Ohio Yearly Meeting's Podcast Ohio Yearly Meeting (Conservative)

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Show notes #09 1 John 4:2-6
This wide-ranging podcast opens with a quick review of session eight concerning 1 John 4:2. The podcast then continues with a reexamination of 1 John 4:2-6, an additional exploration of additional areas of biblical translation and interpretation, connecting those to some of the fine points of the Greek language of Christ’s time. 
Also interwoven throughout the rest of the podcast are brief points on the linguistic and grammatical structure of English in the King James Bible (KJV), contrasted with English today. For instance, the KJV use of a then-grammatically correct expression “He is come”, would today be, “He has come.” This structure was commonly used in English up through the 17th Century. 
Regarding 1 John 4:2, one of the basic understandings of early Friends (which was very different from most other believers) relates to the phrase Jesus Christ has come “in the flesh”. Most believers see that verse referring to Jesus’ having come into the world, being physically in the world, “in the flesh.” However, early Friends understood that phrase “in the flesh” to mean that Jesus had come in our flesh . . . in the believer’s flesh. He was, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”(Colossians 1:27)
This session does not move in a linear fashion from verse to verse, but freely, in a disjointed manner between verses as questions arise regarding individual verses in the Holy Scriptures. The below notes are largely presented here in the order in which they come in the podcast.
 Verse 4
The Greek word, “nike” (victory) is often translated “overcome”. 
Early Friends emphasized concept of Christ being in the follower of Jesus, which is underscored in: “Greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world.”  
 Verse 6
The word, “alithea”, meaning “truth” is important in this verse, and should “Truth” (with a capital “T”), since it is a synonym for “messiah”/“Christ”.
 Verse 1
In the phrase “. . . do not believe every spirit . . . “, the Greek word “pneuma” (Greek: “moving current”, “movement”) can include these: “the spirit of satan”, “the spirit of the devil”, “the lying spirit”,  or “the spirit of the world” (in the negative sense of “world/worldliness”.  
 Verse 2
The word, “Spirit” is frequently capitalized because it is referring to God’s Spirit.  In the original Greek, all letters were capitalized. Lowercase letters began to be introduced in Greek several centuries later. Also, there was no punctuation in the original New Testament Greek. 
 Verse 3
The word, “antichrist” doesn’t occur in John’s book of The Revelation.  
 Verse 6The Greek word, “planeo” frequently translated “falsehood” in Greek has a basic meaning of “error”, “delusion” and “deception”.  The Greek word, “martus” means witness. Our English word, “martyr” comes from it. We cannot gloss over the total commitment of the early church (and of early Quakers) to witness to their relationship with Christ, even to the point of a pain
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We welcome feedback on this and any of our other podcast episodes. Contact us through our website, or email us at OYMConservative@gmail.com.

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Introduction to, and historical context of, ‘A Brief Synopsis of the Principles and Testimonies of the Religious Society of Friends’, 1913. This first session of thirteen covers the minutes of adoption that constitute the approval of this work by the then seven conservative (Wilburite) yearly meetings in North America, as well as explaining the terminology that appears within those minutes.

Recording of the Zoom session where Henry Jason and Conrad Lindes of Ohio Yearly
Meeting (Conservative) discuss pages 1-6 from ohioyearlymeeting.org/wp-
content/uploads/2021/10/OYMBriefSynopsis-for-web.pdf .
Visit us on our website at ohioyearlymeeting.org.

Any who might be interested in joining any of the Ohio Yearly Meeting Zoom online studies should check out the Online Study and Discussion Groups on our website. All are welcome!

We welcome feedback on this and any of our other podcast episodes. Contact us through our website, or email us at OYMConservative@gmail.com.

If thee is using a smart phone, tablet or other SMS supported device, click here to send us a text message. Unfortunately we cannot send a text reply, so if thee would like to converse include thy email address.
In this podcast on 1 John 3:11-4:6 , Henry does a great deal of looking at the Greek of this epistle, exploring both the original and variant meanings of the especially significant words. Many, but not all of those words are below.  
 
