Translation talk:1 John

Translation Philosophy
My goal, in the famous phrase of Bishop Lightfoot, is to produce a translation that is, "As literal as possible, as free as necessary." I'm trying to let the text speak for itself with a minimum of interpretation on my part, and using the most natural "standard" english to do so.

Johannine Poetry
The 12th through 14th verses of chapter 2 are obviously a snatch of poetry -- possibly the words to an early Christian hymn. So I've taken a stab at rendering it with a bit more lyricism and concision, but not being much of a poet I haven't tried anything too fancy.