1 John 5:12 - Exposition

Eternal life is not granted to the whole world, or even to all Christians en masse; it is given to individuals, soul by soul, according as each does or does not accept the Son of God. The order of the Greek is noteworthy—in the first half of the verse the emphasis is on "hath," in the second on "life." Here, as in John 1:4 , the article before ζωή should be translated, "hath the life… hath not the life." The insertion of τοῦ θεοῦ in the second half of the verse points to the magnitude of the loss: the possessor has no need to be told whose Son he has.