John 1:9

Joh_1:9

That was the true Light

The true Light which lighteth every man

I.

CHRIST IS THE TRUE LIGHT. This is seen when we reflect that

1. He is the source of all the knowledge we have of the Divine Being--His relation to us, His infinite love, and the wonderful plan of salvation He has devised.

2. He is the source of all the knowledge we have of the life beyond.

3. He is the source of all the consolation we experience under the pressure of trial.

II. HE LIGHTETH EVERY MAN.

1. The general direction which the beams of the true Light are here directed to take is a marvellous instance of His condescension. The noble chandelier which floods the throne-room of the palace with its dazzling light throws not a single ray into the murky gloom of the squalid courts not far away. That Christ, the true Light, should dart His beams downwards to this abiding-place of sin is part of the wonderfulness of the gospel which we preach.

2. To Him we owe the gift of reason, which is one of the two great foundation stones of natural religion.

3. He has placed within us the gift of conscience--Gods eye and voice, a witness against ourselves.

4. The proclamation of the gospel in every land.

III. THE TRUE LIGHT IS MADE EVIDENT FROM THE WORKING OF HIS SPIRIT AND GRACE. (H. W. Price.)

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Christs light is

I. The light of NATURAL REASON, which He has given us to cultivate and improve, for the benefit of ourselves and others, especially in the great concerns of religion. This light, which even the Gentiles had, was sufficient to have led them to the knowledge of the true God, and, by the visible works of the creation, to understand His eternal power and Godhead Rom_1:10).

II. The light of REVELATION. By this light His will has been made known to us in the Holy Scriptures; the religion of nature commenced revealed; and the lesser light of natural reason was not extinguished by, but absorbed in, revelation. This further light was typified to us by the Shechinah in the tabernacle, and by that bright cloud by day and pillar of fire by night which conducted the Israelites through the wilderness.

III. The light of the GOSPEL: and this is represented by that noblest and brightest of all the heavenly luminaries, the Sun; Christ Himself, who is therefore styled the Sun of Righteousness, having now arisen on His Church with healing in His wings. This is the light which constitutes our present day.

IV. The last and most perfect light of all will be that of GLORY, which shall never set, nor ever change. But this light none shall ever behold who neglect the use of those lesser lights, who advance not gradually from reason to revelation, from revelation to faith, from faith to glory. (Wogan.)

The arrival of the Light

I. Its NATURE. True, not the genuine as opposed to the false, but the substantial, the essential, the original, the permanent, as opposed to the shadowy, phenomenal, derived, transitory.

II. Its INFLUENCE. Set forth

1. Intensively, it lighteth.

2. Extensively, as reaching to every man, i.e, to all mankind, in the sense that its light exists for all, and to some degree shines on all, and to all souls who inwardly admit its beams.

III. Its CONDITION, described as

1. Coming into the world, i.e, in process of passing from a Divine and Eternal into a human and temporal mode of existence, and

2. Coming into His own, i.e, as unfolding His glory before the theocratic people. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)

The true Light

I. He is UNDECEIVING light, the true light in opposition to all the false lights of the Gentiles.

II. He is REAL light, true in opposition to ceremonial types and shadows.

III. He is UNDERIVED light, true in opposition to all light that is borrowed, communicated, or participated from another.

IV. He is SUPEREMINENT light, true in opposition to all that is ordinary and common. (Arrowsmith.)

Christ the Enlightener

Jesus Christ enlightening every man

I. FROM WITHIN, i.e, in the intuitive conceptions of the mind.

1. This light is internal, shining in the mental constitution of every man. What was life in the Word pre-incarnate was light or reason in men.

2. This light is innate in every man. That was the true Light which lighteth every man as he cometh, etc., is a translation of many scholars. God takes care to write His name on the soul of every man; human nature bears the sign-manual of its Maker in its deepest constitution (Rom_1:19, in them).

3. This light is Divine, the same in its nature as that which illuminates God Himself. The light proceeding from the sun is the same as that which resides in the sun.

4. This light is persistent. It continues to shine notwithstanding the Fall and its consequences lighteth, present tense.

II. FROM WITHOUT, in the revealed doctrines of Christianity.

1. It is a supernatural light: not unnatural, or contranatural, for the most perfect correspondence obtains between the natural and the supernatural. Railway companies often possess running powers on each others property, and the natural and the supernatural often run their trains on each others lines. The latter is only an extension of the former.

2. It is a perfect light: true, i.e, the complete as opposed to the imperfect, the full as opposed to the partial. Christ is this; not a ray wanting. You may see God through the creation, but you may see Him in Jesus Christ.

3. It is a universal light.

(1) It enlightens every man that cometh into the world. The perfect is always universal. Go ye into all the world. The Sun of Christianity is as all-pervasive as the sun of nature.

(2) It enlightens every man that goeth out of the world. It can penetrate the blackest recesses of the dark mountains along which you are descending, and dissipate the mist of the swelling flood, and illumine your way right into the unseen.

(3) It enlightens the world into which you are going. The Lamb is the light thereof. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.)

The Light of the world

There has been a threefold revelation of the Word.

I. THROUGH NATURE. In the beginning, before there was ear to hear or mind to understand--the mind of God was speaking with itself. There was a Word. Then

1. The Word is spoken of as bringing the world into being, i.e, Gods Word found utterance in creation. A word is an expression or a work. The most expressive of all are not those which the lips speak. The American sculptor gazed upon the sky upon a summers morning. He went about haunted with the memory of it. It was a necessity for him to express it. Had he been a poet he would have thrown it into words; a painter, on canvas; an architect, into a building; but being a sculptor his thoughts and syllables were expressed in stone. This world is Gods sculptured work whereby He speaks out Himself.

2. This creation is a pervading immanence. He was in the world. Creation is not the work of a Divine watchmaker, who winds it up, leaves it to go by itself, interfering now and then in great emergences called miracles. He is in the world, the life of all that is. The world is the form of which Christ is the Personality. The beauty of the sea-shell and of the field-flower is the loveliness of God. The world is an everlasting anthem hymning Gods secrets.

II. THROUGH MAN.

1. Universally: lighteth every man. Just as the sunlight shines on all, more intensely in the tropics, more feebly at the poles, yet shines on all. Your reason and conscience are the God within you. Thus the Fathers spoke of the wisdom of Plato and others as the unconscious Christ within them. Thus, too, in the Old Testament rulers and judges are called gods Joh_10:35-36).

2. Specially: He came to His own. The distinction is between those who received the light common to every man and those who received the special illumination which entitled them to be His own--the Jewish people, the inspired people. Inspiration is Gods acting on mans higher spirit--his worship and reverence. There is an inspiration of genius, but the inspiration of the prophet is another thing altogether. The Jews were not great statesmen, artists, scientists; but the thought of God, the sanctity of duty, moral and spiritual truth were in them as in no other nation on earth.

III. THROUGH THE INCARNATION. God manifested Himself not through what Jesus taught or spoke, hut through what Jesus was and did.

1. Christ was not a transient theophany like the burning bush, the Angel of the Covenant, or the Shechinah glory.

2. But God Himself in man and with man for ever. The application is

(1) That all that can be known of God is through a revelation. The light of revelation is not contrary to, but complementary of, the light of nature.

(2) That revelation is progressive. In the world; with the world; made flesh. In the world unconsciously in nature; nearer in man; nearest in Christ; the time is coming when He will be still nearer, when we shall see Him as He is. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

Christ the Light of all the living

I. EVERY MAN COMES INTO THE WORLD WITH A LIGHT IN HIM. Dim in infancy, but ready to be fanned by educational influences; dark in heathenism., but glimmering amongst fogs of superstition. This light reflects

1. On social obligation. Every man has the sense of right and wrong.

2. On religious worship: the sentiment of a God is universal.

3. On future retribution: reference to a future life of reward and punishment instinctive. That all men have their light is clear

(1) From history. Its rays may be seen in the best heathen, in their sacred books, and even amongst the most degraded tribes.

(2) From the Word of God (Rom_1:1-32.). It is absurd to deny its existence because it burns dimly under the glass of ignorance, and never throws a false hue on duty and destiny, etc. Any light is better than darkness. A manuscript may contain truth, although part may be torn away.

II. THE LIGHT IN EVERY MAN IS FROM CHRIST. This fact

1. Exalts Christ as the Creator of souls (Joh_1:2). He puts this inextinguishable light in them.

2. Reveals the responsibility of heathens. They are not in utter darkness. It is amongst them in these elements of truth by living up to which they may be accepted of God. Thus heathen salvation is not independent of Christ.

3. Furnishes an argument for the congruity of Christianity with human nature. Both the natural and the gospel light come from one source in Christ and harmonize with each other.

4. Supplies a motive to extend the light of the gospel Although Christ gave men natural light, He saw their need of a higher light, and became flesh and died to give it. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Christ our revealing Light

I once spent a night on Mount Righi, and there was nothing visible for a rod from my window. But when the morning broke, the icy crowns of the Jungfrau and the Schreckhorn began to glitter in the early beams. They had been there all the night, waiting for the unfoldings of the dawn. Even so have all Gods laws of the material universe and all His purposes of redeeming mercy through Jesus Christ been in existence from the beginning. They only waited for the dayspring of discovery. And one of the most delightful occupations of a devout mind is to watch the unfoldings of God, and to drink in new truths as He gradually reveals them. (Theodore L. Cuyler.)

Jesus our Light

A visitor went one cold day last spring to see a poor young girl, kept at home by a lame hip. The room was on the north side of a bleak house. It was not a pleasant prospect without, nor was there much that was pleasant or cheerful within. Poor girl I what a cheerless life she has of it, he thought, as he saw how she was situated; and he immediately said to himself, what a pity it was her room was on the north side of the house. You never have any sun, he said; not a ray comes in at these windows. That I call a misfortune. Sunshine is everything; I love the sun. Oh, she answered, with the sweetest smile, my sun pours in at every window, and even through the cracks. The visitor looked surprised. The Sun of Righteousness, she said, softly--Jesus. He shines in here and makes everything bright to me. Who could doubt her? She looked perfectly happy. Yes! Jesus shining in at the window can make any spot beautiful and any home happy.

Christ the interpreter of human life

I. HOW FAR IS THIS TRUE? Is it not rather sin which explains it? Its facts meet us everywhere, and sum up the life of the individual and the nation. We see them and feel their curse. But do they explain all? Are there not stirrings of the awakened conscience, longings of the soul for its lost innocence, better hopes, holier resolves, efforts to lay hold of God? Whence have these come? From the Light. Sin, so far from interpreting life, is its confusion. The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. But sin has obscured it all; caused its power and promise to be wasted, changed its blessing into a curse, quenched its light in darkness. A saved soul--that is consistent; a lost soul--there is bewilderment in the very thought. We cannot understand our own being till Christ gives us light; then our darkness passes, and the true light shineth.

II. It is not only true that salvation in Christ is the end which alone makes human life intelligible--THE LAW OF LIFE IN CHRIST IS THE LAW ACCORDING TO WHICH WE WERE MADE. The self-devoted Saviour is the Light which lighteth every man. Men resolve every motive into selfishness. Men are always seeking, it is said, to please, themselves. But this only confuses. There is an impulse of self-denial which cannot thus be explained away. The father labouring for his little ones, the mother watching over her sick childs couch, do this for loves sake, and not to please themselves. The patriot denies himself for his countrys good; we are often ashamed of our comforts when we reflect on the wants of others. The impossibility of living a life wholly selfish, the inspirations of pity, the passion for self-devotedness find their explanation in Christ. In Him we see the self-devoted life, the only true and blessed life for man. As Christ was it would be well for us all to be; that is what God would have us all be. All falls into harmony now; this is the true light.

