Smoodock's Blog

At first glance, it may seem to us, as we read John’s epistle, that 1John 2:11 has little or no connection with 1John 1:10. Nevertheless, it is my argument that John was speaking of the three strongholds of Judaism (see 1John 1:6, 8, 10 and compare it with 1John 2:4, 9, 11). Identifying the “logic” in these two chapters implies that Judaism, as we understand it today, wasn’t a belief system prior to the coming of Jesus. Rather, it was established as a stronghold against The Way of Jesus, just a few years prior to the Jews’ war with Rome, which broke out late in 66 AD. It is my understanding that Judaism is the antichrist system that was predicted would come in the first century AD (cp. 1John 2:18, 22; 4:3 and 2John 1:7).[1] The word, antichrist (G500) is found only in these Scriptures.

We need to understand that the General Epistles,[2] as they are called today, were written in the first century AD during the 60s in response to the third great persecution against the Church by the Jewish authorities at Jerusalem, especially the family of Annas, the high priest. This third persecution went international, while the first two were largely local.[3] It was at this time that what we call Judaism today was first worked out into a cohesive system of belief, and it was worked out to counteract and speak against what was then called The Way (cp. Acts16:17; 18:25-26; 24:14), and is now called Christianity.

John’s argument in 1John 1:10 is, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” No Jew would ever try to say he never sinned. The point of the argument is: he is blameless, because he had taken all the necessary steps provided in the Law for forgiveness. In such a context, that one is blameless. This was Paul’s argument prior to his conversion (cp. Philippians 3:6). Indeed, he persecuted the Church, but at the behest of the Jewish authorities (the high priest etc.) and was therefore blameless, according to the Law, even though he caused people to be executed, even when they hadn’t committed a crime against the Mosaic Law. Nevertheless, such a thing was not founded upon the spirit of the Law (cp. Leviticus 19:17-18).

So, as I concluded in my earlier study of the first chapter of John’s epistle, one cannot be blameless and cause harm to one’s brother. The blameless argument that Paul assumed in Philippians 3:6 was what John recorded as the third stronghold of Judaism, namely, good Jews could persecute disciples of Jesus and be blameless, according to the Law. Now, with this in mind we can now see how it fits in with John’s argument in chapter two, namely, he that hates his brother (pointing to the persecution / blameless argument) is in darkness, walks in darkness, not knowing where this will take him, because the darkness, in which he is, has blinded him (1John 2:11).

The writer of Proverbs says: “The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble” (Proverbs 4:19). Those, who had given themselves over to persecuting the disciples of Jesus, even to foreign lands, did so, believed they did God a service (cp. John 16:2). They walked in darkness (1John 2:11; cp. John 11:47-53), not knowing where they were going. That is, it wasn’t their activity that they were ignorant of. They knew full well ‘what’ they were doing. What they didn’t know was where that activity would take them, when all was said and done. In other words, they didn’t know they were bringing upon themselves and their nation the judgment of God, which culminated in the destruction of the Temple and their national dispersion among the gentiles.

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[1] I don’t mean to say Jews are evil, but I do say their faith denies the Christian faith, specifically, in ways other religions of the world do not. Paul told his readers that Jews are “enemies” of God for the sake of the believer, but they are beloved of God for the fathers’ sake (i.e. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; see Romans 11:28). They are enemies of the cross of Christ (Philippians 3:18), because they deny the need of and the effectiveness of the cross. They are the “enemies” of Christ who have been made his footstool (see: 1Corinthians 15:25; Hebrews 1:13; 10:13).

[2] The General Epistles: James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1, 2 & 3John and Jude were written to the Church in several Roman provinces in eastern Asia (much of what is modern Turkey, today (1Peter 1:1; cp. James 1:1), when Paul was in prison, probably in Rome (cp. Acts 20:29-32). This third persecution (i.e. of those drawing blood) had begun probably with the slaying of James, the Lord’s brother and author of the Epistle of James (see Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews; 20.9.1 [197-200]). The first persecution began with the stoning of Stephen in Acts7, and the second with the slaying of James, the brother of John, the Apostle, in Acts 12.

[3] The persecution that had begun with Stephen threatened to go international (Acts 9:1-2; cp. 26:11), but this was prevented by the Lord, when he called Paul (Acts 9:3-6) and then caused Gaius Caesar to threaten to place an idol of himself in the Temple at Jerusalem. This would have brought the end of the Jewish nation 30 years prior to when it actually occurred. However, Theophilus, the then officiating high priest and son of Annas, stopped the persecution (Acts 9:31) through the warning given by Luke (cp. Luke 1:1-4; 21:20), and this caused the Lord to intervene and prevent the impending war by slaying Caesar (see Josephus; Antiquities of the Jews 18.8.1-9; Wars of the Jews 2.10.1-4).