1 John 2:21 - Exposition

The first οὐκ belongs to ὅτι , not to ἔγραψα : I wrote to you, not because ye know not, etc. It does not mean "I omitted to write to you because ye know not." Whatever meaning we give to the aorists in 1 John 2:13 , 1 John 2:14 need not be retained here. There is here no abrupt change from present to aorist. Moreover, 1 John 2:26 limits this ἔγραψα to the present section. What in 1 John 2:20 is spoken of as "all things" (assuming πάντα to be right) is here spoken of as "the truth." St. John writes to well-instructed Christians, to adults in the faith. It is precisely because they "know the truth" that he addresses them, especially to warn them against antichrists. We are in doubt whether καὶ ὅτι , depends upon ἔγραψα ("and because")or upon οἴδατε ("and that"). The former is better; it introduces a second reason for his writing. Some take ὅτι , in all three places as "that" after ἔγραψα : "I did not write to you and say that ye know not the truth, but that ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth." Every lie is fundamentally and ab origine ἐκ separate from the truth; and hence his readers will easily recognize lies and liars, for they know the truth.