III. If we turn from the quenchless impulse of devotedness to the QUENCHLESS IMPULSE OF WORSHIP; if we ask how it was that amidst the degradations of heathenism and the corruption of the Jews, faith itself did not die out; if we ask how it was that though philosophers often seemed on the verge of proclaiming that all religion was only a fiction useful for civil government, men could not rid themselves of reverence; if we ask how it was that in even the worst superstitions of idolatry something may be often seen which strangely suggests to us the gospel revelation; again we are reminded that Christ, the true Light which lighteth every man, was in the world. He would not let them sink into utter godlessness. He preserved in them some little longing for the true, awoke in them some dissatisfaction with the false.

IV. FROM THE CROSS COMES THE LIGHT WHICH INTERPRETS THE DEEPEST AND MOST MYSTERIOUS FACTS IN HUMAN LIFE. The selfishness of pride is crushed as we recognize ourselves saved not by our own righteousness, but by Him that bore our curse. We have murmured that we should bear a doom for Adams sin: Christ bore the doom for Adam and for us. We have murmured at our birth into a state of sin and suffering. But Christ was born into it for us. Our Christian life is interpreted here. If we are restless amid our pleasures, if we cannot be happy, if we are yearning to be better, it is because the Word is within us pleading with us to receive Him. If we have not been allowed to sink amidst temptations, to rest in a life of ungodliness, and if there be in us purer feelings and holier aspirations, these seek their fulfilment in Christ. (A. Mackennal, D. D.)

The natural light in man

God prints His own name, He stamps some great universal truths on the mind of every man as he cometh into the world. Men are like so many volumes, continually issuing from the Divine press; and if nothing else be written on them, the name of the Author and Printer is indisputably engraved on the title-page. I do not say that the name is very legible at first, especially since the soul has been soiled by sin, but that it is there is to me a demonstrated truth. Take a sheet of white paper; write on it your own thoughts--your good thoughts or your bad thoughts, just as you please--and underneath your own signature and address. Is that all that is to be read off the paper? Nay; hold it up to the light, and you will behold the name of the manufacturer in watermarks. You may write on it what you like and as you like; but you will never rub off the name of the maker. Your name is on it, but his name is in it. Thus God has written His name in watermarks on the raw material of the soul. You may write on it, the world may write on it, the devil may write on it; but God has written in it--He has deeply stamped His name into the soul in its first make. The idea of God is a lighted lamp hung up in the dome of every mans soul as he cometh into the world, a lighted lamp flashing forth its penetrating and comforting beams in all directions. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.)

Light before Christ came

We must not suppose that all light of faith, of hope, of justice, of purity, of truth, first dawned on the world when Christ came. God has been in the world ever since there was one, and whatever there is that is noble and good proceeded from the inspiration of the Divine mind working upon the human soul, on all nations, in every age, and under the ministrations of the truth as it is in Jesus. He that brought life and immortality to light was neither supine nor slumbering, but was working everywhere before His appearance, and whatever light of truth there has been at any time has come from Him. When, however, He came in bodily form, He came to interpret what only life and conduct can interpret. (H. F.Beecher.)

Christ the efficient Light

The earthly sunlight only illumines eyes that see, but Christ the true Light enlightens the eyes of the blind; He is at once the Eye and Light of the world. (Brenz.)

Light dawning upon man

Standing far down in the darkness of an icy valley, I once witnessed a sunrise in the Alps. The first beam struck the summit of Monte Rosa, and looked like a vivid crimsom spot amid a deep gloom; and then the rising dawn fired the summits of mountain after mountain, and floated in a river of broadening gold down through snowy slopes, until at last the hills and the valleys and the pine forests seemed to shout aloud, and clap their hands, as they were flooded irresistibly with the rejoicing light. Even so, He who is the Light which enlighteneth every man dawned with an infinitude of blessing upon a dark and guilty world. (Archdeacon Farrar.)

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Christ the true Light

That only is light which lighteth another; and that, therefore, which should light everybody is the True, Original, Primal Light. Nature teaches it. You cannot conceive of light which does not emit. It must propagate itself. The moment that light does not shed itself, it is gone out. There is no propagation in darkness. Darkness is naked. A dark room does not darken a light room; but a light room will lighten a dark one. And the more light, the more it brightens--up to that Perfect Light which lights everything. The sun lights the whole world. Christ is the Sun of Gods moral system. When the world was four days old, God gathered all the light--which vibrated and was diffused in the atmosphere--into one great centre: or, more accurately, He made for all that light one great reflector to rule the day; then He made another reflector for the sun--the moon, to govern the night. When the world was four thousand years old He gathered all moral and spiritual light--of the law, of prophecy, of grace, of love, of hope--which was scattered and indistinct before, into one grand depository; or, more accurately, He gave a perfect mirror, to give back all His own lustre and glory, to be the ruler and arbiter of the Gospel Day (Heb_1:1). And then God made a reflector of that Divine luminary--the Church; the Church, to catch and disseminate its rays in a dark world; the Church, to rule and govern the worlds night. (Sermons by the Monday Club.)

The safety of the Light

The night is of the darkest; the moon has hid her face behind the swift-rolling clouds, and not a star ventures to peep out upon what is going on far below on earth. Her anchor weighed and sails broadly spread, a noble ship moves steadily on her way, her captain on the bridge, her trusty steersman at the helm, the watch at their posts. We hear the low, firm word of command, and feel the movement of the vessel responding slowly to her rudder as her course is changed in obedience to the indications of the chart, or in consequence of the observations of the look-out. Now she rounds a rocky headland, and, passing from its shelter, enters a narrow strait, on which, in striking contrast to the gloom behind, a flood of brilliant light is cast from the lighthouse which stands in the centre of that short but dangerous channel, whence it sends forth guiding rays to help mariners who pass through from one great sea to another beyond. The light makes the channel safe; let it be removed, and, striking against the rocky isles which stud the strait, the brave ship, in vain effort to escape, will beat out its life. Do you ask me on what map you will find this channel marked? what are the names of the two seas which it connects? I will tell you. The name of the ocean on the one hand is Eternity; the name of the ocean on the other hand is Eternity; the name of the channel is Life, and its Light is Jesus Christ. Without Him we perish; but with Him, overcoming the perils of the passage, we reach at last the great and wide sea of the Fathers infinite love. (H. W. Price.)

Christ the Light of the future world

Into the impenetrable darkness of the hereafter He alone has entered; only His sacred feet have trodden that awful path of gloom. We read, a little time ago, of some of our English officers exploring a subterranean cavern never yet visited by man--how they groped, and climbed, and crawled for hundreds of yards into the darkness that was but feebly lit up by the glimmer of their tapers. They pressed onward in spite of every difficulty, till an impassable obstacle prevented their further progress, and the gallant explorers had to return. They might have perished in their perilous enterprise, and left their bones to moulder in their unknown charnel-house till the resurrection morn; or they might have threaded their way through mazy intricacies until, at last, they came again within the welcome sight of daylight, and emerged from their underground wanderings on the other side of the mountain. The Great Explorer passed right through! The Founder of our Faith came out of death into a fuller and more glorious life than He laid down when He yielded up His spirit. It is from Christ--messenger from the land of light and love, victor over death and the grave, that we learn all we know of the home beyond, of the many mansions, of the place prepared, of the thrones, and of the crown. (H. W. Price.)

Christ the Light of every man

How can this be true when there are, and always have been, so many who live on still in darkness? First, it was Gods intention that light should be all-pervasive, and it does not make that intention untrue if, through the negligence of His people--to whom it was committed to carry it out--it has not yet taken place. The orb of day is not less the light to the universe, because you choose to eclipse it with your little hand. Neither is Christ less the true Light, that lighteth every man that cometh into the world, because they, to whom it was given, have not transmitted its beams. But, evil as things are now, it is impossible to calculate what may be the indirect rays of light which have reached, from the gospel, through the whole earth. There is a twilight of truth in almost every superstition and every error. Is that dim twinkle a refraction from the cross? (Sermons by the Monday Club.)

God the Light of life

When we grasp a truth, and the exquisite pleasure of knowing what is true abides with us like a noble guest; when we conquer a selfish or worldly desire and lie down to rest on the goodness we have won and feel at peace; when in the golden summer-time we pass through the happy woodland and hear the stream and the trees talk to one another, and the beauty that flows into the eyes and ears kindles its instructive fire in our hearts; when we give love or pity or kindness to those that need it, and the quick thrill of heavenly joy, such as the shepherd feels when he finds his lost sheep, swells the heart--what is it that we feel? We feel not only ourselves but God within us. His is the truth, the goodness, His the beauty and the tenderness, and His the joy. He is mingled with us then. His light and life make our light and our life. It is more or less in all men, it is of different kinds in different men, but it shines in all. One may hold it in a soul which is a palace for the crowned Truth to dwell in; another may keep it in a soul which is a ruined cabin where many an outlawed thought and many a felon feeling dwells: but its eternal fire burns in both--in one as brightly as the sun, in the other dimly as in the dying star. (Stopford A. Brooke, M. A.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John

THE WORD IN ETERNITY, IN THE WORLD, AND IN THE FLESH

Joh 1:1 - Joh 1:14.

The other Gospels begin with Bethlehem; John begins with ‘the bosom of the Father.’ Luke dates his narrative by Roman emperors and Jewish high-priests; John dates his ‘in the beginning.’ To attempt adequate exposition of these verses in our narrow limits is absurd; we can only note the salient points of this, the profoundest page in the New Testament.

The threefold utterance in Joh 1:1 carries us into the depths of eternity, before time or creatures were. Genesis and John both start from ‘the beginning,’ but, while Genesis works downwards from that point and tells what followed, John works upwards and tells what preceded-if we may use that term in speaking of what lies beyond time. Time and creatures came into being, and, when they began, the Word ‘was.’ Surely no form of speech could more emphatically declare absolute, uncreated being, outside the limits of time. Clearly, too, no interpretation of these words fathoms their depth, or makes worthy sense, which does not recognise that the Word is a person. The second clause of Joh 1:1 asserts the eternal communion of the Word with God. The preposition employed means accurately ‘towards,’ and expresses the thought that in the Word there was motion or tendency towards, and not merely association with, God. It points to reciprocal, conscious communion, and the active going out of love in the direction of God. The last clause asserts the community of essence, which is not inconsistent with distinction of persons, and makes the communion of active Love possible; for none could, in the depths of eternity, dwell with and perfectly love and be loved by God, except one who Himself was God.

Joh 1:1 stands apart as revealing the pretemporal and essential nature of the Word. In it the deep ocean of the divine nature is partially disclosed, though no created eye can either plunge to discern its depths or travel beyond our horizon to its boundless, shoreless extent. The remainder of the passage deals with the majestic march of the self-revealing Word through creation, and illumination of humanity, up to the climax in the Incarnation.

John repeats the substance of Joh 1:1 - Joh 1:2, apparently in order to identify the Agent of creation with the august person whom he has disclosed as filling eternity. By Him creation was effected, and, because He was what Joh 1:1 has declared Him to be, therefore was it effected by Him. Observe the three steps marked in three consecutive verses. ‘All things were made by Him’; literally ‘became,’ where the emergence into existence of created things is strongly contrasted with the divine ‘was’ of Joh 1:1. ‘Through Him’ declares that the Word is the agent of creation; ‘without Him’ {literally, ‘apart from Him’} declares that created things continue in existence because He communicates it to them. Man is the highest of these ‘all things,’ and Joh 1:4 sets forth the relation of the Word to Him, declaring that ‘life,’ in all the width and height of its possible meanings, inheres in Him, and is communicated by Him, with its distinguishing accompaniment, in human nature, of light, whether of reason or of conscience.