Chapter 3
Verse 11
 Henry has mentioned in previous sessions, the meaning of these related Greek words, 
“angelia”:           message“euangelion”:   gospel /good news“epangelion”:   promise“angelos”:          messenger Verse 12
“Dikaios”: upright/righteous. Often in the gospels, when it is used, it has the meaning “upright in God’s eyes.”
 Verse 13
If we are doing what God says to do, frequently we will be hated by the world. 
 Verse 14
There are two basic Greek words which are translated into English as “life”:
bios: Can mean livelihood/the way one earns money. zoe: Life in the sense of being alive, especially spiritual and eternal life.  Verse 15
 The Greek word, “adelphos” (brother) is inclusive and includes both men and women. When the Greek refers specifically to women, it uses the word, “adelphe”. It was very unusual in the Roman world to call someone a brother, when they were not related. As a result, it became notable in the Roman world that Christians were so connected to each other that they called each other, “brother.”  
 Verse 18
As has been mentioned before, the term “dear children” is an endearing term. 
Verse 23
The Greek word, “pisteuo”, (often frequently translated into English as “believe”) means “to trust/put one’s trust in something”.               
Chapter 4
Verse 1
The false prophets John mentions in this verse are likely those who “went out from us” (1 John 2:19) who, in all probability, were docetists (and likely the predecessors of the Gnostics). These people believed that Jesus was not both completely God and completely man, but instead, He was instead almost entirely God, but in a human covering that was a miniscule amount human.
Verses 2-6
One of the very different understandings of early Friends from most other believers relates to the phrase Jesus Christ has come “in the flesh” in 1 John 4;2. Most other believers see that verse referring to the historical Jesus as having come “in the flesh” into the world. 
However, early Friends understood that phrase (of 1 John 4:2) “in the flesh” to mean something very different: Jesus had come in our flesh . . . in the believer’s flesh, as Colossians 1:27 also says it, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Finally, there is a brief reading and discussion of 1 John 4:3-6 as Henry looks ahead to session #9.

The Quote in our introduction is from Undaunted zeal: the letters of Margaret Fell.  Edited by Elsa F. Glines. Richmond IN, Friends United Pr, 2003.
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Any who might be interested in joining any of the Ohio Yearly Meeting Zoom online studies should check out the Online Study and Discussion Groups on our website. All are welcome!

We welcome feedback on this and any of our other podcast episodes. Contact us through our website, or email us at OYMConservative@gmail.com.

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  In this podcast, Henry devotes most of his attention to 2:28-3:3, with the last several minutes devoted to some linguistic issues found in 1 John 3:4-10. 
1 John 2
Verse 28
        The Greek word “ean” which is typically mis-translated as “when” in verse 28 is more correctly translated, “if ever”. The change to “if ever” enhances the other often mis-translated word (Greek: “parousia”), usually translated “coming”, should, instead be translated “presence”. Thus, the more correct interpretation of this verse would be: If ever He is being present to us [manifesting Himself in us], we should not shrink back at that presence, but live in it. There is a sweetness in His presence of which we need not be ashamed. 
1 John 3
Verse 2  
        The above word, “parousia” in this verse has a similar meaning as the word “coming” in verse 28. The Greek word, “phanerothe” (from phanerao) does not really mean “appeared.” Rather, a better translation of the word is “to make apparent/made obvious/manifested”. Thus, when paired with the Greek word, “ean”, the meaning becomes: if ever Christ makes Himself apparent in the follower of Jesus. The implication is not that we are waiting for a second physical coming of Christ, but rather, we are waiting for an inner realization that He is already within one, making Himself apparent. 
Verse 3
Regarding the Greek word, “hagnos” instead of being translated “pure”, it has a more accurate meaning: of “holy” . . . being inwardly holy. 
Verse 4
“Lawlessness”: For a Jew, the Law was everything. To talk about lawlessness was to disregard the Law of Moses. 
“Cardia”: “heart”. However, in the Greek, the word, “cardia” would today be understood as “conscience” in modern-day English. In the early 17th century, the words “consciousness” and “conscience” began to be separated, developing very different meanings. 
Verse 7 
“Dikaios”: means “righteous”, or “upright”. 
Verse 9
“Sperma”: means “seed” or “semen”. Our English word, “sperm” is derived directly from the Greek. 
 

The quote in our introduction is from the Sixth Chapter of George Fox's Journal.
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Any who might be interested in joining any of the Ohio Yearly Meeting Zoom online studies should check out the Online Study and Discussion Groups on our website. All are welcome!

We welcome feedback on this and any of our other podcast episodes. Contact us through our website, or email us at OYMConservative@gmail.com.

