John 3:19

3:19-20 When people live in spiritual darkness, they do not desire to be enlightened by Jesus, “the light of the world” (8:12; 9:5). Evil and darkness do not ignore the light; they wage war against it, trying to bring it down. But the darkness cannot extinguish the light (1:5). Those who refuse to believe live in darkness (cp. 13:30) and stumble because they cannot see (11:10). In the end, however, their sins will be exposed (5:28-30; Rev 20:11-15).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Joh 3:19. Ἡ κρίσις, the judgment [condemnation]) i.e. the cause of judgment.—τὸ φῶς, the Light) After the mention of life, the mention of light follows, as in ch. 1. The Light, Christ. See what follows. In Joh 3:19, the hypostatical [personal] Light [Jesus Christ, its embodiment] is praised: afterwards, in the latter part of Joh 3:19, in antithesis to darkness, of which there is no hypostasis [personality], and in Joh 3:20-21, the discourse treats of Light indefinitely in the thesis, but so as that, in the hypothesis, it answers chiefly to the hypostatical [personal] Light.—ἠγάπησαν, loved) They did not pay back love for the love on God’s part, Joh 3:16.—μᾶλλον, rather than) The comparison is by no means inappropriate. The loveliness of the light struck them with admiration; but they were held fast in the love of darkness. Comp. Joh 5:35, “He was a burning and a shining light; and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.” A similar comparison occurs, ch. Joh 12:43, “For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.”—πονηρά, evil [maligna, evil-disposed]) This is indeed worse than φαῦλα, vile [worthless, wrong], Joh 3:20.

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

Joh_3:19. The ἤδη κέκριται is now more minutely set forth, and this as to its moral character, as rejection of the light, i.e. of Gods saving truth,the possessor and bringer in of which was Christ, who had come into the world,and as love of darkness. But herein consists the condemnation (as an inner moral fact which, according to Joh_3:18, had already occurred), that, etc. ἡ κρίσις is the judgment in question, to be understood here also, agreeably to the whole connection, of condemnatory judgment. But in αὕτη … ὅτι (comp. 1Jn_5:11) we have not the reason (Chrysostom and his followers), but the characteristic nature of the judgment stated.

ὅτι τὸ φῶς, etc., καὶ ἠγάπησαν] The first clause is not expressed in the dependent form (ὅτι ὅτε τὸ φῶς, etc., or with Gen. abs.), but as an independent statement, in order to give emphatic prominence to the contrast setting forth the guilt. See Kühner, II. 416; Winer, p. 585 [E. T. pp. 7856].

ἠγάπησαν] after it had come. Jesus could now thus speak already from experience regarding His relations to mankind as a whole; the Aor. does not presuppose the consciousness of a later time. See Joh_2:23-24. For the rest, ἠγάπ. is put first with tragic emphasis, which object is also served by the simple καί (not and yet). The expression itself: they loved the darkness rather (potius, not magis, comp. Joh_12:43; 2Ti_3:4) than the light,

μᾶλλον belonging not to the verb, but to the noun, and ἤ comparing the two conceptions (Ellendt, Lex. Soph. II. p. 51; Bäuml. Partik. p. 136),is a mournful meiosis; for they did not love the light at all, but hated it, Joh_3:20. The ground of this hatred, however, does not lie (comp. Joh_3:6; Joh_1:12) in a metaphysical opposition of principles (Baur, Hilgenfeld, Colani), but in the light-shunning demoralization into which men had sunk through their own free act (for they might also have done ἀλήθεια, Joh_3:21). The source of unbelief is immorality.

ἦν γὰρ αὐτῶν, κ.τ.λ.] The reason why they loved the darkness rather, etc. (see on Joh_1:5), was their immoral manner of life, in consequence of which they must shun the light, nay, even hate it (Joh_3:20). We may observe the growing emphasis from αὐτῶν onwards to πονηρά, for the works which they (in opposition to the individual lovers of the light) did were evil; which πονηρά does not in popular usage denote a higher degree of evil than φαῦλα, Joh_3:20 (Bengel), but answers to this as evil does to bad (worthless); Fritzsche ad Rom. p. 297. Comp. Joh_5:29; Rom_9:11; 2Co_5:10; Jam_3:16; φαῦλα ἔργα in Plat. Crat. p. 429 A.; 3Ma_3:22.

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 3:19 . This is further explained in the following, αὕτη … τὸ φῶς . The ground of the condemnation lies precisely in this, that since the coming of Christ and His exhibition of human life in the light of the holiness and love of the Father, human sin is no longer the result of ignorance, but of deliberate choice and preference. Nothing can be done for a man who says, “Evil, be thou my good”. The reason of this preference of darkness and rejection of Christ is that the life is evil, ἦν γὰρ κ . τ . λ .