So far, John has been speaking as from the upper or divine side, but in Joh 1:5 he speaks from the under or human, and shows us how the self-revelation of the Word has, by some mysterious necessity, been conflict. The ‘darkness’ was not made by Him, but it is there, and the beams of the light have to contend with it. Something alien must have come in, some catastrophe have happened, that the light should have to stream into a region of darkness.

John takes ‘the Fall’ for granted, and in Joh 1:5 describes the whole condition of things, both within and beyond the region of special revelation. The shining of the light is continuous, but the darkness is obstinate. It is the tragedy and crime of the world that the darkness will not have the light. It is the long-suffering mercy of God that the light repelled is not extinguished, but shines meekly on.

Joh 1:6 - Joh 1:13 deal with the historical appearance of the Word. The Forerunner is introduced, as in the other Gospels; and, significantly enough, this Evangelist calls him only ‘John,’-omitting ‘the Baptist,’ as was very natural to him, the other John, who would feel less need for distinguishing the two than others did. The subordinate office of a witness to the light is declared positively and negatively, and the dignity of such a function is implied. To witness to the light, and to be the means of leading men to believe, was honour for any man.

The limited office of the Forerunner serves as contrast to the transcendent lustre of the true Light. The meaning of Joh 1:9 may be doubtful, but Joh 1:10 - Joh 1:11 clearly refer to the historical manifestation of the Word, and probably Joh 1:9 does so too. Possibly, however, it rather points to the inner revelation by the Word, which is the ‘light of men.’ In that case the phrase ‘that cometh into the world’ would refer to ‘every man,’ whereas it is more natural in this context to refer it to ‘the light,’ and to see in the verse a reference to the illumination of humanity consequent on the appearance of Jesus Christ. The use of ‘world’ and ‘came’ in Joh 1:10 - Joh 1:11 points in that direction. Joh 1:9 represents the Word as ‘coming’; Joh 1:10 regards Him as come-’He was in the world.’

Note the three clauses, so like, and yet so unlike the august three in Joh 1:1. Note the sad issue of the coming-’The world knew Him not.’ In that ‘world’ there was one place where He might have looked for recognition, one set of people who might have been expected to hail Him; but not only the wide world was blind {‘knew not’} , but the narrower circle of ‘His own’ fought against what they knew to be light {‘received not’} .

But the rejection was not universal, and John proceeds to develop the blessed consequences of receiving the light. For the first time he speaks the great word ‘believe.’ The act of faith is the condition or means of ‘receiving.’ It is the opening of the mental eye for the light to pour in. We possess Jesus in the measure of our faith. The object of faith is ‘His name,’ which means, not this or that collocation of letters by which He is designated, but His whole self-revelation. The result of such faith is ‘the right to become children of God,’ for through faith in the only-begotten Son we receive the communication of a divine life which makes us, too, sons. That new life, with its consequence of sonship, does not belong to human nature as received from parents, but is a gift of God mediated through faith in the Light who is the Word.

Joh 1:14 is not mere repetition of the preceding, but advances beyond it in that it declares the wonder of the way by which that divine Word did enter into the world. John here, as it were, draws back the curtain, and shows us the transcendent miracle of divine love, for which he has been preparing in all the preceding. Note that he has not named ‘the Word’ since Joh 1:1, but here he again uses the majestic expression to bring out strongly the contrast between the ante-temporal glory and the historical lowliness. These four words, ‘The Word became flesh,’ are the foundation of all our knowledge of God, of man, of the relations between them, the foundation of all our hopes, the guarantee of all our peace, the pledge of all blessedness. ‘He tabernacled among us.’ As the divine glory of old dwelt between the cherubim, so Jesus is among men the true Temple, wherein we see a truer glory than that radiant light which filled the closed chamber of the holy of holies. Rapturous remembrances rose before the Apostle as he wrote, ‘We beheld His glory’; and he has told us what he has beheld and seen with his eyes, that we also may have fellowship with him in beholding. The glory that shone from the Incarnate Word was no menacing or dazzling light. He and it were ‘full of grace and truth,’ perfect Love bending to inferiors and sinners, with hands full of gifts and a heart full of tenderness and the revelation of reality, both as regards God and man. His grace bestows all that our lowness needs, His truth teaches all that our ignorance requires. All our gifts and all our knowledge come from the Incarnate Word, in whom believing we are the children of God.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CHAPTER 27

THE LEAVEN

Mat 13:33. “He spake another parable to them: The kingdom of the heavens is like unto leaven, which a woman having taken, hid in three measures of meal, until all were leavened.” Leaven is zume, which has no meaning but fermentation, corruption. . . .We have no right to depart from the lexical meaning and the uniform Biblical signification of a word. The point of illustration is its progressive and general dissemination throughout the entire lump in which it is deposited. You must not think that the parables all symbolize the kingdom in all its phases. This is not true.

Hence the number of them, some illustrating one phase, and some another. Of course our fallen Mother Eve is the woman here alluded to, in her common maternity of the whole human race. You must remember humanity took on three distinct varieties in the house of Noah-Shem, the red man, who inherited and populated Asia; Ham, the black man, who received Africa in the distribution of Father Noah’s universal patrimony; and Japheth, the white man, Europe, which has spread out and taken in America. How do you know that the tri-color distinction there originated?

Shem is a Hebrew word, which means red; Ham, black; and Japheth, white. You see how the leaven — i.e., depravity — by the mother of humanity, was deposited in these three measures of antediluvian meal, which, in Noah’s ark, survived the flood, and O, how it has spread to the ends of the earth! The gospel kingdom is like this leaven in the sense in which God is like the “unjust judge” (Luke 18), where the similitude is simply at the point of independency; this leaven of heavenly grace, being more contagious than small-pox, going to the ends of the earth, beautifying the elect and revealing the non-elect, and thus preparing the world for the coming of the Lord. “Jesus spoke all of these things to the multitudes in parables, and without a parable He was not accustomed to speak to them; in order that the word, having been spoken by the prophet, may be fulfilled, I will open my mouth in parables; I will reveal things which have been hidden from the foundation of the world.” (Psa 78:2.) The Old Testament is the gospel in symbolism — i.e., blackboard exercises, spread out extensively and elucidated minutely, accommodatory to an uncultured, semibarbaric people, such as Israel, degraded by two hundred and fifteen years in Egyptian slavery. The Gospels of our Lord are in parables, occupying a much higher grade than the Mosaic typology, an intermediate between the rudimentary teaching of the Old Testament and the clear, straight, positive, and unequivocal, doctrinal, experimental, and practical deliverances of the Holy Ghost in the Acts, Epistles, and Revelation.

“Then leaving the multitudes, Jesus came into the house.” It is highly probable this was Peter’s house in Capernaum, headquarters of the Great Prophet and his apostles. “His disciples came unto Him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. Responding, He said to them, The one sowing the good seed is the Son of man, and the field is the world, and these children of the kingdom are the good seed.” “He is the True Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” (Joh 1:9.)

The omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient Excarnate Christ has been in this world from the beginning, sowing the good seed of the kingdom; His children, the elect, always having been here from the days of Abel. “The tares are the sons of the wicked one; the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are the angels. Therefore, as the tares are gathered and burned with fire, so it shall be in the end of this age. The Son of man will send forth His angels, and he will gather out from His kingdom all things which offend and cause iniquity, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous shall shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Here you see that these tares — i.e., the hypocrites — are the devil’s sort of Christians. They are everywhere in the Churches. We are just to let them alone till the end of the age, when the great tribulation will come upon the world, God hackling out of all nations the unsavable material (Dan 7:9), when the world will be divested of hypocrites, and infidels, and all others who have grieved away the Holy Spirit and sealed their doom in endless woe. On the resurrection morn, O how brightly will the risen and transfigured saints shine in the kingdom of God! When Satan shall be bound and cast into the bottomless pit (Revelation 20), and the reprobates all taken out of the world, thus Satan and his armies retreating before the King of kings and Lord of lords, descending in His glory, accompanied by the mighty host of His bridehood, to girdle the globe with the splendors of the Millennial Theocracy.

THE HIDDEN TREASURE

“Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like unto a treasure which has been hidden in the field, which a man, having found, concealed, and from his joy goes and sells all things, so many as he has, and purchases that field.” The field here is the Church, which God has made the depository of redeeming grace. I was a member of the visible Church before I was converted, and during my regenerated life an enthusiastic amateur of it. It is the province of the Church to get souls converted to God. The man in this parable is a Church member, perhaps born and reared in it, ignorant of experimental salvation. Somehow he gets an inkling that there is something wonderful and glorious in the Church. Then he turns over all of his resources, soul, mind, body, and estate, and buys this field; i.e., he takes the Church for his portion, becoming truly devoted and exceedingly zealous. Very soon he is enabled to appreciate this treasure, which had been hidden in the field until he recently found out that it was there. O how grateful to the Church, and how enthusiastic and enterprising in her behalf!

THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE

“Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like unto a mercantile man, seeking goodly pearls, who, having found one pearl of great price, having gone, sold all things which he had, and purchased it.” Here is another selling out and new embarkation in mercantile enterprise. You must remember that these two are mercantile parables, the salient facts consisting in buying and selling. In the former parable the man had no treasure — i.e., he was destitute of a heavenly investment of any kind; so he sold out his carnal chattels and bought the field — i.e., the Church — for the sake of the treasure hidden in it, only discernible by spiritually-illuminated eyes. Hence they could live and die all around it, and walk over it, and not know it was there. Now we see the man is a merchant — i.e., a Christian — in the phraseology of the parables. By some means he ascertains that there is on hand a pearl of great price — i.e., of infinite value — its beauty and brilliancy eclipsing all others. Now he goes and sells out all he has; and you must remember that now be has an infinitely better stock in trade than he had before he bought the field, and found in it the first blessing; but he makes a complete invoice of all, not only his earthly possessions, but the Church, the membership, the choir, the big pipe-organ, the Official Board, the pastor, presiding elder, bishop, and all the Conferences; the Creed, rites, and ceremonies, — putting all on the altar, without any reservation, for time and eternity:

“Here I give my all to Thee — Friends, and time, and earthly store; Soul and body, Thine to be;

Wholly Thine, for evermore.”

The final issue is, that he purchases the pearl of great price, entire sanctification, which a man does not get through the normal administration of the Church, but, forsaking all, must go to God alone, and sink away into Him.

THE DRAG-NET

“Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like unto the net, having been cast into the sea, and gathering from every kind.” This illustrates the kingdom after the similitude of the visible Church. “Which, when it may be filled, drawing it up on the shore, and sitting down, they gathered the good into baskets, but threw the bad away.” We are on the constant outlook for our Lord to appear, and take His saints with Him to glory, and turning over to Satan his due, and leaving them for the great tribulation, exposed to the doom of the ungodly. “So it will be in the end of the age;” i.e., the end of the gospel age, in which we live. “The angels will come forth and separate the wicked from the midst of the righteous; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” The gathering of the good into baskets is the rapture. (Mat 24:31.) Now we see the angels, girdling the globe with the splendor of their pinions.

“A fiery stream issued, and came from before Him; thousands and thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.” (Dan 7:10.)

This is the pre-millennial judgment by the Ancient of Days, dethroning all the kings of the earth, preparatory to the glorious coronation of His Son King of kings and Lord of lords. Here you see the Ancient of Days is attended by this innumerable host of angels, who are evidently His subordinates in the administration of the retributive judgments against the wicked, thus hackling them out of the world preparatory to the glorious millennial reign.

