association with baptism and the cross (verse 6), water and blood here refer to Christian baptism and the eucharist (celebrating Christ's death on the cross) are cited as witnesses.
εἰς τὸ ἕν εἰσιν : are united, are at one ; εἰς probably due to Hebraic influence.

Comment from The Johannine Letters (Hermeneia: Augsburg Fortress, 1996), by Georg Strecker (via Accordance):

8 The objective weight of the three witnesses, “Spirit, water, and blood,” cannot be evaluated as if all three were on the same plane. The parallel between verse 6c and verse 6a already indicated a special emphasis on τὸ πνεῦμα. This is also clear from the relatively extensive explication in verse 6c and from the listing of the Spirit as first among the three witnesses. The number three is usually seen as derived from Deut 17:6; 19:15. According to those passages, no judgment should be given on the basis of the statement of a single witness. The determination of a misdeed must be based on the statement of “two or three witnesses.” Paul refers to this OT-Jewish background when he uses this citation to justify his intention to make a third visit to Corinth in order to reinforce his apostolic claims in relation to the Corinthian community (2 Cor 13:1). The evangelist Matthew also cites 17:6; Deut 19:15 in connection with his instructions for carrying out disciplinary procedures, in the second stage of which the calling of “two or three witnesses” is advised, so that the unrepentant sinner may not be brought to the third stage, the deliberation within the community assembly, without the presence of an adequate number of witnesses (Matt 18:16). Similarly, the author of 1 Timothy instructs that no accusation is to be brought against an elder unless “two or three witnesses” are available (1 Tim 5:19). The Fourth Gospel also knows the OT ruling that the testimony of a witness must be confirmed “by two persons” (John 8:17; cf. also Heb 10:28). In spite of the witness terminology, however, the background of our text is not the idea of a court proceeding. Neither here nor elsewhere in 1 John is there any suggestion of OT influence. For that reason the number three is more probably due to the principle of round numbers, which is employed in a number of different forms in the NT tradition as a whole. The testimony of the “three” expresses the divine plenitude that always characterizes God’s revelation in and to the community (John 1:16; Eph 1:23; 4:10). This is also evident in the post-NT tradition where, in similar contexts, other (round) numbers of witnesses can be mentioned.

The phrase καὶ οἱ τρεῖς εἰς τὸ ἕν εἰσιν is unique in the NT. It can scarcely be interpreted as a Semitism, although the closest NT parallels have the OT as their background and suggest the translation “become” for εἶναι εἰς; this is the case with Matt 19:5 (καὶ ἔσονται οἱ δύο εἰς σάρκα μίαν; cf. Gen 2:24) or Luke 3:5 (cf. Isa 40:4). However, no OT text can be found corresponding to the phrase in this verse. The classical εἶναι εἰς (“serves to”) occurs occasionally in the NT (1 Cor 14:22, and elsewhere), and also in the Priene inscription, but that affords no meaning in the present instance. Philo is relatively close when he says that the trio “reason, clearness of speech, truth” are virtually one. Of course, when Latin translators render this phrase with “hi tres unum sunt,” the move to a trinitarian idea is already accomplished, but that is not (yet) implied here. Spirit, water, and blood are instead directed “to the one.” In the context of Johannine witness terminology this probably means not only that their testimony agrees but primarily that it corresponds to the one truth. Through this coinciding testimony to the truth they are joined in unity. This agrees with the preceding assertion that the Spirit is truth (verse 6c), and with the understanding of the χρῖσμα, which is “true” and “is not a lie” (2:27). When, in the Fourth Gospel, the Revealer makes the claim that his testimony is true (8:14), he stands within a series of witnesses to the truth extending from John the Baptizer (5:32) to the disciple beneath the cross (19:35) and to the evangelist (21:24). This kind of concurring testimony has its center in the twofold self-attestation of the Revealer: “I am the truth” (14:6) and “I and the Father are one.”

[John Reece]

1 John 5:9

Text (NA27):

εἰ τὴν μαρτυρίαν τῶν ἀνθρώπων λαμβάνομεν, ἡ μαρτυρία τοῦ θεοῦ μείζων ἐστίν· ὅτι αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ μαρτυρία τοῦ θεοῦ ὅτι μεμαρτύρηκεν περὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ.

Transliteration (Accordance):

ei tēn martyrian tōn anthrōpōn lambanomen, hē martyria tou theou meizōn estin; hoti hautē estin hē martyria tou theou hoti memartyrēken peri tou huiou autou.

Translation (NRSV):

If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

μαρτυρία : testimony.
μείζων : comparative of μέγας great.
ὅτι : (first time) for.
μεμαρτύρηκεν : perfect of μαρτυρέω testify.

