1 Jn 2:12-14 teknia v. paidia

T & J Peterson (spedrson@erols.com)
Mon, 03 Mar 1997 08:43:41 -0800

If this is an old issue, please let me know, and I'll check out the
archive. I was trying to make sense of this passage, and I came across
a couple of problems. Obviously, the parallel triads are tempting to
guide the structure (GRAFW . . . GRAFW . . . GRAFW . . . EGRAPsA . . .
EGRAPsA . . . EGRAPsA . . . ), but this brings up another problem:
PATERES and PATERES fit beautifully, as do NEANISKOI and NEANISKOI, but
what about TEKNIA and PAIDIA? Looking at the variants, it appears that
some have sought to get around this problem in the past by converting
TEKNIA to PAIDIA, thus making them truly parallel. Another variant
which compounds the problem is that found at the beginning of v. 14,
where the Majority and Latin have GRAFW. Now, my problem here may be a
bit greater because I don't write off the Majority Text reading easily.
I don't think it's infallible, but I do try to give it due
consideration. Even so, it seems likely that this was yet another
attempt at solving the apparent problem by adjusting the tense. This
would seem to make TEKNIA and PAIDIA two distinct groups to whom John is
writing, which doesn't make any more sense than to take them in parallel
to one another.

Any thoughts? It seems, just from a quick NT usage survey, that TEKNIA
and TEKNA are generally seen as offspring, whereas PAIDIA focuses more
on their nature as children (age, maturity, etc.). John, in this
epistle, seems to use TEKNA to refer to the children of God, while
TEKNIA is a common way that he addresses his recipients. PAIDIA he only
uses twice, and it's difficult to discern exactly what nuance he's
trying to emphasize.

thanks,
Trevor