DISCIPLESHIP

“Jesus says to them, Do you understand all these things? They say to Him, Yea, Lord. And He said to them, Therefore, every scribe, having been discipled into the kingdom of the heavens, is like unto a man who is a landlord, who bringeth out of his treasure things new and old.”

“Instructed into the kingdom,” E.V., is not a literal translation of matheteutheis, which is the passive aorist participle from nathetes, “a disciple.” Hence it simply means “being discipled;” i.e., being made a disciple. The Commission reads, “Go, disciple all nations.” Hence the only way to become a member of the kingdom of heaven, or kingdom of God, which are precisely synonymous, is to become a disciple of Christ, which requires a genuine regeneration, wrought by the Holy Spirit, leading on to entire sanctification, which is indispensable to the successful perpetuity of that discipleship. This is true of the scribe — i.e., the preacher — and every other human being. Now what is the characteristic of every one who has become a member of the Lord’s kingdom? He has a treasure in his heart which a world of gold can not purchase. “Out of his treasure he bringeth forth things both new and old.” Now what of the new? Do you not know that the work of the Holy Ghost is always new? Instead of getting old, stale, and dingy, a genuine experience “shines brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.” So his experience, regeneration and sanctification, is always new. What is old? Why the blessed truth of God. While a spiritual experience is always new, kept bright and sweet by the indwelling Holy Spirit, the doctrine of the Bible is always old, every new doctrine being false. Hence Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun.” “And it came to pass, when Jesus finished these parables, He departed thence;” i.e., He went away out of Capernaum to embark on the sea.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 1:9. Ἦν, was) The Light itself, moreover, was that true light, which enlighteneth. The Effect shows the Subject, to whom the name of Light is most applicable [whose attributes entitle Him best to the name.]—τὸ ἀληθινόν, the true) There follows immediately the declaration, which enlighteneth, etc. This forms an antithesis to John, [who was only] a lamp, a witness. Comp. concerning the Truth, Joh 1:14; Joh 1:17.—ὃ φωτίζει, which enlighteneth) It is proved by the effect, that this is the true light. It enlightens, the Present, in relation to the time, in which He came, as opposed to the former time, Joh 1:5.—πάντα, every one) every one, and wholly, so far as a man doth not withdraw himself from His influence: whosoever is enlightened at all, is enlightened by this Light. The singular number here has great force. Comp. Col 1:28 [Warning every man and teaching every man, and that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus] Rom 3:4 [Let God be true, but every man a liar]. Not even one is excluded.—ἄνθρωπον, man) Who by himself [when left to himself] is in darkness: every man has a more august sound, than all men, Joh 1:7. John was but a man, Joh 1:6. The Light, so far as it is light, is contradistinguished from man.—ἐρχόμενον εἰς τὸν κόσμον, coming into the world) ἐρχόμενον, coming is nominative, and depends on ἦν, was. A striking antithesis is thus presented: [ἐγενέτο] was made, [ἀπεσταλμένος] sent, Joh 1:6, and [ἦν] was, [ἐρχόμενον] coming [in this verse]: in which last word the Participle present, as often, has the force of an imperfect. Comp. ὤν, ch. Joh 9:25 [τυφλὸς ὢν, ἄρτι βλέπω, whereas I was blind, now I see] Notes: and elsewhere. Among the Hebrews it is a frequent periphrasis for a man. הבא בעולם, coming [a comer] into the world: but in the New Testament, and especially in this book, this phrase is used of Christ alone, and in an exalted sense. For He was, even before that He came. Thus evidently the phrase is applied ch. Joh 3:19, Light is come into the world: ch. Joh 12:46, I am come a light into the world. Presently after this Joh 1:9, succeeds the mention of the world and of His coming, repeated, Joh 1:10-11. The Son is also said to be sent by the Father, but not in the same way, as John is said to have been sent. Moreover the Son came, being sent and given, Mat 21:37 “Last of all He sent unto them His Son;” Joh 3:16, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son;” ch. Joh 11:27, Martha, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world;” Rom 8:3; Rom 8:32, “God sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh—He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all;” 1Jn 3:8, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested;” Joh 4:9, “God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” Therefore it was not at last after His mission [it was not then first], that He was made Son, but evidently before His being born of a woman; Gal 4:4, “God sent forth His Son, made of a woman.”

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh_1:9. For the correct apprehension of this verse, we must observe, (1) that ἦν has the main emphasis, and therefore is placed at the beginning: (2) that τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθ. cannot be the predicate, but must be the subject, because in Joh_1:8 another was the subject; consequently without a τοῦτο, or some such word, there are no grounds for supposing a subject not expressed: (3) that ἐρχόμ. εἰς τὸν κόσμον (with Origen, Syr., Copt., Euseb., Chrys., Cyril., Epiph., Nonnus, Theophyl., Euth. Zig., It., Vulg., Augustine, Erasmus, Luther, Beza, Calvin, Aret., and most of the early expositors[81]) can only be connected with πάντα ἄνθρωπον, not with ἦν; because when John was bearing witness the Logos was already in the world (Joh_1:26), not simply then came into the world, or was about to come, or had to come. We should thus be obliged arbitrarily to restrict ἐρχ. εἰς τ. κόσμ. to His entrance upon His public ministry, as Grotius already did (from whom Calovius differs), and because the order of the words does not suggest the connecting of ἦν with ἐρχόμ.; rather would the prominence given to ἦν, and its wide separation from ἐρχόμ., be without any reason. Hence the connection by the early church of ἐρχόμ. with π. ἄνθρ. is by no means to be regarded, with Hilgenfeld, as obsolete, but is to be retained,to be explained, however, thus: The true Light was existing, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. This, together with the following ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἦν onwards to ἐγένετο, serves, by preparing the way, to strengthen the portentous and melancholy antithesis, καὶ ὁ κόσμ. αὐτὸν οὐκ ἔγνω. The usual objection that ἐρχόμ. εἰς τ. κ., when referred to πάντα ἄνθρ., is a superfluous by-clause, is inept. There is such a thing as a solemn redundance, and that we have here, an epic fulness of words. Hence we must reject (1) the usual interpretation by the older writers (before Grotius), with whom even Kaeuffer sides: He (or even that, namely to τὸ φῶς) was the true Light which lighteth all men who come into this world (Luther), against which we have already remarked under (1) and (2) above; again, (2) the construction which connects ἐρχόμ. with φῶς as an accompanying definition (so probably Theod. Mopsu.; some in Augustine, de pecc. mer. et rem. i. 25; Castalio, Vatablus, Grotius; Schott, Opusc. I. p. 14; Maier): He was the true Light, which was at that time to come into the world;[82] also, (3) the connecting of ἦν with ἐρχόμενον, so as to interpret it either in a purely historical sense (Bleek, Köstlin, B. Crusius, Lange, Hengstenberg: He came, with reference to Mal_3:1; and so already Bengel); or relatively, as De Wette, Lücke: when John had appeared to bear witness of Him, even then came the true Light into the world, comp. Hauff in the Stud. u. Krit. 1846, p. 575; or as future, of Him who was soon to appear: venturum erat (Rinck, Tholuck), according to Luthardt (comp. Baeuml.): it had been determined of God that He should come; or more exactly, of an unfulfilled state of things, still present at that present time: It was coming (Hilgenfeld, Lehrbegr. p. 51[83]); and according to Ewald, who attaches it to Joh_1:4-5 : It was at that time always coming into the world, so that every human being, if he had so wished, might have let himself be guided by Him; comp. Keim: He was continually coming into the world. As to details, we have further to remark: ἦν] aderat, as in Joh_7:39 and often; its more minute definition follows in Joh_1:10 : ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἦν. The Light was already there (in Jesus) when John bore witness of Him, Joh_1:26. The reference of Joh_1:9-13 to the working of the Logos before His incarnation (Tholuck, Olshausen, Baur, also Lange, Leben J. III. p. 1806 ff.) entirely breaks down before Joh_1:11-13, as well as before the comparison of the Baptist with the Logos, which presupposes the personal manifestation of the latter (comp. also Joh_1:15); and therefore Baur erroneously denies that there is any distinction made in the Prologue between the working of the Logos before Christ and in Christ. Comp. Bleek in the Stud u. Krit. 1833, p. 414 ff.

τὸ ἀληθινόν] Because it was neither John nor any other, but the true, genuine, archetypal Light, which corresponds to the ideathe idea of the light realized.[84] Comp. Joh_4:23; Joh_4:37, Joh_6:32, Joh_7:28, Joh_15:1. See, generally, Schott, Opusc. I. p. 7 ff.; Frommann, Lehrbegr. p. 130 ff.; Kluge in the Jahrb. f. D. Th. 1866, p. 333 ff.; also Hoelemann, l.c., p. 63, who, however, supposes an antithesis, which is without any support from the connection, to the cosmic light (Genesis 1).

ὁ φωτίζει πάντα ἄνθρ.] a characteristic of the true light; it illumines every one. This remains true, even though, as a matter of fact, the illumination is not received by many (see on Rom_2:4), so that every one does not really become what he could become, a child of light, φῶς ἐν κυρίῳ, Eph_5:8. The relation, as a matter of experience, resolves itself into this: quisquis illuminatur, ab hac luce illuminatur, Bengel; comp. Luthardt. It is not this, however, that is expressed, but the essential relation as it exists on the part of the Logos.[85] Bengel well says: numerus singularis magnam hic vim habet. Comp. Col_1:15; Rom_3:4.

ἐρχόμενον εἰς τ. κόσμον] every man coming into the world; rightly without the article; comp. 2Jn_1:7. The addition of the predicative clause gives emphatic prominence to the conception of πάντα. There is no need to compare it with the Rabbinic בּוֹא בְעוֹלָם (see Lightfoot and Schoettgen). Comp. Joh_16:21, and see on Joh_18:37.

[81] So of late Paulus also, and Klee, Kaeuffer in the Sächs. Stud. 1844, p. 116, Hoelemann, and Godet.

[82] The interpretation of Schoettgen, Semler, Morus, Rosenmüller, as if instead of ἐρχόμ. we had ἦλθεν, is quite erroneous. Luthers explanation down to 1527 was better: through His advent into this world.

[83] That is, during the time before His baptism; the man Jesus (according to the Valentinian Gnosis) did not become the organ of the Logos until His baptism, and accordingly through that rite the Logos first came into the world. The birth of Jesus was only introductory to that coming. Brückner, while rejecting this importation of Gnosticism, agrees in other respects with Hilgenfeld.Philippi (der Eingang d. Joh. Ev. p. 89): He was to come, according to the promises of the O. T.; and ver. 10 : These promises had now received their fulfilment.

[84] In the classics, see Plato, Pol. i. p. 347 D (τῷ ὄντι ἀληθινός), vi. p. 499 C; Xen. Anab. i. 9. 17; Oec. x. 3; Dem. 113. 27, 1248. 22; Theocrit. 16 (Anthol.); Pindar, Ol. ii. 201; Polyb. i. 6. 6, et al. Rück., Abendm. p. 266, erroneously says, the word seldom occurs in the classics. It is especially common in Plato, and among later writers in Polybius.

[85] Luther: Of what avail is it that the clear sun shines and lightens, if I shut my eyes and will not see his light, or creep away from it beneath the earth? Comp. also Delitzsch, Psychol. p. 348 [E. T. p. 410].

