What Does 1 John 5:12 Mean in the King James?
He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not 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 same Greek verb names both realities: to have the Son is to have life.
THE MEANING
Having the Son and having life stand together; lacking the Son of God and lacking life stand together. The verse locates life in relationship with the Son, not in a separate possession.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the life named here can be possessed apart from the Son of God.
THE ROOT
ἔχει
echei
GROWS FROM
ἔχω
echō
To have, hold, or possess.
“hath” in this verse is echei. The same form of ἔχω appears with both “the Son” and “life,” joining them with one verb. English can make them sound like two separate possessions; the Greek repeats the same action for both.
ALSO GROWS
katechō: Hold fast, retain.
κατέχω
This compound makes the root’s sense of holding visible: the verse uses the same root when it speaks of having the Son and having life.
metechō: Share in, partake.
μετέχω
This compound shows that having can also carry the sense of participation, illuminating life as inseparable from relationship with the Son.
ζωή
zōē
GROWS FROM
ζάω
zaō
To live, be alive.
The Greek word for life belongs to a word family about living and being made alive. Here, life is not presented as an abstract reward: it is what the one who has the Son has.
ALSO GROWS
zaō: Live, be alive.
ζάω
The verb names life as living, bringing the concrete sense of ζωή into view.
zōopoieō: Make alive, give life.
ζῳοποιέω
This related word keeps the focus on life as living vitality, the reality this verse joins to having the Son.
THE PATTERN
Scripture locates life in closeness to God and in the Son in whom that life is present.
That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.In him was life; and the life was the light of men.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.THE THREAD
And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.The preceding verse places life in the Son; this verse says that whoever has the Son has life. Both use ζωή (zōē, life), making the connection explicit: the life given is found in the Son.
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