Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
1 John 1:1-4, What our hands have touched
The letter opens with the Word of life, which was from the beginning and which the writer and those with him heard, saw and touched. They announce the eternal life that was with the Father and appeared to them, so that the readers may share their fellowship with the Father and the Son.
1 John 1:1-4, in every translation this tool compares.
The writer opens with eyewitness testimony: he and others heard, saw and touched the one who is the Word of life, present from the beginning and now made visible. They proclaim this so that the readers can share their fellowship, which is fellowship with God the Father and his Son. Writing it down will make their joy complete. Who the writer was, and whether this is really a letter at all, the sources answer in more than one way.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/word-and-wisdom\/","n":"The Word and Wisdom","s":"Greek thinkers spoke of the logos, the reason that ordered the world, and Jewish teachers spoke of God's Word and Wisdom, through whom he made everything. John opens his Gospel with that language and then says the Word became flesh.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/early-false-teachers\/","n":"Early false teachers and splits","s":"Late in the first century a group left the churches John wrote to, taking a different view of Jesus with them. Some may have denied that he was the Messiah; others that he truly became human, as the Docetists and Cerinthus later taught.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/present-age-and-age-to-come\/","n":"This age and the age to come","s":"Jews divided history into the present age, under the rule of evil nations, and the age to come, when God would rule unchallenged. The sufferings expected before the change were called birth pangs.","r":""}
Who wrote the letter is debated. The cultural backgrounds notes, the ESV and CSB Study Bibles and Carson, Moo and Morris name the apostle John, and Carson, Moo and Morris argue that the John the elder of Papias was the apostle himself. Wright and Bird think John the elder, whom Papias and Eusebius distinguish from the apostle, more likely. Dates run from AD 85 to 95 (the cultural backgrounds notes) to the early nineties, after the Gospel (Carson, Moo and Morris), while Wright and Bird say the letters "might, however, quite easily be earlier". Ephesus is the likeliest place on either view: the tradition that John moved there in the Jewish War "is not overwhelming, but it is consistent" (Carson, Moo and Morris), and the readers were probably churches around it, though Wright's commentary thinks them Jewish Christians. The form is a homily or letter-essay (Keener) or a pastoral letter (Carson, Moo and Morris). Eternal life means the life of the coming age, from the Jewish division of history into the present age and the age to come (Wright's commentary). Philosophers and Jewish teachers spoke of a divine Word, Keener writes, but none of the Word becoming human.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to 1 John (Authorship, Genre), and on 1 John 1:1-4
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, Introduction to 1 John (Authorship, Genre, Quick Glance), and notes on 1 John 1:1 and 1:2
- ESV Study Bible, Introduction to 1 John (Author and Title, Genre), and study note on 1 John 1:1
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 33, Origins of the Johannine letters, Date, and The Argument of 1 John, section 1
- CSB Study Bible, Introduction to 1 John (Author, Background)
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 21, 1, 2, 3 John, Content and Structure, Author, Provenance, Date and Destination, and ch. 5, John, Author (Papias)
- N. T. Wright, Early Christian Letters for Everyone, comment on 1 John 1:1-4 and 1:5-2:2