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 1:9 . ἦν τὸ φῶς … εἰς τὸν κόσμον . ἦν stands first in contrast to the οὐκ ἦν of Joh 1:8 . The light was not …: the light was … In this verse the light is also further contrasted with John. The Baptist was himself a light (Joh 1:35 ) but not to τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινόν . This designation occurs nine times in John, never in the Synoptists. It means that which corresponds to the ideal; true not as opposed to false, but to symbolical or imperfect. The light is further characterised as ὃ φωτίζει πάντα ἄνθρωπον . This is the text on which the Quakers found for their doctrine that every man has a day of visitation and that to every man God gives sufficient grace. Barclay in his Apology says: “This place doth so clearly favour us that by some it is called ‘the Quakers’ text,’ for it doth evidently demonstrate our assertion”. It was also much used by the Greek Fathers, who believed that the Logos guided the heathen in their philosophical researches (see Justin’s Dial. , ii., etc., and Clement, passim ). ἐρχόμενον has been variously construed, with ἄνθρωπον , with τὸ φῶς , or with ἦν . (1) The first construction is favoured by Chrysostom, Euthymius, the Vulgate, and A. V [25] , “ that was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world”; or with Meyer, “the true light which lightens every man coming into the world was present” ( ἦν = aderat). To the objection that ἐρχόμ .… κόσμον is thus redundant, Meyer replies that there is such a thing as a solemn redundance, and that we have here an “epic fulness of words”. But the “epic fulness” is here out of place, emphasising πάντα ἄνθρωπον . Besides, in this Gospel, “coming into the world” is not used of human birth , but of appearance in one’s place among men. And still further ἐρχόμενον of this verse is obviously in contrast with the ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἦν of the next, and the subject of both clauses must be the same. (2) The second construction, with τὸ φῶς , was advocated by Grotius (“valde mihi se probat expositio quae apud Cyrillum et Augustinum exstat, ut hoc ἐρχόμενον referatur ad τὸ φῶς ,” cf. Joh 3:19 , Joh 12:46 , Joh 18:37 ), and has been adopted by Godet, who renders thus: “(That light) was the true light which lighteth every man, by coming (itself) into the world”. If this were John’s meaning, it is difficult to see why he did not insert οὗτος as in the second verse or τοῦτο . (3) The third construction, with ἦν , has much to recommend it, and has been adopted by Westcott, Holtzmann, and others. The R. V [26] margin renders as if ἧν ἐρχόμενον were the periphrastic imperfect commonly used in N. T., “the true light which enlighteneth every man was coming into the world,” i.e. , at the time when the Baptist was witnessing, the true light was dawning on the world. Westcott, however, thinks it best to take it “more literally and yet more generally as describing a coming which was progressive, slowly accomplished, combined with a permanent being, so that both the verb ( was ) and the participle ( coming ) have their full force and do not form a periphrasis for an imperfect”. And he translates: “There was the light, the true light which lighteth every man; that light was, and yet more, that light was coming into the world”.

[25] Authorised Version.

[26] Revised Version.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. ἦν τὸ φῶς κτλ. The constr. of the sentence has been taken in different ways, and the ambiguity was noticed as far back as the time of Origen.2

(I) The Latin, Syriac, and Coptic versions take ἐρχόμενον with ἄνθρωπον. The Light enlightens every man who comes into the world. But if this were the meaning, (a) we should expect παντὰ τὸν ἐρχόμενον rather than παντὰ ἄνθρωπον ἐρχόμενον; (b) these words are wholly redundant, for they do not add anything to “every man”; (c) the expression “coming into the world” is not used elsewhere by Joh_3 of a man being born (16:21 is no exception). This last consideration excludes also the rendering “every man, as he comes into the world,” apart from the fact that, although Wordsworth suggests it in his Ode, the idea of any special Divine enlightenment of infants is not Scriptural.

(2) It is better to take ἐρχόμενον with φῶς (so R.V.). Jn. several times uses the phrase “coming into the world” of the Advent of Christ (6:14, 11:27, 16:28, 18:37); and elsewhere (3:19, 12:46) in the Gospel Christ is spoken of as “light coming into the world.” And if we render “the Light, which lighteth every man, was coming into the world,” the constr. of ἦν with the present participle as used for the imperfect is one which appears frequently in Jn. (see on 1:28 below). ἦν … ἐρχόμενον means “was in the act of coming.”

Westcott, while retaining this meaning, endeavours to combine with it the conception of the Light having a permanent existence (ἦν, the verb used in v. 1). “There was the Light, the true Light which lighteth every man; that Light was, and yet more, that Light was coming into the world.” This seems, however, to attempt to get too much out of the words, and on our view of the whole passage the meaning is simpler.

We are still occupied with Jn.’s comment (vv. 6-9) on what the Logos Hymn has said about the Light (vv. 4, 5). The Baptist was not the perfect Light, but he came to bear witness to it; and this perfect Light was then coming into the world. When Jn. wrote the First Epistle he could say, “The true Light already shineth” (1Jn 2:8), but it was only coming at the time when the Baptist’s mission began. Jesus had come into the world, indeed; but He had not yet manifested Himself as the Light.

ἀληθινόν. Christ is τὸφῶ ἀληθινόν, not to be interpreted as “the true Light” (although such a rendering is convenient), for that suggests that all other lights are misleading, which is not implied; cf. 5:35. ἀληθινός is distinguished from ἀληθής as the genuine from the true. The opposite of ἀληθινός is not necessarily false, but it is imperfect, shadowy, or unsubstantial. “The ἀληθής fulfils the promise of his lips, but the ἀληθινός the wider promise of his name. Whatever that name imports, taken in its highest, deepest, widest sense, whatever according to that he ought to be, that he is to the full” (Trench, Synonym’s of N.T.). Thus ἀληθινός here is significant. Christ is not “the true and only Light,” but rather “the perfect Light,” in whose radiance all other lights seem dim, the Sun among the stars which catch their light from Him.

There are indeed a few passages where ἀληθινὸς cannot be sharply distinguished from ἀληθής: thus ἀληθινός at 19:35 stands for the veracity of the witness, just as ἀληθής does at 21:24. Moreover, the fact that ἀληθής and its cognates are not found in the Apocalypse, while ἀληθινός occurs in it 10 times, might suggest that the choice of the one adjective rather than the other was only a point of style. In the same way, ψεύστης is used 7 times in Jn. for a liar, but the word in the Apocalypse is ψευδής.

Nevertheless the distinction between ἀληθής and ἀληθινός in Jn. is generally well marked. We have τὸ φῶς ἀληθινόν here (cf. 1Jn 2:8); οἱ ἀληθινοὶ προσκυνηταί, 4:23; ὁ ἄρτος ὁ ἀληθινός, 6:32; ὁ μόνος ἀληθινὸς θεός, 17:3 (cf. 7:28, 1Jn 5:20); ἡ ἀληθινὴ κρίσις, 8:16; ἡ ἄμπελος ἡ ἀληθινή, 15:1. In all these passages the meaning “genuine” or “ideal” will bear to be pressed, as also in the only place where the word occurs in the Synoptists, for τὸ ἀληθινόν of Luk 16:11 is the genuine riches. Even at 4:37, where ἀληθινός is applied to a proverb, something more is implied than veraciousness (see note in loc.).

Less clearly, but still with some plausibility, can the distinctive sense of ἀληθινός be pressed in the Apocalypse, where it is applied to God’s ways (15:3), His judgments (16:7, 19:2), His words (19:9, 21:5, 22:6), to Himself (6:10), and to Christ (3:7, 14, 19:11). See further on 17:3.

φωτίζει. This verb does not occur again in Jn., but cf. Luk 11:35, Luk 11:36.

ὂ φωτίζει παντὰ ἄνθρωπον. That the Servant of Yahweh would be a “light to the Gentiles” as well as to the Jews was the forecast of Deutero-Isaiah (42:6, 49:6); but this passage suggests a larger hope, for the Coming Light was to enlighten every man. It was this great conception upon which the early Quakers fixed, urging that to every man sufficient light was offered; and some of them called this passage “the Quaker’s text.” The Alexandrian theologians, e.g. Clement, had much to say about the active operation of the Pre-Incarnate Word upon men’s hearts; and it is interesting to observe that they did not appeal to this text, which is in fact not relevant to their thought, as it speaks only of the universal enlightenment which was shed upon mankind after the Advent of Christ.

εἰς τὸν κόσμον. The term κόσμος is used of the universe by Plato (Gorg. 508) and Aristotle (de mund. 2), Plutarch (Mor. 886 B) affirming that Pythagoras was the first to use the word thus, the order of the material world suggesting it1 This idea of a totality of the natural order is thoroughly Greek, and is without early Hebrew counterpart, עוֹלָם not being used in this meaning until the later days of Jewish literature2 In the LXX κόσμος appears in the sense of “ornament,” and occasionally to describe the ordered host of the heavenly bodies, but it is not used for “universe” until we reach the later Hellenistic books, e.g. Wisd. 11:17. Paul has κόσμος 46 times, and the Synoptists 14 times; but Jn. has it 100 times. Primarily, in the N.T. it is used of the material universe as distinct from God (cf. 21:25). But man is the chief inhabitant of the world as we know it, and thus κόσμος usually in Jn. includes the world of moral agents as well as the sum of physical forces. That is, it stands for mankind at large, as well as for the earth which is man’s habitation (6:51, 7:4, 12:19).

When, however, a term which was the product of Greek philosophy began to be used in connexion with the Hebrew doctrine of God and man, it inevitably gathered to itself the associations connected with Hebrew belief as to the Fall. To the Stoic, the κόσμος was perfect. This could not be held by a Jew. Inasmuch, then, as the Fall introduced disorder into that which in the beginning was “good” (Gen 1:31), the term κόσμος when used of the visible order frequently carries with it a suggestion of imperfection, of evil, of estrangement from the Divine. The κόσμος cannot receive the Spirit of Truth (14:17); it hates Christ (7:7); it hates His chosen (15:19, 17:14); they are forbidden to love it (1Jn 2:15). The world which is aloof from God may easily pass into an attitude of hostility to God, and the phrase “this world” (see on 8:23) calls special attention to such enmity.

According to Philo (quod deus imm. 6 and de mund 7), the κόσμος is the father of time, God being the Father of the κόσμος; a picturesque expression which brings out his view that the universe was created by God, who brought Cosmos out of Chaos, while its genesis goes back beyond the beginning of time.

A striking parallel to this verse is found in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (Levi, c. 14): τὸ φῶς τοῦ νόμου τὸ δοθὲν ἐν ὑμῖν εἰς φωτισμὸν πάντος ἀνθρώπου. Charles, indeed (note in loc), holds that Joh 1:9 is based on this passage; but the date of the Greek versions of the Testaments is by no means certain, and there is no sufficient evidence of their existence in their present form before the time of Origen.1

There are unmistakable allusions to the verse in the Christian Apocalypse known as “The Rest of the Words of Baruch,” where Jeremiah addresses God as τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινὸν τὸ φωτίζον με (9:3). In the same section the writer calls Christ τὸ φῶς τῶν αἰώνων πάντων, ὁ ἄσβεστος λύχνος (9:13), and speaks of Him as ἐρχόμενον εἰς τὸν κόσμον ἐπὶ τὸ ὄρος τῶν ἐλαιῶν (9:18). See Introd., p. lxxii.

For the citation of the verse by Basilides, as quoted by Hippolytus, see Introd., p. lxxiii.

The Logos Hymn Resumed (Vv. 10, 11)

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

[See also the "General Considerations on the Prologue" in the comments of Joh 1:18.]

Ver. 9. “The true light, which enlightens every man, came into the world.”

