with our hands” (1 John 1:1); “And we have seen it” (v. 2); “that which we have seen and [we] heard we proclaim also to you” (v. 3). This “we” can be inclusive: it means the writer along with his readers. John uses “we” like that in verses 6–10, such as in verse 9, “If we confess our sins.”12 But in verses 1–3, as well as verse 5, John uses “we” exclusively, as in “we” and not “you” the readers. The emphasis and shift are obvious. There is something or someone (namely, “that which was from the beginning,”