An important mini-teaching on 1 John 2

1 John 2:1. My children, these things I write to you that you do not sin. But if anyone should sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Y’shua the Mashiyach, the righteous. 2. For he is himself the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only but also for all the world. 3. And by this we will be sensible that we know him, if we keep his Commandments.

4. For he that says I know him, and does not keep his Commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him. 5. But he that keeps his Word, in him is the Love of Elohim truly completed: for by this we know that we are in him.

6. He that says I am in him, is bound to walk according to his halacha ("the way to behave" or "the way of walking" according to YHWH’s Torah). 7. My beloved, I write no new commandment to you, but the old Commandment which you had from the beginning; and the old Commandment is the Word which you have heard.* (AENT)

*“Elohim is light”, (1 John 1:5); therefore, it can be argued that at Creation when YHWH said, “Let there be light”, Genesis 1:3, that He in effect brought a part of Himself out to accomplish the creative act. The “Word” does this same feat, Psalm 33:6; John 1:1; a few lines earlier we read the “Word of Life.”

Direct linguistic relationship between the Hebrew and Aramaic roots for “Light” and “Torah” can also be seen in places such as the following:

Psalm 119:105 “Your word (davar) is a lamp to my feet, a light (aur) to my path.”

Proverbs 6:23 “For the commandment is a lamp. The teaching is a light (aur), and the way to life is the rebuke that disciplines.”

What makes this citation in Proverbs most profound is the word mitzvah (commandment), since tradition commonly calls the revelation at Sinai the Ten Commandments when in fact the Tanakh uses davarim (words)!

Keep this in mind while considering 1 John 2:4. “He who says I know Him and does not keep His Commandments (poqadona) is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word (miltha) in him, verily is the love of Elohim perfected; hereby we know that we are in Him.” 1 John 2:4 (Lamsa).

Aramaic could not make a more forceful point. The fact is, poqadona and miltha are exceedingly close matches for their Hebrew counterparts mitzvah in Proverbs, and davar in Psalms. However, it is in this next passage that the full measure of John’s brilliance is shown: “My beloved, I do not write a new commandment to you, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning.

The old commandment is the word that you have heard from the beginning.” 1 John 2:7 (Lamsa)

The Commandment is the Word, which comes from the beginning! We must now realize that to translate this as “his Commandments” is wrong, but “His Commandments” is correct. “His Commandments” is the WORD which came from the very beginning of time.

Many fail to understand this truth: It is impossible for Torah to have passed away during the lifetime of the Shlichim if John himself writes about the Word they have heard from the beginning. What else could this WORD be, except the living Torah!

John was a native Aramaic speaker and follower of Y’shua who knows that the WORD (or the Torah of YHWH) comes from the “Light”; he stated that Elohim is Light and that we abide in that Light when we do His Mitzvot/Poqadona/Commandments.

Furthermore, the interchanging of “Word” and “Commandment” simply does not happen in any other language except Hebrew and Aramaic, the “word that you have heard” is the Shema!