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

This. That is, herein consists the judgment. The prefacing a statement with this is, and then defining the statement by oti or ina, that, is characteristic of John. See Joh 14:12; Joh 17:3; 1Jo 1:5; 1Jo 5:11, 14; 3Jo 1:6. Light [το φως] . Rev., correctly, the light. See Joh 1:4, 9.

Men [οι ανθρωποι] . Literally, the men. Regarded as a class.

Darkness [το σκοτος] . See on 1 5. Rev., correctly, the darkness. John employs this word only here and 1Jo 1:6. His usual term is skotia (i. 5; Joh 8:12; 1Jo 1:5, etc.), more commonly describing a state of darkness, than darkness as opposed to light.

Were [ην] . Habitually. The imperfect tense marking continuation.

Evil [πονηρα] . Actively evil. See on Mr 7:22; Luk 3:19.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Only wickedness is the cause, why men refuse the light that is offered them.

That is, the cause of condemnation, which sticketh fast in men, unless through God’s great benefit they be delivered from it.

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

this is the condemnation, &c.--emphatically so, revealing the condemnation already existing, and sealing up under it those who will not be delivered from it.

light is come into the world--in the Person of Him to whom Nicodemus was listening.

loved darkness, &c.--This can only be known by the deliberate rejection of Christ, but that does fearfully reveal it.

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 19. This is the condemnation] That is, this is the reason why any shall be found finally to perish, not that they came into the world with a perverted and corrupt nature, which is true; nor that they lived many years in the practice of sin, which is also true; but because they refused to receive the salvation which God sent to them.

Light is come] That is, Jesus, the Sun of righteousness, the fountain of light and life; diffusing his benign influences every where, and favouring men with a clear and full revelation of the Divine will.

Men loved darkness] Have preferred sin to holiness, Belial to Christ, and hell to heaven. חשך chashac, darkness, is frequently used by the Jewish writers for the angel of death, and for the devil. See many examples in Schoettgen.

Because their deeds were evil.] An allusion to robbers and cut-throats, who practise their abominations in the night season, for fear of being detected. The sun is a common blessing to the human race-it shines to all, envies none, and calls all to necessary labour. If any one choose rather to sleep by day, that he may rob and murder in the night season, he does this to his own peril, and has no excuse:-his punishment is the necessary consequence of his own unconstrained actions. So will the punishment of ungodly men be. There was light - they refused to walk in it. They chose to walk in the darkness, that they might do the works of darkness-they broke the Divine law, refused the mercy offered to them, are arrested by Divine justice, convicted, condemned, and punished. Whence, then, does their damnation proceed? From THEMSELVES.

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

19. And this is the condemnation He meets the murmurs and complaints, by which wicked men are wont to censure — what they imagine to be the excessive rigour of God, when he acts towards them with greater severity than they expected. All think it harsh that they who do not believe in Christ should be devoted to destruction. That no man may ascribe his condemnation to Christ, he shows that every man ought to impute the blame to himself. The reason is, that unbelief is a testimony of a bad conscience; and hence it is evident that it is their own wickedness which hinders unbelievers from approaching to Christ. Some think that he points out here nothing more than the mark of condemnation; but, the design of Christ is, to restrain the wickedness of men, that they may not, according to their custom, dispute or argue with God, as if he treated them unjustly, when he punishes unbelief with eternal death. He shows that such a condemnation is just, and is not liable to any reproaches, not only because those men act wickedly, who prefer darkness to light, and refuse the light which is freely offered to them, but because that hatred of the light arises only from a mind that is wicked and conscious of its guilt. A beautiful appearance and lustre of holiness may indeed be found in many, who, after all, oppose the Gospel; but, though they appear to be holier than the angels, there is no room to doubt that they are hypocrites, who reject the doctrine of Christ for no other reason than because they love their lurking-places by which their baseness may be concealed. Since, therefore, hypocrisy alone renders men hateful to God, all are held convicted, because were it not that, blinded by pride, they delight in their crimes, they would readily and willingly receive the doctrine of the Gospel.

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.

(19) And this is the condemnation.—For “condemnation” read judgment; for “light” and “darkness,” the light and the darkness. The object is salvation, not judgment (Joh_3:17); but the separation of the good involves the judgment of the evil. The light makes the darkness visible. Both were before men. That they chose darkness was the act of their own will, and this act of the will was determined by the evil of their deeds. “The light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” (Comp. Note on Joh_1:5.)

