1 John 2:23

2:23 Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either. The person who confesses the Son has the Father also. ¹ 

1 John 2:14

2:14 I have written to you, children, that ²  you have known the Father. ³  I have written to you, fathers, that ⁴  you have known him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young people, that ⁵  you are strong, and the word of God resides in you, and you have conquered the evil one.

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¹ tc The Byzantine text, almost alone, lacks the last eight words of this verse, “The person who confesses the Son has the Father also” (ὁ ὁμολογῶν τὸν υἱὸν καὶ τὸν πατέρα ἔχει, Jo Jomologwn ton Juion kai ton patera ecei). Although shorter readings are often preferred (since scribes would tend to add material rather than delete it), if an unintentional error is likely, shorter readings are generally considered secondary. This is a classic example of such an unintentional omission: The τὸν πατέρα ἔχει of the preceding clause occasioned the haplography, with the scribe’s eye skipping from one τὸν πατέρα ἔχει to the other. (Readings such as this also suggest that the Byzantine text may have originated [at least for 1 John and probably the general epistles] in a single archetype.)

² tn See the note on “that” in v. 12.

³ sn The versification of vv. 13 and 14 (so also NAB, NRSV, NLT) follows that of the NA²⁷ and UBS⁴ editions of the Greek text. Some English translations, however, break the verses between the sentence addressed to children and the sentence addressed to fathers (KJV, NKJV, NASB, NIV). The same material has been translated in each case; the only difference is the versification of that material.

⁴ tn See the note on “that” in v. 12.

⁵ tn See the note on “that” in v. 12.