What Does 1 John 2:25 Mean in the King James?
And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The promise names not only life without end, but life belonging to the age and ages.
THE MEANING
You stand inside a promise whose content is the life of the ages. The word translated “eternal” carries the sense of what belongs to the age(s), so the verse names more than duration: it names a kind of life. The promise reaches you now, even as its horizon spans the ages.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse unsettles the belief that this promise is only about how long life lasts; its wording also names the age to which that life belongs.
THE ROOT
αἰώνιος
aiōnios
GROWS FROM
αἰών
aiōn
Age, era, or the ordered course of a world; αἰώνιος describes what belongs to or endures through the age(s).
English “eternal” can sound like duration alone, while the Greek adjective retains its root’s sense of age(s). The promise names life in relation to the age, not only its length.
ALSO GROWS
aiōn: Age, era, or course of a world.
αἰών
This noun is the seed of the adjective in the verse, making the language of the age audible inside “eternal.”
eis ton aiōna: Into the age; idiomatically, forever.
εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα
The same age-family can express continuity into the age, so the phrase holds both enduring life and life related to the ages.
ζωή
zōē
GROWS FROM
ζάω
zaō
To live, to be alive.
The promise is not an abstract span of time: it is life itself. This root keeps the phrase grounded in living existence, joined to the age(s) named by the first word.
ALSO GROWS
zaō: To live, be alive.
ζάω
The noun “life” grows from the verb for living, keeping the promise active and lived.
zōopoieō: To make alive, give life.
ζωοποιέω
This related verb shows the same word-family describing life as something brought into being and experienced.
THE PATTERN
God’s promised life of the ages spans present possession and life beyond death.
And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;THE THREAD
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.John 17:3 repeats the same phrase, then describes this life as knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent. That gives the life of the ages a relational dimension: it is marked by knowing, not simply by an endless timeline.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us