What Does 1 John 3:3 Mean in the King James?
And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
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 hope you hold in him is already purifying you toward his likeness.
THE MEANING
Your hope in him is more than a distant wish: it is an expectation already shaping your present cleanness. You purify yourself toward the one you expect, whose own purity gives that likeness its measure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that hope is passive waiting for a future change; here, hope is already active in the way you become clean.
THE ROOT
ἁγνίζει
hagnizei
GROWS FROM
ἁγν-
hagn-
Clean, pure
The verb translated “purifieth” and the word translated “pure” belong to the same Greek word family: ἁγνίζει (hagnizei, purifies) and ἁγνός (hagnos, pure). The verse uses one root for both the present act of becoming clean and the purity of the one held in hope, tying the two together.
ALSO GROWS
hagnos: Pure, clean, chaste
ἁγνός
This is the adjective used of him in the verse: the one who purifies himself is measured against the same family of purity.
hagneia: Purity, cleanness
ἁγνεία
This noun shows the root can name purity as a condition, while the verse uses its verb for a present process.
ἐλπίδα
elpida
GROWS FROM
ἐλπ-
elp-
Expect, anticipate
The word translated “hope” carries the sense of expectation. The verse presents that expectation as active: what you await in him is already shaping your present movement toward cleanness.
ALSO GROWS
elpizō: Hope, expect
ἐλπίζω
This verb makes the root’s forward-looking quality clear: hope is an expectation directed toward what is coming.
elpis: Hope, expectation
ἐλπίς
This is the noun form of the same word family, naming the expectation that the verse links with present purification.
THE PATTERN
Expectation of seeing the pure one already moves the present self toward his likeness.
As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.THE THREAD
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,“Lively hope” uses ἐλπίδα (elpida, hope or expectation), the same Greek word family as the hope in this verse. Peter calls that expectation living through resurrection; John shows its present effect, as the one who holds it is purified toward the one expected.
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