What Does 1 John 2:22 Mean?
Who is a liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Anointed One? This is the one against the Anointed One, who denies the Father and the Son.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.THE KEY
John defines antichrist by a refusal to name Jesus as the Anointed One, a refusal that reaches the Father as well.
THE MEANING
The verse places the reader before a claim about who Jesus is: he is the Christ, the Anointed One. It says that denying this does not leave one’s relation to the Father untouched; the denial reaches both Father and Son. Here, “antichrist” names that refusal.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that someone can deny the Son while claiming an untouched relationship with the Father.
THE ROOT
ἀντίχριστος
antichristos
GROWS FROM
χρίω
chriō
To anoint, to mark by applying oil.
“the one against the Anointed One” in this verse is antichristos. The prefix ἀντί (anti, against or in place of) joins χριστός (christos, Anointed One). The verse defines this opposition through a specific denial: that Jesus is the Christ.
ALSO GROWS
chriō: To anoint.
χρίω
The verb beneath “Christ” makes the title carry the act of anointing.
chrisma: Anointing.
χρῖσμα
This related noun keeps the anointing itself in view, beneath the title.
christos: Anointed One.
χριστός
This is the title the verse says the liar denies of Jesus.
ἀρνούμενος
arnoumenos
GROWS FROM
ἀρνέομαι
arneomai
To deny, disown, or refuse to acknowledge.
“denieth” in this verse is arnoumenos. The word carries the force of disowning, not merely getting a detail wrong. The same verb links denying Jesus as the Christ with denying the Father and the Son.
ALSO GROWS
arnēsis: Denial or renunciation.
ἄρνησις
This noun names the act of refusal that the verse applies to both claims.
aparneomai: To deny or disown.
ἀπαρνέομαι
This related compound shows the same root in a stronger form of disowning.
ψεύστης
pseustēs
GROWS FROM
ψεύδομαι
pseudomai
To lie or speak falsely.
“liar” in this verse is pseustēs. The verse ties falsehood to a refusal about identity: who Jesus is and how he is related to the Father. The word names more than a mistaken statement; it marks a claim that breaks that relationship apart.
ALSO GROWS
pseudos: A lie or falsehood.
ψεῦδος
This related noun names the false claim behind the label “liar.”
pseudēs: False or lying.
ψευδής
This adjective applies the same root to a person or statement marked by falsehood.
THE PATTERN
In the text’s relational logic, denying the Son also denies the Father who sent him.
Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either. The one who speaks the same of the Son has the Father also.That all may give weight to the Son, even as they give it to the Father. Whoever does not give it to the Son does not give it to the Father who sent him.The one who hears you hears me, and the one who sets you aside sets me aside, and the one who sets me aside sets aside the one who sent me.THE THREAD
He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, We have found the Anointed One.John 1:41 places “Messias” and “Christ” side by side as titles for the Anointed One. That makes the denial in 1 John 2:22 a refusal of who Jesus is, which the verse connects to denying both the Father and the Son.
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