05_Biblica_Do_Layout 1 08/07/13 12:57 Pagina 431 05_B 431 peri. o[lou tou/ ko,smou This interpretation is inadequate unless 2d is interpreted against 2a, because a`marti,a (“sins”) is never used with ko,smoj in 1 John (cf. aforementioned references). Scholars have taken a literal reading and constructive approach to 1 John 5,19. For instance Bultmann reads 1 John 5,19 as follows: “die Welt liegt im Machtbereich des Satan, ob also evn tw/| ponhrw/| wie in 5,18 maskulin gemeint ist, oder ob es neutral verstanden ist, so daß der Sinn wäre: die Welt liegt im argen” 67. Painter reads 5,19 as: “and the whole world lies in [the power of] the Evil One” 68. Bultmann and Painter seem to echo Brown’s point that peri. o[lou tou/ ko,smou means “a seeming mix- ture of things and people” 69. Here peri. o[lou tou/ ko,smou can be rendered as the entire created world of God. Since o[lou tou/ ko,smou in 2,2d and o` ko,smoj o[loj in 5,19 occur only twice in 1 John 70, John seems to make a connection regarding his understanding of ko,smoj. It is not “the sins” implied in o[lou tou/ ko,smou. Rather o[lou tou/ ko,smou in 2d should be understood as based on the use of i`lasmo,j in 2a. Put differently, Jesus as the ilasmoj is the sin-expiation concerning the whole world (Graph 1). ` , In this sense, the sentence oi;damen o[ti evk tou/ qeou/ evsmen in 5,19a seems to make clear the following: those who are from God are those who believe and belong to God, namely, the (Johannine) Christians who are not under the power of evil. In addition, the con- junction kai, between 5,19a and 5,19b, taken as “but” or in the sense of opposing, can rightly be understood as marking a difference be- tween those living in the world: those who believe in God, and J.R.W. STOTT, The Epistles of John. An Introduction and Commentary (Lon- don 1960) 194, explicitly draws a parallel between 2,2d and 5,19 in the fol- lowing terms: “We need to remember, however, that although the whole world lies in the power of the evil one, it is for the sins of the whole world”. BULTMANN, Drei Johannesbriefe, 92. Cf. also R. SCHNACKENBURG, Die 67 Johannesbriefe (HThKNT 13; Freiburg 21963) 288-289. PAINTER, 1, 2, and 3 John, 320. 68 BROWN, Epistles of John, 222, 622-623. 69 WESTCOTT, Epistles of John, 194-195, and BROOKE, Johannine Epistles, 70 150-151, have attempted to solve the seeming contradiction in the two phrases o[lou tou/ ko,smou in 2,2d and o` ko,smoj o[loj in 5,15. They propose “the whole world” for 2,2d and “the world as a whole” for 5,19. As BROWN, Epistles of John, 623, points out, the grammatical base is too fragile to try to solve such a “seeming” contradiction. In addition, the attributive positions of these two phrases make no grammatical difference. © Gregorian Biblical Press 2013 - Tutti i diritti riservati