The words are general, but they must have had, for him who then heard them, a special force. It was night. He had avoided the light of day, and like men who go forth to deeds of darkness under cover of darkness, he had come in secrecy to Jesus. His own conscience told him that he was in the presence of a Teacher sent from God (Joh_3:2); but he has checked the voice of conscience. He has shrunk from coming to this Teacher in the light of day, and has loved the darkness of the night.

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

19. And this is the condemnation] Rather, But the judgment is this; this is what it consists in: comp. Joh_15:12, Joh_17:3.

and men loved darkness, &c.] The tragic tone again (see on Joh_1:5). Both words should have the article, loved the darkness rather than the light. An understatement; they hated the Light. There is probably no allusion to Nicodemus coming to Jesus by night. He chose the darkness, not because his deeds were evil, but because they were good. He wished to conceal, not an evil deed from good men, but a good deed from evil men.

deeds] Better, works here and Joh_3:20-21.

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.

For every one that doth evil, hateth the light,.... Every man, the series of whose life and conversation is evil, hates Christ and his Gospel, cause they make manifest his evil deeds, convict him of them, and rebuke him for them:

neither cometh to the light; to hear Christ preach, or preached; to attend on the Gospel ministration and means of grace:

lest his deeds should be reproved; or discovered, and made manifest, and he be brought to shame, and laid under blame, and advised to part with them, which he cares not to do; see Eph 5:11.

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

19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Ver. 19. This is the condemnation] This is hell above ground and aforehand. Affected ignorance is the leprosy in the head, which makes a man undoubtedly unclean and utterly to be excluded, Lev 13:44.

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.

This is the condemnation - This is the cause of condemnation; or this is the reason why men are punished.

That light is come - Light often denotes instruction, teaching, doctrine, as that by which we see clearly the path of duty. all the instruction that God gives us by conscience, reason, or revelation may thus be called light; but this word is used especially to denote the Messiah or the Christ, who is often spoken of as “the light.” See Isa 60:1; Isa 9:2. Compare Mat 4:16; also the notes at Joh 1:4. It was doubtless this light to which Jesus had particular reference here.

Men loved darkness - Darkness is the emblem of ignorance, iniquity, error, superstition - whatever is opposite to truth and piety. Men are said to love darkness more than they do light when they are better pleased with error than truth, with sin than holiness, with Belial than Christ.

Because their deeds are evil - Men who commit crime commonly choose to do it in the night, so as to escape detection. So men who are wicked prefer false doctrine and error to the truth. Thus the Pharisees cloaked their crimes under the errors of their system; and, amid their false doctrines and superstitions, they attempted to convince others that they had great zeal for God.

Deeds - Works; actions.

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

The judgment. That is, the cause of his condemnation. (Challoner)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

This is the reason, the evidence and great cause of condemnation,

that light is come into the world. Christ is the Light, foretold by the prophet, Isa 9:2; 42:6; 49:6. He is styled, in the beginning of this Gospel the true Light, Joh 1:4; that is, he hath in perfection all the excellent qualities of light; the power to enlighten the minds of men in the knowledge of saving truth, to warm the affections with the love of it, to revive the disconsolate, and to make the heavenly seed of the word to flourish and fructify in their lives. This Light is come into the world; that signifies not only his incarnation, but his revealing the merciful counsel of God for our salvation, which the clearest spirits could never have discovered; he has opened the way that leads to eternal life.

But

men loved darkness rather than light; they preferred, chose, and adhered to their ignorance and errors, before the light of life, the saving knowledge of the gospel. Their ignorance is affected and voluntary, and no colour of excuse can be alleged for it; nay, it is very culpable and guilty, by neglecting to receive instruction from the Son of God.

Because their deeds were evil; the vices and lusts of men are the works of darkness, the fruits of their ignorance and errors; and they are so pleasant to the carnal corrupt nature, that to enjoy them securely, they obstinately reject the light of the gospel; this aggravates their sin and sentence.

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

19. The condemnation—Men would not be condemned had not Christ come. But for the provision of a Saviour for the race, the race would have died in Adam. But for the promise of the holy seed, given in Eden, the seed of Adam would never have been propagated. All condemnation, therefore, is summed up in the fact that the means of salvation, sanctification, glorification, are rejected. But though but for the light there would be no condemnation, the light is not, therefore, to blame for that condemnation; but the entire blame rests upon men for their rejection of the light. Men are most truly and justly “damned by grace” when they reject grace.

