that it has the force of a present tense and the variety of tenses are a stylistic device [AB]. QUESTION—What relationship is indicated by the preposition ἐν ‘by’? It indicates the means by which they know that they know God [AB, Brd, NTC]: by means of this we know that we have known him. QUESTION—What does the pronoun τούτῳ ‘this’ refer to? It refers forward to ‘if we keep his commandments’ [AB, Alf, BAGD, Brd, Herm, ICC, Lns, My, NCBC, NIC, NTC, TH, WBC, Ws; NAB, NIV, REB, TEV, TNT]: by keeping