1 John 3:19

19. For γινώσκομεν ([659][660]) read γνωσόμεθα ([661][662][663][664]). [665][666], Syriac, and Vulgate omit καί before ἐν τούτῳ. [667]1[668], Peschito, and Thebaio read τὴν καρδίαν for τὰς κ. ([669][670]2[671][672][673]).

[659] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[660] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[661] 4th century. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the monastery of S. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and now at Petersburg. All three Epistles.
[662] 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.
[663] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
[664] 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.

[665] 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.
[666] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
[667] 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.
[668] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
[669] 4th century. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the monastery of S. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and now at Petersburg. All three Epistles.
[670] 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.
[671] 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.

[672] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[673] 9th century. All three Epistles.

19. ἐν τούτῳ γνωσ. Herein we shall know. The omission of καί by [699][700], Syriac, and Vulgate, is probably right. Ἐν τούτῳ sometimes refers to what follows (1 John 3:16; 1 John 4:2; 1 John 4:9), sometimes to what precedes (1 John 2:5). Here to what precedes: by loving in deed and truth we shall attain to the knowledge that we are morally the children of the Truth. Ἡ� here is almost equivalent to ὁ Θεός. Ἐκ τῆς�. εἶναι is to have the Truth as the source whence the guiding and formative influences of thought and conduct flow. Comp. 1 John 2:21; John 3:31; John 8:47; and especially John 18:37.

[699] 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.
[700] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.

The construction and punctuation of what follows is doubtful; also the reading in the first and second clauses of 1 John 3:20. Certainty is not attainable, and to give all possible variations of reading and rendering would take up too much space. The conclusions adopted here are given as good and tenable, but not as demonstrably right.

ἔμπρ. αὐτοῦ. First for emphasis. It is in His presence that the truth is realised. The self-deceiver, who walks in darkness, hating his brother (1 John 2:11), can quiet his heart, ‘because the darkness has blinded his eyes’: but this is not done ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ Θεοῦ.

πείσομεν τὰς καρδίας ἡμ. As the Rhemish, shall persuade our hearts. This clause is probably coordinate with γνωσόμεθα, not dependent on it. The meaning is not ‘we shall know that we shall persuade,’ but ‘we shall know and we shall persuade.’ The powerful combination of [701], Peschito, and Thebaic, coupled with the fact that everywhere else in both Gospel and Epistle S. John uses the singular and not the plural, inclines one to prefer τὴν καρδίαν to τὰς καρδίας. “The singular fixes the thought upon the personal trial in each case” (Westcott). Obviously it means, not the affections (2 Corinthians 7:3; Philippians 1:7), but the conscience (Acts 2:37; Acts 7:54). S. Paul’s word, συνείδησις, emphasizes the knowledge of what the man recognizes in himself. S. John’s word, καρδία, emphasizes the feeling with which what is recognized is regarded. ‘Shall persuade our heart’ of what? That it need not condemn us: and hence the rendering in A.V. and R.V., ‘assure.’ But this is interpretation rather than translation; for πείθειν in itself does not mean ‘assure.’ Tyndale and the Genevan have ‘quiet’; Beza secura reddemus. And if the context in the Greek shews that πείθειν means this here, then let the context speak for itself in the English. Comp. ἡμεῖς πείσομεν αὐτὸν καὶ ὑμᾶς� (Matthew 28:14): and πείσαντες Βλάστον (Acts 12:20).

[701] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.