If thee is using a smart phone, tablet or other SMS supported device, click here to send us a text message. Unfortunately we cannot send a text reply, so if thee would like to converse include thy email address.
Before going on to this passage in 1 John:26-28, Henry goes back to the previous session, #5 (1 John 2:25) to further discuss the Greek word “epangelia” which is Greek for “promise”. It is related to the Greek words “angelia”: message; “angelos”: messenger/angel; “euangelion”: good news/gospel.
Next follows about a twenty-minute discussion from verse 25 of the concept of eternal life. 
Verses 27, 28 
“chrisma”: anointing. This Greek word means to rub/apply something onto a person. Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit because He had a special mission, i.e., that of messiah. 
“But you have been anointed by the Holy One . . . .” You too have Christ within you, so you too have His anointing within you. Early Quakers understood the truth that John was teaching: You have Christ within you and His anointing abides/remains/stays/continues within you. One doesn’t need anyone to teach you, the Inward Light of Christ is within you to teach and transform you, if you will let it.   
“Christos” is the Greek word meaning anointed, (the) Anointed One, (the) messiah in English. English “messiah" derives from the Greek “messias” which was borrowed from the  Hebrew: māšīah. 
Verse 28
Henry suggests what would be perhaps a more accurate translation of verse 28: 
“And now, dear children, remain in Him that if ever He is manifested/shows/appears Himself, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him and at His presence (Gk: Parousia). 
This word “parousia” is frequently mistranslated as “coming”, when it is much more accurately translated as “presence”. Thus, “presence” lends a much different sense to the sentence, (understood by early Christians, and again by the earliest Quakers) that the “parousia” of Christ is a spiritual presence in the present with the believer, not a coming at some time in the future. Live in His presence and light, and do not shrink from his presence in your life. There is a sweetness in His presence of which we need not be ashamed. 
At the first intimation of His presence in our lives, He will bring illumination to the things in our lives that need to be changed. However, as we abide in His continuing presence, the initial judgement (if we follow it and let Him work in our lives, and listen to and obey it),  will increasingly become more of a comfort to the follower of Jesus as he proceeds on the path to God the Father.  
The quote in our introduction is from Chapter One of George Fox's Journal.


Visit us on our website at ohioyearlymeeting.org.

Any who might be interested in joining any of the Ohio Yearly Meeting Zoom online studies should check out the Online Study and Discussion Groups on our website. All are welcome!

We welcome feedback on this and any of our other podcast episodes. Contact us through our website, or email us at OYMConservative@gmail.com.

If thee is using a smart phone, tablet or other SMS supported device, click here to send us a text message. Unfortunately we cannot send a text reply, so if thee would like to converse include thy email address.
                Before going on to this passage in 1 John:18-27, Henry goes back to the previous session to further discuss the Greek word “kosmos”. In addition to the many meanings discussed in session #4, another one of the primary meanings of this word is one with a negative connotation: worldliness; a worldly way of acting, and that we should not be conformed to the world. Other meanings of kosmos : water, to adorn or beautify, orderliness, the sum total of everything in the world or universe, the sum total of all the creatures of the world, the earth/world, humanity in general, the system of human existence and its many aspects, the sum total collected aspect of an entity.  
Verse 18: 
“antichristos”: antichrist. The word has two meanings: 
 Opposed to/opposite of Christ (the messiah, the anointed one); the antichrist is one who is opposed to the true Christ. In place of/instead of Christ. It can also be understood as someone or something that is looked upon as the true Christ, but instead is a false Christ.  Verse 19: 
There had been a split in the churches with which John was associated. Those who left didn’t really belong among those who stayed. Perhaps those who left were docetists who heretically  said that Jesus just seemed to be human, but He was not: The said that He was God with a human covering that only made him look like a human. But there are other places in Holy Scripture that show Jesus was both completely human, and completely God. Likely the docetists were the forerunners of the later gnostics. 
Verse 20: 
“chrisma”: anointing. This Greek word means to rub/put something into a person. Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit because He had a special mission: messiah. “But you have been anointed by the Holy One . . . .” You too have Christ within you, so you too have His anointing within you. Early Quakers understood the truth that Paul was teaching: You have Christ within you and His anointing within you. 
Verse 21 : 
“alethea”: truth. This is not just truth, but Truth with a capital T: the Spirit of Truth/the way to God/eternal Life/Christ in you. In the writings of early Friends Quakerism itself was quite often simply  referred to as: Truth. At the beginning of the Quaker movement, to be called a Quaker by someone was a slur. 
Verse 24: 
“Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.” The earlies Christians focused on “God is one.” There was no dividing of God into separate beings (as trinitarianism would later do.) The word, “trinity” would not be found in Christian authors until decades after John’s writing. It would finally be introduced and codified more than two centuries later in the early 4th Century in the Nicene Creed. Thus, because the word “trinity” is not found in Holy Scriptures, as Henry says, “Early Quakers were really pre-trinitarian”, rejecting the danger of leaning toward the of making three gods, instead seeing Father, Son and Spirit simply as “God is one.”

Visit us on our website at ohioyearlymeeting.org.

Any who might be interested in joining any of the Ohio Yearly Meeting Zoom online studies should check out the Online Study and Discussion Groups on our website. All are welcome!

We welcome feedback on this and any of our other podcast episodes. Contact us through our website, or email us at OYMConservative@gmail.com.