1 John 3:11

11. [611][612] have ἐπαγγελία for ἀγγελία ([613][614][615][616]).

[611] 4th century. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the monastery of S. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and now at Petersburg. All three Epistles.
[612] 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.

[613] 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.
[614] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
[615] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[616] 9th century. All three Epistles.

11. ὅτι αὕτη ἐστίν. Because the message is this; this is what it consists in (see on 1 John 1:5). For ἵνα see on 1 John 1:9. “Here the notion of purpose is still perceptible” (Winer, 425). The first ἀγγελία told us the nature of God (1 John 1:5); the second tells us our duty towards one another. Ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς as in 1 John 2:7 : it was one of the very first things conveyed to them in their instruction in Christianity and had been ceaselessly repeated, notably by the Apostle himself. Jerome tells us that during S. John’s last years ‘Little children, love one another’ was the one exhortation which, after he had become too infirm to preach, he still insisted upon as sufficient and never obsolete. “It is the Lord’s command,” he said; “and if this is done, it is enough.” ‘Love one another’ addressed to Christians must primarily mean the love of Christians to fellow-Christians; and this shews what ‘loving his brother’ must mean. But the love of Christians to non-Christians must certainly not be excluded: the arguments for enforcing brotherly love cover the case of love to all mankind.