I think I must positively decide for this interpretation, making the participle ἐρχόμενον, coming, the predicate of the verb ἦν, was: was coming, for:came. This analytic form implies an idea of continuance. At the moment when John bore witness of the light, it was in course of coming; it was properly coming; thus Bengel, Lucke, de Wette, Weiss, Westcott. This verse, thus understood, leaves to the expression to come into the world the ordinary, and in some sort technical, sense which it has in John (Joh 3:19; Joh 6:14; Joh 9:39; Joh 18:37, etc.). Some interpreters, while adopting the same construction, refer this term:came into the world to the long coming of the Logos through the ages, by means of His revelations during the whole course of the Old Covenant (Keim, Westcott). But this sense would lead, as we shall see, to a tautology with the first proposition of the following verse. Other meanings given to ἦν ἔρχόμενον by Tholuck: “He was going to come,” and by Luthardt, “He was to come,” are hardly natural. Meyer, with some ancient and modern interpreters (Origen, Chrysostom, Augustine, Calvin, Beza, etc.), adopts an entirely different construction; he joins the ἐρχόμενον with the substantive ἄνθρωπον : “which enlightens every man coming into the world.” In this case τὸ φῶς, the light, is taken as the subject of ἦν, which is translated in the sense of aderat “was present.” “The true light, which enlightens every man coming into the world, was present;” or τὸ φῶς is made the predicate of ἦν, by giving to this verb as its subject a φῶς to be supplied from the preceding verse: “This light (to which John bore witness, Joh 1:8) was the true light which enlightens every man coming into the world.” The uselessness of this appended phrase, which is self-evident, has been often alleged against this connection of ἐρχόμενον, coming, with the substantiveevery man; but wrongly, as I showed in my first edition, where I adopted this explanation. For these words thus understood would signify that the light of the Logos is a divine gift which every man brings with him when he is born,—that the matter in question is, accordingly, an innate light. This idea, however, is not lost in the other construction; it is still found in the words: which enlightens every man. The two constructions of ἦν, either in the sense of was present, or by supplying with it a subject derived from the preceding verse, are not very natural. Finally, the logical connection with Joh 1:8 is closer with the first meaning: John came to testify of the light (Joh 1:8): for at that very moment it was on the point of appearing in the world (Joh 1:9). In my second edition, I attempted a third, or even a fourth construction, by attaching the participle ἐρχόμενον, not to ἦν, nor to ἄνθρωπον, but to φωτίζει, to enlighten, making it a sort of Latin gerundive: “which enlightens every man by coming (itself) into the world.” But this use of the participle can scarcely be justified by sufficient examples.

The word ἀληθινός, veritable, appears here for the first time. It is one of the characteristic terms of John’s style. Of twenty-eight passages in which we meet with it in the N.T., twenty-three belong to John, nine in the Gospel, four in the first Epistle, and ten in the Apocalypse (Milligan). It is also used in the classics. It designates the fact as the adequate realization of the idea. It contrasts, therefore, not the true with the false, but the normal appearance with the imperfect realization. The light of which John speaks, consequently, is characterized by it as the essential light, in opposition to every light of an inferior order. The expression: which enlightens every man, if applied to the Gospel revelation, would designate the universalistic character of the Gospel; the present enlightens would be that of the idea. It is more natural, however, to find here again the notion which was expressed in Joh 1:4 : the Logos, as the internal light, enlightening every man, illuminating him by the sublime intuitions of the good, the beautiful and the true. The term every man gives again a formal contradiction to the assertion of Baur’s school which makes John a dualistic philosopher.

The Logos when coming into the world did not arrive there as a stranger. By profound and intimate relations with humanity, He had prepared for His advent here on earth, and seemed to be assured of a favorable reception:

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

When as the Son of God saw, that man did not acknowledge him by his works, although they were endued with understanding (which he had given to them all) he exhibited himself unto his people to be seen of them with their corporal eyes: yet neither so did they acknowledge him, nor receive him.

Who only and properly deserveth to be called the light, for he shineth of himself and borroweth light of none.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

lighteth every man, &c.--rather, "which, coming into the world, enlighteneth every man"; or, is "the Light of the world" (Joh 9:5). "Coming into the world" is a superfluous and quite unusual description of "every man"; but it is of all descriptions of Christ amongst the most familiar, especially in the writings of this Evangelist (Joh 12:46; Joh 16:28; Joh 18:37; Jo1 4:9; Ti1 1:15, &c.).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 9. Which lighteth every man] As Christ is the Spring and Fountain of all wisdom, so all the wisdom that is in man comes from him; the human intellect is a ray from his brightness; and reason itself springs from this Logos, the eternal reason. Some of the most eminent rabbins understand Isa 60:1, Rise and shine, for thy LIGHT is come, of the Messiah who was to illuminate Israel, and who, they believe, was referred to in that word, Ge 1:3, And God said, Let there be LIGHT; and there was light. Let a Messiah be provided; and a Messiah was accordingly provided. See Schoettgen.

That cometh into the world.] Or, coming into the world - ερχομενον εις τον κοσμον: a common phrase among the rabbins, to express every human being. As the human creature sees the light of the world as soon as it is born, from which it had been excluded while in the womb of its parent; in like manner, this heavenly light shines into the soul of every man, to convince of sin, righteousness, and judgment; and it is through this light, which no man brings into the world with him, but which Christ mercifully gives to him on his coming into it, that what is termed conscience among men is produced. No man could discern good from evil, were it not for this light thus supernaturally and graciously restored. There was much light in the law, but this shone only upon the Jews; but the superior light of the Gospel is to be diffused over the face of the whole earth.

The following not only proves what is asserted in this verse, but is also an excellent illustration of it.

The GAYATRI, or holiest verse of the VEDAS, i.e. the ancient Hindoo Scriptures.

"Let us adore the supremacy of that divine Sun, the Godhead who illuminates all, who re-creates all; from whom all proceed; to whom all must return; whom we invoke to direct our understandings aright, in our progress towards his holy seat."

The ancient comment.

"What the sun and light are to this visible world, that are the supreme good and truth to the intellectual and invisible universe; and, as our corporeal eyes have a distinct perception of objects enlightened by the sun, thus our souls acquire certain knowledge by meditating on the light of truth, which emanates from the Being of beings; that is the light by which alone our minds can be directed in the path to blessedness." Sir Wm. Jones's works, vol. vi. p. 417.

Sir William observes that the original word Bhargas, which he translates Godhead, consists of three consonants, and is derived from bha, to shine; ram, to delight; and gam, to move:- the Being who is the light, the source of happiness, and the all-pervading energy.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. The true light was. The Evangelist did not intend to contrast the true light with the false, but to distinguish Christ from all others, that none might imagine that what is called light belongs to him in common with angels or men. The distinction is, that whatever is luminous in heaven and in earth borrows its splendor from some other object; but Christ is the light, shining from itself and by itself, and enlightening the whole world by its radiance; so that no other source or cause of splendor is anywhere to be found. He gave the name of the true light, therefore, to that which has by nature the power of giving light

Which enlighteneth every man. The Evangelist insists chiefly on this point, in order to show, from the effect which every one of us perceives in him, that Christ is the light. He might have reasoned more ingeniously, that Christ, as the eternal light, has a splendor which is natural, and not brought from any other quarter; but instead of doing so, he sends us back to the experience which we all possess. For as Christ makes us all partakers of his brightness, it must be acknowledged that to him alone belongs strictly this honor of being called light

This passage is commonly explained in two ways. Some restrict the phrase, every man, to those who, having been renewed by the Spirit of God, become partakers of the life-giving light. Augustine employs the comparison of a schoolmaster who, if he happen to be the only person who has a school in the town, will be called the teacher of all, though there be many persons that do not go to his school. They therefore understand the phrase in a comparative sense, that all are enlightened by Christ, because no man can boast of having obtained the light of life in any other way than by his grace. But since the Evangelist employs the general phrase, every man that cometh into the world, I am more inclined to adopt the other meaning, which is, that from this light the rays are diffused over all mankind, as I have already said. For we know that men have this peculiar excellence which raises them above other animals, that they are endued with reason and intelligence, and that they carry the distinction between right and wrong engraven on their conscience. There is no man, therefore, whom some perception of the eternal light does not reach.

But as there are fanatics who rashly strain and torture this passage, so as to infer from it that the grace of illumination is equally offered to all, let us remember that the only subject here treated is the common light of nature, which is far inferior to faith; for never will any man, by all the acuteness and sagacity of his own mind, penetrate into the kingdom of God. It is the Spirit of God alone who opens the gate of heaven to the elect. Next, let us remember that the light of reason which God implanted in men has been so obscured by sin, that amidst the thick darkness, and shocking ignorance, and gulf of errors, there are hardly a few shining sparks that are not utterly extinguished.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(9) That was the true Light.—The right rendering of this verse is uncertain. It would, probably, give a better sense to translate it, The true Light which lighteth every man was coming into the world, i.e., was manifesting itself at the time when John was bearing witness and men were mistaking the lamp for the light. (Comp. Joh_5:35, Note.)

The true Light was not “true” as opposed to “false,” but “true” as answering to the perfect ideal, and as opposed to all more or less imperfect representations. The meaning of the Greek is quite clear. The difficulty arises from the fact that in English there is but one word to represent the two ideas. The word for the fuller meaning of “ideally true” is not confined to St. John, but is naturally of very frequent recurrence in his writings. The adjective is used nine times in this Gospel, and not at all in the other three. A comparison of the passages will show how important it is to get a right conception of what the word means, and will help to give it. (See Joh_4:23; Joh_4:37; Joh_6:32; Joh_7:28; Joh_8:16; Joh_15:1; Joh_17:3; Joh_19:35.) But, as ideally true, the Light was not subject to the changing conditions of time and space, but was and is true for all humanity, and “lighteth every man.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. That was, &c.] This verse is ambiguous in the Greek. Most of the Ancient Versions, Fathers, and Reformers agree with our translators. Many modern commentators translate—the true Light, which lighteth every man, was coming into the world: but ‘was’ and ‘coming’ are almost too far apart in the Greek for this. There is yet a third way;—there was the true Light, which lighteth every man by coming into the world. ‘Was’ is emphatic: ‘there was the true Light,’ even while the Baptist was preparing the way for Him. The Baptist came once for all; the Light was ever coming.