Comment from The Johannine Letters (Hermeneia: Augsburg Fortress, 1996), by Georg Strecker (via Accordance):

9 Verse 9 follows seamlessly. The conclusion a minori ad maius interprets the testimony of the three: if human testimony is accepted within society and must be accepted, since without trust among human beings any kind of order within this world would come apart at the seams, this is all the more the case with the μαρτυρία that is the subject here. The testimony of the three is the testimony of God. It is superior to all human affirmations, even when these latter are supported by the testimony of many witnesses (cf. at verse 8 above), and therefore is more worthy of trust. However indispensable human testimonies may be — the author emphasized at another point that the Christ revelation was transmitted by authoritative eye- and ear-witnesses — they can at most only be pointers and proclamations of the Christ-event in which God has given testimony. That testimony is made present by the three witnesses. As God’s testimony is made concrete in them, they point back to the Christ-event in the past and testify to the Son (verse 6). Thus their testimony is the object of the community’s creedal confession, whose antidocetic thrust must be kept in mind at this point also, as the goal of the sacramental testimony: the Spirit’s testimony is bound to the historical fact of Jesus of Nazareth and his sacramental “action.” That God has borne witness to God’s own self in the divine Son and that this testimony is a present reality for believers in Baptism and the Lord’s Supper make a purely spiritual understanding and appropriation of the Christ-event impossible.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:10

Text (NA27):

ὁ πιστεύων εἰς τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ ἔχει τὴν μαρτυρίαν ἐν ἑαυτῷ, ὁ μὴ πιστεύων τῷ θεῷ ψεύστην πεποίηκεν αὐτόν, ὅτι οὐ πεπίστευκεν εἰς τὴν μαρτυρίαν ἣν μεμαρτύρηκεν ὁ θεὸς περὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ.

Transliteration (Accordance):

ho pisteuōn eis ton huion tou theou echei tēn martyrian en heautō̧, ho mē pisteuōn tō̧ theō̧ pseustēn pepoiēken auton, hoti ou pepisteuken eis tēn martyrian hēn memartyrēken ho theos peri tou huiou autou.

Translation (RSV):

He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne to his Son.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

πιστεύω τῷ θεῷ : believe God, to be distinguished from πιστεύω εἰς τὸν υἱόν [believe in God].
ψεύστης : liar.
πεποίηκεν : perfect of ποιέω; disbelief being tantamount to an accusation of lying.
αὐτόν : i.e. God.
πεπίστευκεν : perfect of πιστεύω believe.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:11

Text (NA27):

Καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ μαρτυρία, ὅτι ζωὴν αἰώνιον ἔδωκεν ἡμῖν ὁ θεός, καὶ αὕτη ἡ ζωὴ ἐν τῷ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ ἐστιν.

Transliteration (Accordance):

Kai hautē estin hē martyria, hoti zōēn aiōnion edōken hēmin ho theos, kai hautē hē zōē en tō̧ huiō̧ autou estin.

Translation (RSV):

And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

ἔδωκεν : aorist of δίδωμι give, by the incarnation of the Son, cf Jn 3:16.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:12

Text (NA27):

ὁ ἔχων τὸν υἱὸν ἔχει τὴν ζωήν· ὁ μὴ ἔχων τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν ζωὴν οὐκ ἔχει.

Transliteration (Accordance):

ho echōn ton huion echei tēn zōēn; ho mē echōn ton huion tou theou tēn zōēn ouk echei.

Translation (RSV):

He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

ἔχων : participle of ἔχω have.
ζωή : life.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:13

Text (NA27):

Ταῦτα ἔγραψα ὑμῖν ἵνα εἰδῆτε ὅτι ζωὴν ἔχετε αἰώνιον, τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ.

Transliteration (Accordance):

Tauta egrapsa hymin hina eidēte hoti zōēn echete aiōnion, tois pisteuousin eis to onoma tou huiou tou theou.

Translation (NRSV):

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

ἔγραψα : I am writing (epistolary) aorist of γράφω.
εἰδῆτε : subjunctive of perfect present οἶδα know.
τοῖς πιστεύουσιν : who believe, dative plural participle in apposition to ὑμῖν to you.

[John Reece]

1 John 5:14

Text (NA27):

Καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ παρρησία ἣν ἔχομεν πρὸς αὐτόν ὅτι ἐάν τι αἰτώμεθα κατὰ τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ ἀκούει ἡμῶν.

Transliteration (Accordance):

Kai hautē estin hē parrēsia hēn echomen pros auton hoti ean ti aitōmetha kata to thelēma autou akouei hēmōn.

Translation (NRSV):

And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):

παρρησία : complete confidence, πρός τινα confidence in one.
ὅτι : [that] explains αὕτη [this].
αἰτώμεθα : subjunctive middle of αἰτέω ask, petition for, beg, beseech.