A few notes on 1 John 1

A few notes on 1 John 1 September 21, 2006

1) This is a oddly rambling opening to a letter. It starts with a relative pronoun, and doesn’t get to a finite verb until verse 3. Plus, it leaves a number of things initially unexplained. “That which” – what does this refer to? We don’t know for a while. “From the beginning” – of what? Of everything? Perhaps the point has something to do with the manifestation of something hidden. That is what John has to proclaim – the manifestation of life hidden away with the Father. And the text replicates the proclamation, by keeping “the life” and its proclamation tucked behind these relative clauses until the end of verse 1.


2) It is often suggested that the opening verses contain an anti-gnostic polemic. That may be, but I’ve been trying to read 1 John in the context of first-century conflicts with Judaism and Judaizers. If the opening verses are polemical, I begin with the hypothesis that they are polemical against Jews. Why would an emphasis on the incarnation of the Word of Life be a problem for Jews? As my friend Peter Roise points out, Jews might place such emphasis on the transcendence of God that the notion of God becoming man would be abhorrent. More specifically, Jews had for a millennium and a half engaged with God through a veil. What John is saying is that the veil has been torn from the inside, and the Word enthroned above the cherubim (in the DEBIR, which means both “word” and “most holy place”) has stepped out. Jews – and in fact many others – prefer God to remain obscure, hidden, distant. It’s unnerving to have “eternal life” visible, tangible, and audible.

I am reminded of a series of articles in Commentary by the remarkable Jewish writer David Gelernter on “Judaism Without Words.” He suggests that Judaism can be summarized by a series of metaphors, one of which is the “veil”: “The veil that separates God and man—like a bridal veil, or the curtain that hangs before the holy ark in synagogue. The veil itself is important because it is God-given, but ultimate importance attaches not to the veil but to what lies beyond it.” This image implies a doctrine of God’s transcendence. Gelernter again:

“What the world calls ‘Judaism’ is only a reflection in a window. You cannot see through the window, because the far side is black (or at any rate, invisible). But you must grasp that it is a window, there is a far side—and the far side is God. God is transcendent: cannot be seen, described, imagined. All you can imagine is the windowpane. All you can know is that it is a windowpane.

“Yet the God of Judaism is no cold, remote abstraction—because of the windowpane, the ‘veil’ itself, which might be the most remarkable religious device ever conceived. Jews believe in a transcendent God Who does not part the veil and become human but does invite (indeed, implore) man to approach.

“The veil proclaims that God’s ineffable, transcendent presence can be closer to you if it is separated from yon. You cannot see or know God but you can see, know, and approach the veil, ‘knowing that God is on the other side. The veil symbolizes God’s inconceivableness and (simultaneously, paradoxically) draws God and man close. In my theme-picture, the veil is the tallis worn at prayer, the mask Moses wears after encountering God; the two curtains of the Holy of Holies, the curtains before the holy ark in any synagogue; the opaque tefillin boxes or the mezuzah hiding biblical texts; the ark of the covenant, screened by cherubs’ wings, hiding the tablets of Sinai. The veil is present in the wordless, tuneless sound of the shofar, the overpowering blank of the Western Wall, a Jew’s refusal to pronounce God’s name.”

Judaism is, as Hebrews implies, is the religion of the veil; more sharply put, it is the religion that refuses to let God come out from behind the veil. But John claims to be a witness to this unveiling, the “apocalypse” of the Word.

3) John and the apostles (“we”) see, hear, touch, and thereby become witnesses (v. 2) who proclaim (APAGGELLOMEN) eternal life (v. 2). This proclamation is the basis on which others can have fellowship with the apostles who have fellowship with the Father and Son (v. 3). In this function as “witnesses” who then “proclaim,” the apostles are fulfilling the role assigned to Israel in the great contest between Yahweh and the nations in the middle chapters of Isaiah. The TDNT article on “witness” summarizes this neatly:

“We refer to the sections Is. 43:9–13 and 44:7–11. Here Yahweh arranges before the nations a kind of trial in which it will be shown who is truly God, Yahweh or the gods of the Gentiles. The nations seem to be here both spectators and also judges who will decide (v. Rad). But they are also interested parties as advocates and witnesses on behalf of their gods. They are interested witnesses who must come forward to demonstrate the deity of their gods from their experiences (43:9; 44:9). To this extent they are also accusers of Yahweh, though vanquished by Him, 44:11. For these witnesses or deities have nothing whereof to testify. They see nothing and hear nothing. The makers of idols are impotent. Their favoured gods are of no use to them. In this trial they will be put to shame (44:9–11). In contrast, Israel is told three times: ‘You are my witnesses,’ 43:10, 12; 44:8 . . . . In this trial between God and the nations and their gods, Israel, on the basis of the guidance, deliverance and revelation which is grounded in its election and which it has experienced, will declare to the nations of the world the uniqueness, reality, and deity of God. Hence they are His witnesses.”

John is saying that he and the other apostles are witnesses of God’s final climactic act of power and deliverance, witnesses to the incarnation of the Word of life. They take up God’s cause when the nations accuse Him; God has not remained hidden, nor has He left His world in ruins. He has come to bring life. Further, they take up God’s cause against the nations: Everyone everywhere must now repent and believe.


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