The word for ‘true’ (alêthinos) is remarkable: it means true as opposed to ‘spurious,’ not true as opposed to ‘lying.’ It is in fact the old English ‘very,’ e.g. ‘very God of very God’. Christ then is the true, the genuine, the perfect Light, just as He is ‘the perfect Bread’ (Joh_6:32) and ‘the perfect Vine’ (Joh_15:1): not that He is the only Light, and Bread, and Vine, but that He is in reality what all others are in figure and imperfectly. All words about truth are very characteristic of S. John.

every man] not ‘all men:’ the Light illumines each one singly, not all collectively. God deals with men separately as individuals, not in masses. But though every man is illumined, not every man is the better for it: that depends upon himself.

that cometh into the world] A Jewish phrase for being born, frequent in S. John (Joh_9:39, Joh_11:27, Joh_16:28); see on Joh_18:37. ‘The world’ is another of the expressions characteristic of S. John: it occurs nearly 80 times in the Gospel and 22 in the First Epistle. This verse, Hippolytus tells us (Refut. vii. x.), was used by Basilides in defending his doctrine, and as he began to teach about a.d. 125, this is very early evidence of the use of the Gospel.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That was the true light,.... Christ is that light, that famous and excellent light, the fountain of all light to all creatures; that gave light to the dark earth at first, and spoke light out of darkness; that light of all men in the earth, and of all the angels in heaven, and of all the saints below, and of all the glorified ones above: he is the true light, in distinction from typical lights; the "Urim" of the former dispensation; the candlestick, with the lamps of it; the pillar of fire which directed the Israelites by night in the wilderness; and from all the typical light there was in the institutions and sacrifices of the law; and in opposition to the law itself, which the Jews (z) magnify, and cry up as the light, saying, there is no light but the law; and in opposition to all false lights, as priests, diviners, and soothsayers among the Gentiles, Scribes, and Pharisees, and the learned Rabbins among the Jews, so much boasted of as the lights of the world; and to all false Christs and prophets that have risen, or shall rise, in the world,

Which lighteth every man that cometh into the world: the sense is, either that every man that is enlightened in a spiritual manner, is enlightened by him, which is true of Christ, as the Son of God, existing from the beginning; but not in the Socinian sense, as if they were enlightened by his human ministry and example; for the Old Testament saints were not enlightened by his preaching; and many were enlightened by the ministry of John the Baptist; and multitudes afterwards, through the ministry of the apostles; and very few, comparatively, were enlightened under the ministry of Christ; and none we read of, in this sense, enlightened by him, when, and as soon as they came into, the world: or, the meaning is, that he is that light which lighteth all sorts of men; which is true in, a spiritual sense: some connect the phrase, "that cometh into the world", not with "every man", but with the "true light"; and the Arabic version so reads, and joins it to the following verse; but this reading is not so natural and the order of the words requires the common reading; nor is the difficulty removed hereby; for still it is every man that is enlightened: it is best therefore to understand these words of the light of nature, and reason, which Christ, as the word, and Creator and light of men, gives to every man that is born into the world; and which serves to detect the Quakers' notion of the light within, which every man has, and is no other than the light of a natural conscience; and shows how much men, even natural men, are obliged to Christ, and how great a person he is, and how deserving of praise, honour, and glory. The phrase, "every man that cometh into the world", is Jewish, and often to be met with in Rabbinical writings, and signifies all men that are born into the world; the instances are almost innumerable; take one or two: on those words in Job 25:3 on whom doth not his light arise? it is asked (a), who is he that cometh,

, "of all that come into the world"; and says, the sun hath not lightened me by day, nor hath the moon lightened me by night! thou enlightenest those above, and those below, and "all that come into the world".

Again, God is introduced thus speaking (b):

"I am the God, , "of all that come into the world"; and I have not united my name, but to the people of Israel.

Once more (c),

"Moses, our master, from the mouth of power, (i.e. God; see Mat 26:64.) commanded to oblige, , "all that come into the world", to receive the commandments which were commanded the sons of Noah.

(z) T. Bava Bathra, fol. 4. 1. (a) Vajikra Rabba, sect. 31. fol. 171. 4. (b) Midrash Ruth, c. l. v. 1. fol. 27. 3. (c) Maimon. Hilch. Melakim. c. 8. sect. 10. Vid. Misn. Roshhashana, c. l. sect. 2. T. Hieros. Sanhedrin, fol. 25. 4. & 26. 3. Sepher Bahir apud Zohar in Gen. fol. 30. 3. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 21. 2. & 22. 3. & 24. 3. & 27. 2. Caphter, fol. 56. 1. Jarchi in Exod. 15. 2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

Ver. 9. Which lighteth every man, &c.] Or, that coming into the world, lighteth every man; all, with the light of reason, Job 35:11; his own, with a supernal and supernatural light (to know heavenly things is to ascend into heaven, Pro 30:3-4), an affecting, transforming light, 2Co 3:18, such as maketh a man to be a child of light, Eph 5:8; "partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light," Col 1:12. Any created understanding at most is but (as Aeschylus saith of fire stolen by Prometheus) παντεχνου πυρος σελας, a beam of that light essential.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That was the true Light - Not John, but the Messiah. He was not a false, uncertain, dangerous guide, but was one that was true, real, steady, and worthy of confidence. A false light is one that leads to danger or error, as a false beacon on the shores of the ocean may lead ships to quicksands or rocks; or an “ignis fatuus” to fens, and precipices, and death. A true light is one that does not deceive us, as the true beacon may guide us into port or warn us of danger. Christ does not lead astray. All false teachers do.

That lighteth - That enlightens. He removes darkness, error, ignorance, from the mind.

Every man - This is an expression denoting, in general, the whole human race - Jews and Gentiles. John preached to the Jews. Jesus came “to be a light to lighten the Gentiles,” as well as to be the “glory of the people of Israel,” Luk 2:32.

That cometh into the world - The phrase in the original is ambiguous. The word translated “that cometh” may either refer to the “light,” or to the word “man;” so that it may mean either “this ‘true light that cometh’ into the world enlightens all,” or “it enlightens every ‘man that cometh’ into the world.” Many critics, and, among the fathers, Cyril and Augustine, have preferred the former, and translated it, “The true light was he who, coming into the world, enlightened every man.” The principal reasons for this are:

That the Messiah is often spoken of as he that cometh into the world. See Joh 6:14; Joh 18:37. He is often distinguished as “the light that cometh into the world.” Joh 3:19; “this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world.” Joh 12:46; “I am come a light into the world.”

Christ may be said to do what is accomplished by his command or appointment. This passage means, therefore, that by his own personal ministry, and by his Spirit and apostles, light or teaching is afforded to all. It does not mean that every individual of the human family is enlightened with the knowledge “of the gospel,” for this never yet has been; but it means:

That this light is not confined to the “Jews,” but is extended to all - Jews and Gentiles. That it is provided for all and offered to all. It is not affirmed that at the time that John wrote all “were actually enlightened,” but the word “lighteth” has the form of the “future.” “This is that light so long expected and predicted, which as the result of its coming into the world, will ultimately enlighten all nations.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

That was the true Light: true is sometimes opposed to what is false, Eph 4:25; sometimes to what is typical and figurative, Joh 1:17; sometimes to what is not original, and of itself: in opposition to all these Christ is the true Light; he who alone deserved the name of light, having light in himself, and from himself, 1Jo 2:8, and shining more gloriously than the prophets or apostles.

Which lighteth every man that cometh into the world; he lighteth not the Jews only, (as the prophets of old), but both the Jews and Gentiles. Some understand this of the light of reason; but besides that reason is no where in holy writ called light, neither did this illumination agree to Christ as Mediator. It is rather therefore to be understood of the light of gospel revelation, which Christ caused to be made to all the world, Mat 28:19; Mar 16:15. Those who interpret it of the more internal illumination by the Holy Spirit of God, by which Christ is not revealed to us only, but in us, say, that Christ hath done what lay in him (as a Minister of the gospel) so to enlighten all that came into the world; and that Christ is said to enlighten every man, because none is enlightened but by him, and that some of all sorts are by him enlightened; in one of which two latter senses the terms all and every man must be interpreted in a multitude of texts in the Gospel. The words in the Greek are so, as they may either be translated as we read them, or thus, who coming into the world, enlightened every man: a more universal spiritual light, or means to come to the knowledge of God, overspreading the world after Christ’s coming, than before. So Joh 7:46, I am come a light into the world. And it is by some observed, that the phrase cometh into the world, doth not barely signify a being born, but being sent into the world by the Father, being sanctified, as in Joh 10:36; 17:18.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9-14. Having secured us from confounding him with another being, the Evangelist now traces the Logos as entering, operating, and dwelling in our living world.

9. The best commentators render this verse,

That was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlighteneth every man. The true Light—In opposition to John, whom some supposed to be the true light; and in opposition to every false light.

Coming into the world—For the Evangelist now traces, as before said, the Logos as coming by the incarnation into the living human world.

Every man—Every child of Adam. Every human being is endowed by the Logos with a preparatory light, so that he need not be in that darkness which comprehends not the light. (See note on Joh_1:5.)

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(b) The illumination of the archetypal Light before incarnation. There are at least three grammatical translations of this verse. Either

(1) with Meyer, we may give to hn the complete sense of existence, presence, and include in it the full predicate of the sentence; thus: "Existing, present (when John commenced his ministry), was the veritable Light which enlighteneth every man coming into the world." But the clause, "coming into the world," would here not only be superfluous, but moreover, while used elsewhere and often of Christ"s incarnation, is never used of ordinary birth in the Scriptures, though it is a rabbinical expression.

(2) Lange, Moulton, Westcott, Godet, applying the ercomenon eiv tosmon to the light rather than to man, translate it, "That was the true Light which lighteth every man, by coming into the world, or that cometh into the world." The difficulty of this is that it makes the coming into the world, in some new sense, the occasion of the illumination of every man, although the evangelist has already spoken (ver. 4) of the Life which is the Light of men. A third method is to make the ercomenon eiv tosmon the true predicate of the sentence, and translate thus: The veritable Light which illumines every man was coming (ever coming) into the world; and there is a sense and manner of his coming which transcends all others, about which he is to speak at length. This might receive another meaning if hn ercomenon were equivalent to hlye ; then a positive reference would here he made to the historic fact of the Incarnation. But it seems to me the evangelist is drawing a contrast between the continuous coming into the world of the veritable Light and the specific Incarnation of ver. 14. Consequently, the author here travels over and connotes a wider theme, namely, the operation of that archetypal Light, that veritable Light which differs from all mere reflections of it, or imitations of it, or luminous testimonies to it. The difference between alhyhv and alhyinov is important. Alhyhv is used in Joh_3:33 and 5:31, and very often to denote the true in opposition to the false, the veracious as distinct from the deceptive. Alhyinov is used in the Gospel, (Joh_4:23, 37 6:32 7:28 15:1 17:3) First Epistle, (1Jn_5:20) and Apocalypse, (Rev_3:7) and hardly anywhere else (see Introduction), for the real as opposed to the phenomenal, the archetypal as opposed to the various embodiments of it, the veritable as distinct from that which does not answer to its own ideal. Now, about this veritable light, in addition to all that has been said already, two things are declared.

(1) It illumines every man, giveth light to every individual man, in all time. Though the darkness apprehendeth it not, yet man is illumined by it. Various interpretations have been given of the method or conditions of this illumination.

(a) The light of the reason and conscience the higher reason, which is the real eye for heavenly light, and the sphere for the operation of grace. This would make the highest intellectual faculty of man a direct effulgence of the archetypal Light, and confirm the poet Wordsworth"s definition of conscience as "God"s most intimate presence in the world.

(b) The inner light of the mystical writers, and the "common grace" of the Remonstrant theology. Or

(c) the Divine instruction bestowed on every man from the universal manifestation of the Logos life. No man is left without some direct communication of light from the Father of lights. That light may be quenched, the eye of the soul may be blinded, the folly of the world may obscure it as a cloud disperses the direct rays of the sun; but a fundamental fact remains the veritable Light illumines every man. Then

(2) it is further declared that this Light was ever coming into the world. Bengel and Hengstenberg, as Lange and Baumgarten-Crusius, regard it as in the purely historic sense, declaratory of the great fact of the Incarnation. But Ewald, Keim, Westcott, and others decide that it refers to his continual coming into the world. Up to the time of the Incarnation, the great theme of the prophets is (o ercomenov) the Coming One. Nor can we conceal the numberless assurances of the old covenant that the Lord of men was always "coming," and did come, to them. At one time he came in judgment, and at another time in mercy; now by worldwide convulsions, then by the fall of empires; again by the sense of need, of guilt and peril, by the bow of promise which often broke in beauty on the retreating storm cloud, by the mighty working of conscience, by the sense given to men of their Divine relationships and their dearness to God, by all these experiences he has ever been coming, and he cometh still. Ever since the coming in the flesh and the subsequent cessation of that manifestation, he has ever been coming in the grace of the Holy Spirit, in all the mission of the Comforter, in the fall of the theocratic system and city, in the great persecutions and deliverances, the chastisements and reformations, the judgments and revivals of his Church. The eternal, veritable Light which does, by its universal shining, illumine every man, is still coming. The cry, "He is coming," was the language of the noblest of heathen philosophies; "He is coming," is the burden of the Old Testament; "He is coming again," is the great under-song of the Church to the end of time: "Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

The true Light in its manifestation.

