1 John 2:14

14. [487] has τὸ�ʼ ἀρχῆς. [488] and the Thebaic omit τοῦ θεοῦ. Comp. 1 John 2:20.

[487] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
[488] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.

14. Ἰσχυρός is frequent in the Apocalypse; elsewhere in S. John’s writings here only. Comp. Ephesians 6:10-20.

ὁ λόγος τοῦ Θεοῦ. [565] and the Thebaic or Sahidic Version (2nd or 3rd cent.) omit τοῦ Θεοῦ. In 1 John 2:20 we again find [566] and the Thebaic alone in a reading which is very likely original: comp. Acts 27:37; Romans 13:13; Colossians 3:6; Hebrews 3:2; 2 John 1:8. The clause is an echo of John 15:7. This possession is the secret of their strength and the source of their victory. They conquer because they are strong, and they are strong because God’s word is ever in their hearts. They have God’s will, especially as revealed in Scripture, and in particular in the Gospel, as a permanent power within them: hence the permanence of their victory. So long as they trust in this and not in themselves, and remember that their victory is not yet final, they may rejoice in the confidence which the consciousness of strength and of victory gives them. Humiles estote, ne in pugna cadatis (Bede).

[565] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
[566] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.

It is plain from the context and from John 5:38; John 10:35; John 17:6; John 17:14; Revelation 1:9; Revelation 6:9, that ὁ λόγος τοῦ Θεοῦ here does not mean the Word, the Son of God. See on 1 John 2:5 and 1 John 1:10. S. John never uses the term ὁ λόγος in this sense in the body either of his Gospel or of his Epistle, but only in the theological Introductions to each.