Passage

1 John 3.20

Book: 1 John · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

18. My little children, let us not love in word, neither with the tongue; but in deed and truth. 19. Hereby shall we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our heart before him:

20. because if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.

Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, we have boldness toward God; 22. and whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. (1 John 3:18-22, ASV)

WEB

18. My little children, let’s not love in word only, or with the tongue only, but in deed and truth. 19. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and persuade our hearts before him,

20. because if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.

Beloved, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have boldness toward God; 22. and whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. (1 John 3:18-22, WEB)

KJV

18. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. 19. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. ^{assure: Gr. persuade}

20. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.

Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. 22. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. (1 John 3:18-22, KJV)

YLT

18. My little children, may we not love in word nor in tongue, but in word and in truth! 19. and in this we know that of the truth we are, and before Him we shall assure our hearts,

20. because if our heart may condemn, because greater is God than our heart, and He doth know all things.

Beloved, if our heart may not condemn us, we have boldness toward God, 22. and whatever we may ask, we receive from Him, because His commands we keep, and the things pleasing before Him we do, (1 John 3:18-22, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: TBD
Audience: TBD
Location: TBD
Time period: TBD

Theological reading

Patristic / early-church-father exegesis, to be added.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

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Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Notes

Your annotations.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.