Again John expresses his thought, first positively, next negatively. The negative clause is worded more emphatically than the positive one (see below). This agrees with the fact that the verse is polemic, argumentative. It is aimed at the false teachers, who pretended that they had fuller knowledge of and fellowship with the Son than their opponents, and consequently boasted that they “had the Son.” John has suggested already that their claim is not true (compare 2.3-4 and 1.6), and now also argues effectively against their boast.

He who has the Son has life, or ‘when a person has the Son, he has life,’ naturally follows from the preceding proposition that life is in the Son. The present tense is used here to bring out that the situation exists now and will continue. The two occurrences of “to have” are in the same tense to show that having the Son and having life occur together. This is to express that during this earthly life already the believer participates in the eternal life, because he has the Son, in whom this life exists.

“To have” with a person as object has here the sense of “to have close fellowship with,” “to be (joined/united) with,” “to be a disciple of”; compare also comments on “to have the Father” in 2.23. At its second occurrence, with life as subject, the verb means “to be in full and continuous possession of.” For the Son see comments on 2.22.

It may be possible to use the same, or almost the same, rendering of the verb in both occurrences; for example, ‘possesses the Son – possesses life,’ ‘is joined to the Son – is joined to life,’ ‘has the Son in his heart – has life’; or ‘receives the Son – receives that he will not die,’ as one language has it; or again, with a syntactic shift, ‘in the person in whom the Son dwells/is, life dwells/is.’ But in other cases differentiation is required; for example, where has life must be rendered as ‘lives forever.’

He who has not the Son of God has not life: the wording of this negative clause parallels that of the positive one. But the fuller designation Son of God, and the more emphatic position life has in the Greek, give more impact to this negative statement.

Quoted with permission from Haas, C., de Jonge, M. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on The First Letter of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .