inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (1John 3:11)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, translators typically select the inclusive form (including the addressee).

Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.

complete verse (1 John 3:11)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 John 3:11:

  • Uma: “This is the news that you heard from the first: we must love one another.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “When you first trusted in Isa Almasi you heard this preaching that we (incl.) should love each other.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “It’s necessary that each one of us love our companions. This is what was taught to us (incl.) when we first believed.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The true teaching that you have been hearing since when- you -believed, it is this: it is necessary that we love-one-another.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “This indeed is what you heard which was taught to you from long ago, that we value one another.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “The word which you heard at the first says that each one of us must love all our fellow believers.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “And this word you have heard since you began to trust in Christ, that we must love our fellows each of us the other.”
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “Because this is the command that we were told at the beginning, that we love one another.”
  • Tzotzil: “Thus says God’s word that you heard when you believed: Love one another, it says.” (Source for this and two above: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)

Translation commentary on 1 John 3:11

For this is the message which you have heard … that …, compare comments on 2.7. This points forward to the that clause, which gives the contents of the message. Some useful restructurings are “the message you heard … is this: we…” (Good News Translation), ‘there is a message…. It is that….’ The Greek verb is not in the perfect tense but in the aorist, which is to show that the reference is to action regarded as a completed whole, irrespective of its duration.

From the beginning refers to the beginning of the preaching of the gospel; compare comments on 2.7. But the wider context reminds the reader of the other meaning the phrase can have in this Letter; see Introduction, page 1.

That we should love one another: the verb is in the present tense, expressing duration.

It is important to note that this commandment to love is given as part of “the message you have heard,” that is, the gospel message. In John’s view gospel and commandment, though different, clearly are aspects of the same thing; both call the believers to a life that is free from sin.

Quoted with permission from Haas, C., de Jonge, M. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on The First Letter of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .