ὁ ποιῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἐκ τοῦ διαβόλου ἐστίν (I John 3:8)

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Title:  The One Doing Sin is From the Adversary

The text is, “ὁ ποιῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἐκ τοῦ διαβόλου ἐστίν ὅτι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς ὁ διάβολος ἁμαρτάνει εἰς τοῦτο ἐφανερώθη ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ἵνα λύσῃ τὰ ἔργα τοῦ διαβόλου”.

ὁ -> masculine, singular, nominative article -> the

ποιῶν -> present, active, participial, masculine, singular, nominative verb -> one doing

τὴν -> feminine, singular, accusative article -> the NRIEH**

ἁμαρτίαν -> feminine, singular, accusative noun -> sin

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

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

διαβόλου -> masculine, singular, genitive noun -> adversary

ἐστίν -> third person, singular, present, indicative verb -> is

ὅτι -> subordinating causative conjunction -? because

ἀπ’ -> preposition taking the genitive for its object word -> from

ἀρχῆς -> feminine,singular, genitive noun -> beginning

ὁ -> masculine, singular, nominative article -> the

διάβολος -> masculine, singular, nominative noun -_ adversary

ἁμαρτάνει -> third person, singular, present, active, indicative verb -> sins CER* sinned

εἰς -> preposition taking the accusative for its object word -> for

τοῦτο -> neuter, singular, accusative, demonstrative pronoun -> this

ἐφανερώθη -> third person,singular, aorist, passive, indicative verb -> was revealed

ὁ -> masculine, singular, nominative article -> the

υἱὸς -> masculine, singular, nominative noun -> son

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

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

ἵνα -> subordinating complementary conjunction -> so that

λύσῃ -> third person, singular, aorist, active, subjunctive verb -> might destroy

τὰ -> neuter, plural, accusative article -> the

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

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

διαβόλου -> masculine, singular, genitive noun -> adversary

The meaning of this verse is,

The one doing sin is from the adversary.  For this was the So of God revealed, so that he might destroy the works of the adversary.”

*CER:  indicates a non-literal, but good translation.  In the first example here, the verb “ἔρχεται” is present tense, which in the indicative mood often can be rendered in the aorist tense, since it expresses linear action not in the present but at some point in the past.  The designation CER is equivalent to “Contextual English Rendering”.

**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”.

ὁ ποιῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἐκ τοῦ διαβόλου ἐστίν (I John 3:8) by Dennis Glover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.