ἐν τούτῳ γινώσκετε τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ θεοῦ (I John 4:2)

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Title: By This You Know the Spirit of God

The text is, “ἐν τούτῳ γινώσκετε τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ θεοῦ· πᾶν πνεῦμα ὃ ὁμολογεῖ Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν ἐν σαρκὶ ἐληλυθότα ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐστιν”.

ἐν -> preposition taking the dative for its object word → by

τούτῳ -> neuter, singular, dative, demonstrative pronoun → this

γινώσκετε -> second person, plural, present, active, imperative verb → you know

τὸ -> neuter, singular, accusative article → the

πνεῦμα -> neuter, singular, accusative noun → Spirit

τοῦ -> masculine, singular, genitive article → the **NRIEH

θεοῦ· -> masculine, singular, genitive noun → of God

πᾶν -> neuter, singular, nominative adjective → every

πνεῦμα -> neuter, singular, nominative noun → spirit

ὃ -> neuter, singular, nominative, relative, definite pronoun → who

ὁμολογεῖ -> third person, singular, present, active, indicative verb → confesses

ησοῦν -> masculine, singular, accusative, proper noun → Jesus

Χριστὸν -> masculine, singular, accusative, proper noun → Christ

ἐν -> preposition taking the dative for its object word → in

σαρκὶ -> feminine, singular, dative noun → flesh

ἐληλυθότα -> perfect, active, participial, masculine, singular, accusative verb → having come

ἐκ -> preposition taking the genitive for its object word → from

τοῦ -> masculine, singular, genitive article → the **NRIEH

θεοῦ -> masculine, singular, genitive noun → God

ἐστιν → third person, singular, indicative verb → is

The meaning of this verse is,

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses Jesus Christ having come in the flesh is from God.

**NRIEH:  For the sake of clarity the word is translated into English, but to avoid such odd constructions as applying a definite article (“the”) to a substantive sufficiently determined by its being a proper noun, or by the use of a qualifier other than the definite article. An example would be the basic translation “Peter said to the Jesus”; the word “the” is completely unnecessary. There are many examples of this in the New Testament. Another example is the use of “doubled negatives” or “negations” in Greek, which are not translated except in the correct English usage.  The designation NRIEH is equivalent to “Not Rendered Into English Here”.

ἐν τούτῳ γινώσκετε τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ θεοῦ (I John 4:2) by Dennis Glover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.