Translation commentary on 1 John 5:18

Any one born of God is in the Greek literally “any one who-has-been-begotten out-of God”; compare comments on 2.29. The expression refers to believers.

He who was born of God, literally “the one who-was-begotten out-of God,” a passive participle of the aorist. This tense shows that the reference is to a specific event in the past, namely, Jesus’ birth. In this sense the phrase is used only here in the New Testament. It is to be taken as referring to Christ and is virtually identical in meaning with “the Son of God.”

The use of such an uncommon expression can be explained as a matter of style, which means that the author intended to make a play on words. Or it may have been a matter of theology, which means that the author used the two almost identical phrases to emphasize that the Son identifies himself with his followers. However this may be, renderings similar to the above-given interpretation are found in nearly all versions investigated, and rightly so.

It may not be an easy task for the translator to bring out the difference of referential meaning while preserving the close similarity in form that characterizes the phrases “any one who-has-been-begotten out-of God” and “the one who-was-begotten out-of God.” To mark the difference he may have to use renderings that are more dissimilar than the Greek forms are; for example, ‘any child of God (or whoever is a child of God) – the Son of God,’ ‘(all) children of God – God’s own Son (or Child),’ ‘those who are begotten by God (or born of God) – God’s Son,’ ‘those who have become God’s offspring – God’s offspring.’

Keeps him, or ‘keeps him safe,’ ‘guards/protects him,’ ‘defends him.’

And introduces what the result of God’s protection will be.

The evil one does not touch him: the Greek verb has the sense of “to get hold of”; it is used here with an unfavorable connotation, “to harm.” For “the evil one” see comments on 2.13.

The clause may be rendered ‘the evil one does not even touch him,’ ‘the devil cannot harm him.’ The verb ‘to harm/injure’ is sometimes rendered analytically; for example, ‘to do bad things to,’ ‘to do something against.’

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 .

SIL Translator's Notes on 1 John 5:18

Paragraph 5:18–21

Read 5:18–21 in both Berean Standard Bible and Good News Translation. Compare the two versions.

Paragraph Theme: Finally John reminds the readers that God protects them from the temptation to sin and that they really do know God, so they should reject all false teaching.

5:18a

anyone born of God does not keep on sinning: (Meaning) The Greek for this clause is almost exactly the same as 3:9, “Anyone born of God refuses to practice sin.” It means that no child of God should be continually or habitually sinning.

5:18b

(Logical Relationship) The rest of the verse gives the reason why Christians do not continually sin. This connection may be clearer if a conjunction such as “because” is used.

the One who was born of God: (Tense) The tense of the Greek verb here is different from the tense of “anyone born of God” in 5:18a. It indicates that in 5:18b John is referring to a specific person who was once born of God. Several translations make this reference clearer by translating it as “the Son of God.” See Good News Translation, The Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English, Living Bible.

protects him: (Connotation) This implies that the Son of God keeps that person safe from Satan’s attempts to lead him into sin.

5:18c

and: (Logical Relationship) The clause in 5:18c can be considered as a result of the Son of God keeping the Christian safe. So it may be clearer in translation to link it with a conjunction such as “and so” or “so that.”

the evil one: (Meaning) As in 2:13e, this is a common way of referring to Satan.

touch: (Connotation) This word implies the idea of touching someone with the intention of doing something bad to that person. It may therefore be clearer to translate it by “harm.” See Good News Translation and later editions of New International Version (2011 Revision).

© 2000 by SIL International®

Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.