SEV Biblia, Chapter 2:19
Ellos salieron de nosotros, mas no eran de nosotros, porque si fueran de nosotros, hubieran sin duda permanecido con nosotros; pero esto es para que se manifestara que todos no son de nosotros.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 John 2:19
Verse 19. They went out from us] These heretics had belonged to our Christian assemblies, they professed Christianity, and do so still; but we apostles did not commission them to preach to you, for they have disgraced the Divine doctrine with the most pernicious opinions; they have given up or explained away its most essential principles; they have mingled the rest with heathenish rites and Jewish glosses. While, therefore, we acknowledge that they once belonged to us, we assert that they are not of us. They are not Christians; we abhor their conduct and their creed. We never sent them to teach. They were not of us] For a considerable time before they left our assemblies they gave proofs that they had departed from the faith; for if they had been of us - if they had been apostles, and continued in the firm belief of the Christian doctrines, they would not have departed from us to form a sect of themselves.
That they were not all of us.] They were not expelled from the Christian Church; they were not sent out by us; but they separated from it and us.
None of them had been inspired as we apostles were, though they pretended to a very high teaching; but their separating from us manifested that they were not taught, as we were, by the Spirit of God. These false teachers probably drew many sincere souls away with them; and to this it is probable the apostle alludes when he says, they were not ALL of us.
Some were; others were not.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 19. They went out from us , &c.] Which intends not the persons that went down from Judea to Antioch, ( Acts 15:1,24), who preached destructive doctrines to the Gentiles, which the apostles and the church of Judea disowned and censured; by which it appeared, that all the preachers of these doctrines were not of them, and of the same mind with them: for this sense makes these antichrists to be only preachers; whereas, though many of them might be such, yet not all; for whoever, in a private capacity denied the Father and the Son, or that Christ was come in the flesh, was antichrist; and to these private believers are opposed in ( 1 John 2:20); and it also makes the us to be the apostles, whereas they were all dead but John; and these antichrists were men that had risen up then in the last time, and therefore could not, with propriety, be said to go out from the apostles; besides, whenever the apostle uses this pronoun us, he includes with himself all true believers, and may more especially here intend the churches of Asia; or rather the members of the church at Ephesus, where he was; nor is it likely he should have in view the church of Judea, and a case in which that was concerned near forty years ago: moreover, such a sense makes the going out to be merely local and corporeal, and which is in itself not criminal; the persons that went from Judea to Antioch were not blamable for going thither, nor for going out from the apostles thither, but for troubling the disciples with words, to the subverting of their souls; nor was a corporeal departure from the apostles any evidence of not being of the same mind with them; for they often departed one from other, yet continued of the same mind, and in the same faith: but the sense is, that there were some persons in the Apostle John's time, who had made a profession of religion, were members of the church, and some of them perhaps preachers, and yet they departed from the faith, and dropped their profession of it, and withdrew themselves from the church, or churches to which they belonged, and set up separate assemblies of their own: but they were not of us : they were of the church, and of the same mind with it, at least in profession, antecedent to their going out; for had they not been in communion with the church, they could not be properly said to go out of it; and if they had not been of the same mind and faith in profession, they could not be said to depart from it; but they were not truly regenerated by the grace of God, and so apparently were not of the number, of God's elect: notwithstanding their profession and communion with the church, they were of the world, and not of God; they were not true believers; they had not that anointing which abides, and from which persons are truly denominated Christians, or anointed ones: for if they had been of us, they would [no doubt] have continued with us ; in the doctrine of the apostles, and in the fellowship of the church, as true believers do: if their hearts had been right with God, they would have remained steadfast to him, his Gospel, truths, and ordinances, and faithful with his saints; for such who are truly regenerate are born of an incorruptible seed, and those that have received the anointing which makes them truly Christians, that abides, as does every true grace, faith, hope, and love; and such who are truly God's elect cannot possibly fall into such errors and heresies as these did, and be finally deceived, as they were: but [they went out] ; they went out from us, so the Syriac version reads; that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us ; the word all is left out in the Syriac version. The defection and apostasy of these persons were permitted by God, that it might appear they had never received the grace of God in truth; and their going out was in such a manner, that it was a certain argument that they were not of the elect; since they became antichrists, denied the deity or sonship of Christ, or that he was come in the flesh, or that he was the Christ, and therefore are said to be of the world, and not of God, ( 1 John 2:22 4:1,3-6), so that this passage furnishes out no argument against the saints' perseverance, which is confirmed in ( 1 John 2:20).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 18-23 - Every man is an antichrist, who denies the Person, or any of the offices of Christ; and in denying the Son, he denies the Father also and has no part in his favour while he rejects his great salvation. Le this prophecy that seducers would rise in the Christian world, keep u from being seduced. The church knows not well who are its true members and who are not, but thus true Christians were proved, and rendere more watchful and humble. True Christians are anointed ones; their names expresses this: they are anointed with grace, with gifts an spiritual privileges, by the Holy Spirit of grace. The great and mos hurtful lies that the father of lies spreads in the world, usually ar falsehoods and errors relating to the person of Christ. The unctio from the Holy One, alone can keep us from delusions. While we judg favourably of all who trust in Christ as the Divine Saviour, and obe his word, and seek to live in union with them, let us pity and pray for those who deny the Godhead of Christ, or his atonement, and the new-creating work of the Holy Ghost. Let us protest against suc antichristian doctrine, and keep from them as much as we may.
Greek Textus Receptus
εξ 1537 ημων 2257 εξηλθον 1831 5627 αλλ 235 ουκ 3756 ησαν 2258 5713 εξ 1537 ημων 2257 ει 1487 γαρ 1063 ησαν 2258 5713 εξ 1537 ημων 2257 μεμενηκεισαν 3306 5715 αν 302 μεθ 3326 ημων 2257 αλλ 235 ινα 2443 φανερωθωσιν 5319 5686 οτι 3754 ουκ 3756 εισιν 1526 5748 παντες 3956 εξ 1537 ημων 2257
Vincent's NT Word Studies
19. They went out from us (ex hmwn exhlqan). The phrase went out from, may mean either removal (Apoc. xxviii. 4; John viii. 59) or origin (Apoc. ix. 3; xiv. 13, 15, 17; xix. 5, 21). Here the latter, as appears from the following clause. Compare Acts xx. 30.
Were not of. See on John i. 46.
No doubt. A needless addition of the A.V.
With us (meq hmwn). En hJmin, among us, would be more according to John's ordinary usage; but his thought rests here rather on fellowship than on the unity of believers as one body.
They might be made manifest (fanerwqwsin). See on John xxi. 1.
They were not all (ouk eisin pantev). Rev., more correctly, they all are not.65
