ἐν τούτῳ ἐγνώκαμεν τὴν ἀγάπην ὅτι ἐκεῖνος (I John 3:16)

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Title: In This We Have Known Love

The text is, “ἐν τούτῳ ἐγνώκαμεν τὴν ἀγάπην ὅτι ἐκεῖνος ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἔθηκεν καὶ ἡμεῖς ὀφείλομεν ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀδελφῶν τὰς ψυχὰς θεῖναι”.

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

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

ἐγνώκαμεν → first person, plural, perfect, active, indicative verb → we have known

τὴν feminine, singular, accusative article → the NRIEH**

ἀγάπην → feminine, singular, accusative noun → love

ὅτι → subordinating complementary conjunction → because

ἐκεῖνος → masculine, singular, nominative, demonstrative pronoun → he

ὑπὲρ → pronoun taking the genitive for its object word → for

ἡμῶν → first person, personal,plural, genitive pronoun → us

τὴν → feminine, singular, accusative article → the NRIEH

ψυχὴν → feminine, singular, accusative noun → life

αὐτοῦ → third person, personal, masculine, singualr, genitive pronoun → his

ἔθηκεν → third person,singular, aorist, active, indicative verb → laid down

καὶ → coordinating additive conjunction → and

ἡμεῖς → first person, personal, plural, nominative pronoun → we

ὀφείλομεν → first person, plural, present, active, indicative verb → have obligation

ὑπὲρ → preposition taking the genitive for its object word → for

τῶν → masculine, plural, genitive article → the NRIEH

ἀδελφῶν → masculine, plural, genitive noun → our brothers

τὰς → feminine, plural, accusative article → the

ψυχὰς → feminine, plural, accusative noun → lives

θεῖναι → aorist, active, infinitive verb → to lay down

The meaning of this verse is,

In this we have known love, because he laid down his life for us, and we have obligation for our brothers to lay down the lives.

**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. The designation NRIEH is equivalent to “Not Rendered Into English Here”.

ἐν τούτῳ ἐγνώκαμεν τὴν ἀγάπην ὅτι ἐκεῖνος (I John 3:16) by Dennis Glover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.