1 John 1:5-6

1 John 1:5-6 God is Light

 

(5) Καὶ ἔστιν αὕτη ἡ ἀγγελία ἣν ἀκηκόαμεν ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀναγγέλλομεν ὑμῖν, ὅτι ὁ θεὸς φῶς ἐστιν καὶ σκοτία ἐν αὐτῷ οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδεμία. (6)ἐὰν εἴπωμεν ὅτι κοινωνίαν ἔχομεν μετ’ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐν τῷ σκότει περιπατῶμεν, ψευδόμεθα καὶ οὐ ποιοῦμεν τὴν ἀλήθειαν·

(5) And this is the message we heard from him and we report to you namely, that God is light and darkness is not in him at all. (6)If we should say that we have fellowship with him and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;

 

Parsing

Term	Tense	Voice	Mood	Person	Gender/ Number	Lexical Form
ἔστιν	Pres	Stative	Indic	3	S	εἰμί
ἀκηκόαμεν	Perf	Act	Indic	1	P	ἀκούω
ἀναγγέλλομεν	Pres	Act	Indic	1	P	ἀπαγγέλλω
ἐστιν	Pres	Stative	Indic	3	S	εἰμί
ἔστιν	Pres	Stative	Indic	3	S	εἰμί
εἴπωμεν	Aor	Act	Sub	1	P	λέγω
ἔχομεν	Pres	Act	Indic	1	P	ἔχω
περιπατῶμεν	Pres	Act	Sub	1	P	περιπατέω
ψευδόμεθα	Pres	M	Indic	1	P	ψεύδομαι
ποιοῦμεν	Pres	Act	Indic	1	P	ποιέω

 

Lexical and Syntactic Notes:

1:5 ὁ θεὸς φῶς ἐστιν includes a qualitative predicate nominative would not be translated with an article even though it is definite Colwell’s Rule (see Wallace, 265). Primarily reference to his holiness (Plummer vid lec 7.2)

1:5-6 “we” seems to refer to the author and other elders (see Wallace, 396).
1:5 ὅτι is indirect discourse apposition (see Wallace, 459).

1:6 ποιοῦμεν τὴν ἀλήθειαν very literal translation of Hebrew expression עָשָׂה אֱמֶת (Plummer vid lec 7.2)