I THE NATURE OF THIS LIGHT. "There was the true Light.

1. Christ was the true.Light, as opposed to false or imperfect lights. He was the ideal Light, not subject to the vicissitudes of time and space.

2. He was the true Light in opposition to ceremonial types and shadows.

3. He was the true Light in opposition to all light that is borrowed from or communicated from another.

II THE EXTENT OF THIS LIGHT IN ITS ACTION. "It lighteth every man." "The darkness is past: the true Light now shineth." In a strict sense, all men receive the light of reason, and the consciousness of right and wrong; but, biblically considered Christ shines sufficiently for the salvation of all men, both Jews and Gentiles, so as to leave them without excuse if in their blindness they refuse to see him.

III ITS PROGRESS. It was ever "coming into the world." In prophecy, type, creed, judgment.

HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON Ver. 9. The Divine daybreak.

The evangelist writes as one who loves, admires, and venerates him of whom it is his office to inform his fellow men. He has one great figure to portray, one great name to exalt, one great heart to unfold. His language is such as would not be befitting were he heralding the advent even of a prophet or a saint. How bold, how beautiful, how impressive are his figures! John speaks of the Divine Word, uttering forth the thought and will of God in the hearing of mankind; of the Divine Life, quickening the world from spiritual death; of the Divine Light, scattering human darkness, and bringing in the morning of an immortal day. No terms can be too lofty in which to welcome the advent of the Son of God a theme worthy of praise forever ardent, of a song forever new.

I CHRIST IS IN HIMSELF THE TRUE LIGHT.

1. As distinguished from, though symbolized by, physical light. When you watch for the morning, and see the crimson dawn fill all the east with promise of the coming day; when from the hill top at noon you scan the landscape where valley, grove, and river are lit up by the splendour of the summer sun; when you "almost think you gaze through golden sunsets into heaven;" when you watch the lovely afterglow lingering on snow clad Alpine summits; when by night you watch the lustrous moon emerge from a veil of clouds, or trace the flaming constellations; then, remember this, Christ is the true Light.

2. As contrasting with false lights. It is said that upon some coasts wreckers have been known to kindle misleading lights in order to lure confiding seamen to their destruction. Emblem of teachers and of systems that deceive men by representing his bodily and earthly interests as of supreme importance that bound his horizon by the narrow limits of time, that tell him that God is unknowable. Opposed to such is that heavenly light which never leads astray, and never pales or sets.

3. As distinct from the imperfect lights, in which there was Divine truth, although but dim. There were in such philosophy as the wise and lofty-minded heathen produced, rays of truth which came from God; but these were mingled with the smoke and mists of human error. The Hebrew prophets proclaimed Divine truth and inculcated Divine righteousness; yet they were lost in the Christ who fulfilled them, as the stars are quenched before the rising sun.

4. Christ was the true Light, as revealing the truth concerning God and his character and purposes of mercy; as pouring the lustre of moral purity over a sin-darkened world; as diffusing abroad spiritual life, and with it spiritual brightness, gladness, and hope. He is both luminous and illuminating.

II CHRIST IS THE LIGHT COMING INTO THE WORLD. In himself he was and is the true Light; but we have reason to be grateful, because, as the Sun of Righteousness, he has arisen upon the world with healing in his wings.

1. This light came into the world even before the advent has always been streaming into human nature and human society. Reason and conscience are "the candle of the Lord," by which he lights up our inmost being. He who first said, "Let there be light!" having provided that which is natural, did not withhold that which is spiritual.

2. Yet this "coming" was especially in the earthly ministry of our Redeemer. Conversing with Nicodemus, Jesus said, "The Light is come into the world;" and before the close of his ministry he cried, "I am come a Light into the world expressions exactly corresponding with the language here used by John. It was to a world which needed him, which was in darkness and the shadow of death for want of him, that the Saviour came. His whole ministry was a holy, gracious shining; and in his light there were many who loved to walk.

3. The Divine light did not cease to come into the world when Christ ascended. In fact, at first, the world generally neither welcomed nor even recognized its Divine Enlightener. Only after the vain attempt to quench the heavenly light did men learn its preciousness and power. From the celestial sphere this glorious and unquenchable Luminary casts its illumining and vivifying rays in a wider sweep. Christ has by his Spirit been constantly "coming" into the world, and with ever-extending beneficence, and has thus been delivering men from the horrors of a moral midnight gloom.

III CHRIST IS THE LIGHT THAT LIGHTETH EVERY MAN. The largeness of this language quite accords with the teaching of the New Testament generally.

1. There is in every human breast a Divine light the light of the Word not dependent upon human forms of doctrine. A ray from heaven will guide all those who look for it, and who are ready to be led by it.

2. The purpose of Christ"s coming into the world was that all men might through him enjoy spiritual illumination. The need of such enlightenment is apparent to all who consider the ignorance and sinfulness of mankind, calling for both a revelation of truth and supernatural motives to obedience. Jews and Gentiles both, if in different measure, required a new and spiritual daybreak. Christ came "a Light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the Glory of God"s people Israel." Not merely all the nations of men, but all classes and conditions, and even all characters, needed this Divine shining. Those whose eyes were turned to the light found in him the fulfilment of their desires. Those who had been trying to content themselves with darkness, in many cases learned to cherish a better hope, and came to enjoy a purer satisfaction.

PRACTICAL APPEAL. The day has broken, the sun shines; Christ, the true Light, lighteth every man. Yet it is for each hearer of the gospel to decide whether he will accept the light and walk in it, or not. The mere shining abroad of spiritual light is not enough; there must be an eye to behold the celestial rays, and that eye must be opened by the influences of the Spirit of God, that it may welcome the sacred sunlight. There are still those who love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. For such, until their hatred or indifference towards Christ be changed, the day has dawned, and the Sun has risen, in vain. T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Who lighteth every man - By what is vulgarly termed natural conscience, pointing out at least the general lines of good and evil. And this light, if man did not hinder, would shine more and more to the perfect day.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

9. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. The Revision reads, “There was the true light, even the light which lighteth every man, coming into the world.” Grammatically, both in the Greek and the English, coming may belong to the light, or every man. We believe that it should agree with light. That was the true or real Light who, when he comes into the world, enlightens every man. Jesus says (John 12:46), “I am come a light into the world.”

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

The true light

Here light is a metaphor that represents Jesus as the one who both reveals the truth about God and is himself that truth. (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

true

world

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

9. ἦν τὸ φῶς κ.τ.λ. Most Ancient Versions, Fathers, and Reformers take ἐρχόμενον with ἄνθρωπον, every man that cometh into the world; a solemn fulness of expression and not a weak addition. A number of modern commentators take ἐρχ. with ἦν; the true Light, which lighteth every man, was coming into the world. But ἦν and ἐρχ. are somewhat far apart for this. There is yet a third way; There was the true Light, which lighteth every man, by coming into the world. Observe the emphatic position of ἦν. ‘There was the true Light,’ even while the Baptist was preparing the way for Him.

τὸ ἀληθινόν. Ἀληθής = verax, ‘true’ as opposed to ‘lying:’ ἀληθινός = verus, ‘true’ as opposed to ‘spurious.’ Ἀληθινός is just the old English ‘very;’ e.g. in the Creed, ‘Very God of very God’ is a translation of θεὸν ἀληθινὸν ἐκ θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ. Ἀληθινός = ‘genuine,’ ‘that which comes up to its idea,’ and hence ‘perfect.’ Christ is ‘the perfect Light,’ just as He is ‘the perfect Bread’ (Joh 6:32) and ‘the perfect Vine’ (Joh 15:1); not that He is the only Light, and Bread, and Vine, but that others are types and shadows, and therefore inferior. All words about truth are characteristic of S. John. Ἀληθινός occurs 9 times in the Gospel, 4 times in the First Epistle, 10 times in the Apocalypse; elsewhere only 6 times: ἀληθής, 14 times in the Gospel, twice in the First Epistle, once in the Second; elsewhere 9 times. Ἀλήθεια and ἀληθῶς are also very frequent.

πάντα ἄνθρωπον. The Light illumines every man, but not every man is the better for it; that depends on himself. Moreover it illumines ‘each one singly,’ not ‘all collectively’ (πάντα not πάντας). God deals with men separately as individuals, not in masses.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9.] The word ἀληθινόν (see reff.) in this connexion imports original, ‘archetypal,’ and is used of the true genuine sources and patterns of those things which we find here below only in fragmentary imitations and derivations. Such an original was the Light here spoken of;—but John was only a derived light,—not lumen illuminans, but lumen illuminatum.

The construction of this verse has been much disputed. Is ἐρχόμενον εἰς τ. κ. to be taken with ἄνθρωπον (as syrr Orig Exo_2Exo_2 Epiph Chr Cyr Thl Euthym and most of the ancient Commentators and E. V.), or does it belong to τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀλ.?

The former construction can only be defended by a Rabbinical usage, by which כָּל בָּאֵי עוֹלָם means ‘all men’ (Schöttgen, i. 223). But it is very questionable whether John ever speaks thus. Certainly he does not, in any of the passages commonly cited to defend this rendering, ch. 18:37 (which is spoken by Christ of Himself and His Mission); 16:21, 28; 12:46. And even if he had thus spoken, how harsh and how unmeaning is the sentence; whether with Euthym. we lay an emphasis on ἦν, or with E. V. &c. supply τοῦτο before it. If this latter had been intended, surely it would have been more distinctly expressed; and even when it is supplied, we have in this verse only a less forcible repetition of ver. 4.

It seems then that we must join ἐρχ. εἰς τ. κ. with τ. φῶς τ. ἀληθ.

But even then, three ways of rendering are apparently open to us.

The first of these, which is that of Socinus, takes ἐρχόμ. κ.τ.λ. as meaning, ‘at its coming into the world.’ This however—besides the sense being inconsistent with ver. 4—leaves the opening clause without a demonstrative pronoun, as before. Then, secondly, ἐρχόμενον might seem to be used in the sense in which we frequently have ἐρχόμενος, as a quasi-future, ‘who was, or is, to come:’ see Mat 11:3: Mar 10:30 al. fr.: ch. 6:14; 11:27, in which last two places it is joined, as here, with εἰς τὸν κόσμον. But if this be adopted (which even constructionally is very doubtful), the only sense will be that the true light, &c. was to come; i.e. had not yet come; which manifestly is not correct;—for it had come, when John gave his witness; and the whole of these verses 6-13 relate to the time when He had appeared, and come to His own.

We are driven then to the only legitimate rendering, which is to take ἦν ἐρχόμενον as equivalent to an imperfect came:—this usage being frequent in the N.T., see reff.:—i.e. at the time when John bore this witness, the true light which lighteth every man, came—was in process of manifesting Himself,—into the world.

Tholuck objects to this construction that ἦν is too far from ἐρχόμενον:—but Lücke answers, that ἦσαν and νηστεύοντες are nearly as far separated in Mar 2:18.

ὃ φωτ. πάντα ἄνθ. is a further expansion of τὸ ἀληθινόν.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.