Passage

1 John 5.14

Book: 1 John · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

12. He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life. 13. These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.

14. And this is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us:

and if we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him. 16. If any man see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and God will give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: not concerning this do I say that he should make request. (1 John 5:12-16, ASV)

WEB

12. He who has the Son has the life. He who doesn’t have God’s Son doesn’t have the life. 13. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

14. This is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he listens to us.

And if we know that he listens to us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him. 16. If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life for those who sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death. I don’t say that he should make a request concerning this. (1 John 5:12-16, WEB)

KJV

12. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

14. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: ^{in: or, concerning him}

And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. 16. If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. (1 John 5:12-16, KJV)

YLT

12. he who is having the Son, hath the life; he who is not having the Son of God, the life he hath not. 13. These things I did write to you who are believing in the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that life ye have age-during, and that ye may believe in the name of the Son of God.

14. And this is the boldness that we have toward Him, that if anything we may ask according to his will, He doth hear us,

and if we have known that He doth hear us, whatever we may ask, we have known that we have the requests that we have requested from Him. 16. If any one may see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give to him life to those sinning not unto death; there is sin to death, not concerning it do I speak that he may beseech; (1 John 5:12-16, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

Setting

Speaker: The letter is formally anonymous. Early and unanimous tradition assigns it to John the apostle (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.16.5 and 3.16.8, c. AD 180), and its vocabulary and style are closely shared with the Fourth Gospel.
Audience: Churches in Roman Asia, addressed after a secession: "they went out from us, but they were not really of us" (1 John 2:19). The departing teachers denied that Jesus is the Christ (2:22) and that He has come in the flesh (4:2).
Location: Traditionally Ephesus, the center of the Johannine circle in Asia Minor.
Time period: c. AD 85-95, late in the apostolic period. The stated purpose is assurance: "these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13).

Theological reading

"This is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us."

The qualifier is the content. Kata to thelēma autou, according to His will. The verse is frequently quoted as a promise that prayer is answered and less frequently quoted with the condition that makes it true. John is not describing a mechanism for obtaining outcomes; he is describing the confidence of a child whose requests are aligned with a father's purposes.

"Confidence." Parrēsia is the freedom of speech a citizen had in the assembly, boldness to speak openly without fear. The letter uses it four times, of the return of Christ (1 John 2:28), of a heart that does not condemn (3:21), of the day of judgment (4:17), and of prayer here. In each case it is the opposite of shrinking back.

"He hears us." Akouei, present tense. Verse 15 draws the conclusion: "if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him." The certainty John offers is about being heard, and he treats being heard as tantamount to being answered.

What it does not promise. The verse cannot be used to guarantee any specific request, because the condition is precisely that the request conform to God's will, which is not always known in advance. Jesus's own prayer in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39) has the same structure and the same submission clause. See Prayer and Prayer.

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; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G4314 - pros, pros, Strong's G4314

Quoted in

Concepts:

Passages:

1 John 2.28

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.