1 John 2:20

20. For καὶ οἴδατε πάντα ([497][498][499][500], Memphitic, Vulgate) we should perhaps read καὶ οἴδατε πάντες ([501][502]) or οἴδατε πάντες ([503], Thebaic). Comp. 1 John 2:14. The reading remains uncertain.

[497] 5th century. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. All three Epistles.
[498] 5th century. A palimpsest: the original writing has been partially rubbed out and the works of Ephraem the Syrian have been written over it. In the National Library at Paris. Part of the First and Third Epistles; 1 John 1:1 to 1 John 4:2; 3 John 1:3-14. Of the whole N.T. the only Books entirely missing are 2 John and 2 Thessalonians.

[499] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[500] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[501] 4th century. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the monastery of S. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and now at Petersburg. All three Epistles.
[502] 9th century. A palimpsest. All three Epistles excepting 1 John 3:19 to 1 John 5:1. There is a facsimile of a portion in Hammond’s Outlines of Textual Criticism showing the late leaning uncial letters of the 9th century (Acts 4:10-15), with cursives of the 13th (Hebrews 7:17-25) written over them.

[503] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.

20. καὶ ὑμεῖς χρῖσμα ἔχετε. And ye have an anointing (as in 1 John 2:27) from the Holy One. S. John, in his manner, puts two contrasted parties side by side, the Antichrist with his antichrists, and the Christ with His christs; but the fact of there being a contrast does not warrant us in turning S. John’s simple ‘and’ (καί) into ‘but.’ Tyndale holds fast to ‘and’, in spite of Wiclif’s ‘but’ and the Vulgate’s sed. Just as the Antichrist has his representatives, so the Anointed One, the Christ, has His. All Christians in a secondary sense are what Christ is in a unique and primary sense, the Lord’s anointed. ‘These anointed’, says the Apostle to his readers, ‘ye are’. The ‘ye’ is not only expressed in the Greek, but stands first after the conjunction for emphasis: ‘ye’ in contrast to these apostates. The word for ‘anointing’ or ‘unction’ (χρῖσμα) strictly means the ‘completed act of anointing’: but in LXX. it is used of the unguent or anointing oil (Exodus 30:25); and Tyndale, Cranmer and the Genevan have ‘oyntment’ here. In N.T. it occurs only here and 1 John 2:27. Kings, priests, and sometimes prophets were anointed, in token of their receiving Divine grace. Hence oil both in O. and N.T. is a figure of the Holy Spirit (Psalms 45:6-7; Psalms 105:15; Isaiah 61:1; Acts 10:38; Hebrews 1:9; 2 Corinthians 1:21). It is confusing cause and effect to suppose that this passage was influenced by the custom of anointing candidates at baptism: the custom though ancient (for it is mentioned by Tertullian, C. A.D. 195, De Bapt. VII., and by S. Cyril of Jerusalem, C. A.D. 350, Catech. Lect. XXI. 3, 4), is later than this Epistle. More probably the custom was suggested by this passage. The opening of S. Cyril’s 21st Lecture throws much light on this passage. “Having been baptized into Christ and … being made partakers of Christ, ye are properly called christs, and of you God said, Touch not My christs, or anointed. Now ye were made christs by receiving the emblems of the Holy Spirit; and all things were in a figure wrought in you, because ye are figures of Christ. He also bathed Himself in the river Jordan, and … came up from the waters; and the Holy Spirit in substance lighted on Him, like resting upon like. In the same manner to you also, after you had come up from the pool of the sacred streams, was given the unction, the emblem of that wherewith Christ was anointed; and this is the Holy Spirit”. Similarly S. Augustine; “In the unction we have a sacramental sign (sacramentum); the virtue itself is invisible. The invisible unction is the Holy Spirit” (Hom. III. 12). Comp. Ephesians 1:13.

It may be doubted whether S. John in this verse makes any allusion to the anointing which was a feature in some Gnostic systems.

ἀπὸ τοῦ ἁγίου. This almost certainly means Christ, in accordance with other passages both in S. John and elsewhere (John 6:69; Revelation 3:7; Mark 1:24; Acts 3:14; Ps. 20:10), and in harmony with Christ being called δίκαιος in 1 John 2:1; 1 John 2:29, and ἁγνός in 1 John 3:3. Moreover in John 14:26; John 15:26; John 16:7; John 16:14 Christ promises to give the Holy Spirit. It may possibly mean God the Father (Habakkuk 3:3; Hosea 11:9; 1 Corinthians 6:19). It cannot well mean the Holy Spirit, unless some other meaning be found for χρῖσμα. The meaning then is “a chrism from the Christ.”

καὶ οἴδατε πάντα. The reading is profoundly uncertain: see critical notes. Here, as in 1 John 2:14, it is possible that [571] and the Thebaic Version preserve the original reading: οἴδατε πάντες with a colon after τοῦ ἁγίου. In which case the meaning may be either ‘Ye all know this’; or ‘Ye all know—I have not written to you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it’, with a very intelligible anacoluthon. “The harmony between [572] and the Thebaic in characteristic readings, for which they stand almost or quite alone, is well worth notice: e.g. Acts 27:37; Romans 13:13; Colossians 3:6; Hebrews 3:2; 1 John 2:14; 1 John 2:20” (Scrivener). If A.V. and R.V. are right with καὶ οἴδατε πάντα, the meaning will be, ‘It is you (and not these antichristian Gnostics who claim it) that are in possession of the true knowledge, in virtue of the anointing of the Spirit of truth. Christians possess the truth in a far higher sense than any unchristian philosopher. The unbeliever’s knowledge is all out of balance and proportion. The material side is exaggerated, the spiritual is distorted or ignored. Whichever reading we adopt, the meaning is strictly in harmony with the promise of Christ; ὅταν δὲ ἔλθῃ ἐκεῖνος, τὸ Πνεῦμα τῆς�, ὁδηγήσει ὑμᾶς εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν�—into all the truth (John 16:13). Similarly S. Ignatius writes; ὧν οὐδὲν λανθάνει ὑμᾶς, ἐὰν τελείως εἰς Ἰησοῦν Χρ. ἔχητε τὴν πίστιν καὶ τὴν� (Eph. XIV. 1): and S. Polycarp; οὐδὲν ὑμᾶς λέληθεν (XII.). Comp. οἱ δὲ ζητοῦντες τὸν Κύριον συνήσουσιν ἐν παντί (Proverbs 28:5), and see 1 Timothy 4:9.

[571] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
[572] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.

The whole verse is very remarkable as being addressed by the Apostle to the Christian laity, and is in marked contrast to the clerical exclusiveness of some later teachers.