οὐ καθὼς Κάϊν ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ ἦν καὶ ἔσφαξεν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ (I John 3:12)

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Title:Not as Cain Was of the Wicked One and Murdered His Brother

The text is, “οὐ καθὼς Κάϊν ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ ἦν καὶ ἔσφαξεν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ χάριν τίνος ἔσφαξεν αὐτόν ὅτι τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ πονηρὰ ἦν τὰ δὲ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ αὐτοῦ δίκαια”.

οὐ -> negative particle -> not

καθὼς-> subordinating comparative conjunction -> like

Κάϊν -> masculine, singular, nominative, proper noun -> Cain

ἐκ-> preposition taking the genitive for its object word -> of

τοῦ-> masculine, singular, genitive article -> the

πονηροῦ -> masculine, singular, genitive noun -> wicked one

ἦν -> third person, singular, imperfect, indicative verb -> who was

καὶ -> coordinating additive conjunction -> and

ἔσφαξεν-> third person, singular, aorist, active, indicative verb -> murdered

τὸν-> masculine, singular, accusative article -> the NRIEH**

ἀδελφὸν-> masculine, singular, accusative noun -> brother

αὐτοῦ -> third person, personal, masculine, singular, genitive pronoun -> his

καὶ -> coordinating additive conjunction -> and

χάριν-> improper preposition taking the genitive for its object word ->for what

τίνος-> neuter, singular, genitive, interrogative pronoun -> why

ἔσφαξεν-> third person, singular, aorist, active, indicative verb -> he did murder

αὐτόν -> third person, personal, masculine, singular, accusative pronoun -> him

ὅτι -> subordinating causative conjunction -> because

τὰ-> neuter, plural, nominative article -> the NRIEH

ἔργα -> neuter, plural, nominative noun -> works

αὐτοῦ -> third person, personal, masculine, singular, genitive pronoun -> his

πονηρὰ -> neuter, plural, nominative adjective -> evil

ἦν -> third person, plural, imperfect, indicative verb -> were

τὰ -> neuter, plural, nominative adjective -> those

δε -> coordinating additive conjunction -> and

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

ἀδελφοῦ-> masculine, singular, genitive noun -> of brother

αὐτοῦ -> third person, singular, masculine, genitive pronoun -> his

δίκαια  -> neuter, plural, nominative adjective -> righteous

The meaning of this verse is,

Not like Cain, who was of the wicked one, and murdered his brother.  And for what? why did he murder him? Because his works were evil, and those of his brother righteous.

**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”.

οὐ καθὼς Κάϊν ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ ἦν καὶ ἔσφαξεν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ (I John 3:12) by Dennis Glover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.