Light is come into the world—Christ and his religion are what the sun is to the world. It is its own evidence, and sheds evidence that none have a right to reject. Yet the evidences of Christ and his religion do not compel conviction, permanent and undeniable; for as belief of the truth is one of the tests of our probation, so disbelief must be allowed to be possible. That degree of evidence is afforded which convinces the honest mind, and leaves rejection under condemnation. And this rejection is a rejection of that salvation, and of pardon for all other sins as well as for the sin of unbelief. The man’s entire amount of sin remains unpardoned to condemn him.

Because their deeds were evil—Wicked deeds, and the love of sin, are the great cause of men’s hatred of religious truth. An evil life loves the darkness and error by which it can excuse itself. A wicked heart spontaneously and obstinately hates Christ and truth. Sometimes that wickedness of heart is of an animal and fleshly character, arising from a low brutishness in man. Sometimes it is of a higher nature; from intellectual pride; the sin not of the flesh but of the spirit. This is not from the brute, but from the devil in man; for the devil is the very model of unsanctified, proud, cold-hearted intellect.

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

The above interpretation is confirmed by the explanatory sentence which follows, and which is obviously meant to explain the nature of the krisiv , the process of the judgment of which he had spoken. This crisis, in the case of the believer, furnishes a clear and illustrious proof that the Son of God had primarily come to save, not to judge; while in the case of the unbeliever it was sufficiently manifested by the absence of faith in that which was so sublimely adapted to induce affectionate reverence and adoring trust. Now this is the judgment. The peculiar form of the sentence, auth de estin h krisiv oti , is found elsewhere in John. (1Jn_1:5 1Jn_5:11, 1Jn_5:14) We are here reminded of the words of the prologue, (Joh_1:5, Joh_1:9, see notes) where the original shining of the Light in the skotia (the abiding state of darkness) ended in non-reception, non-perception of the Light. Subsequently it is said that the light the archetypal light which illumines, shines upon, every man who comes into the world came, i.e. in a new and more impressive manner, and by its coming, originated a process of judgment and discrimination among men. This utterance of the prologue is here shown to depend upon the words of the only begotten Son of God made flesh. The critical school make this correspondence with the prologue and with Johannine thought incontestable evidence that we have here John"s meditation rather than the word of Jesus. There is, of course, an alternative interpretation. But it appears to us that it is equally rational and critical to see in the words of Jesus thus reported, the origin of the prologue. Light has come into the world, and made evident and established the awful fact that men loved, (aorist, denoting a defined characteristic) the darkness (skotov , used here 1Jn_1:6 for absolute darkness, the complete contradictory of the light) rather than the light. Lucke has urged that mallon here might mean magis, not potius, and that the Lord admits a certain amount of love for the light, though less than that for the darkness; but numerous passages of similar construction make it certain that potius, not magis, is the meaning. (cf. Joh_12:43 Mat_10:6 Mar_15:11 2Ti_3:4) "The light," though so needed, and so lovely in itself, was not loved by men. It brought consequences from which "men" recoiled and revolted. They loved their own ignorance and peril. They shrank from the demands from the repentance, the transformation of habit and character, the utter moral revolution that must be consequent upon the reception of the light. Darkness was loved, hailed, accepted, rested in. The process of the judgment was conspicuous in demonstrating this unholy love. If a man love the deformed, the misshapen, the defiled, and the corrupt thing, rather than the truly beautiful, this is a judgment passed upon his entire previous life and on his present character, which is the outcome and upshot of the life. If a man love sensual gratification, its objects and its means, rather than virtue and chastity and serene and sacred purity, this is in itself a terrific krisiv the announcement of his previous career of dissipation and folly. If a man love the darkness of unrenewed humanity rather than the uncreated light embodied, this is his krima , and the process by which it is made evident is the krisiv passing over him. The explanatory clause that follows gives great force to the previous assertion: For their works were evil. Their habitual conduct supplies permanence and energy to their perverse "love," and reveals its historical antecedent their works (erga) were "evil" (ponhra). The love of darkness was the consequence of their wicked ways. The judgment of eternal law has fallen upon their violation of it. The great penalty of sin is sinful desire. A bias towards evil is originated and confirms by sinful compliance. The blinding of the eye, deafening of the ear, (cf. Mat_13:10, and parallels) is the judicial result of their unwillingness to see or walk in the light of the Lord.

Lovers of darkness.

Our Lord"s discourse to Nicodemus was mainly of redemption and regeneration, and was therefore bright and hopeful. Yet he was constrained, in faithfulness and candour, to speak also of condemnation. The prospect before mankind was not one of unclouded glory. The prevalence of sin and the alienation of man from God were a cloud upon the horizon which obscured the brightness even of the gospel day.

I THE ADVENT OF LIGHT. In the spiritual world light is the emblem of knowledge. Christ is designated by the evangelist "the true Light;" he calls himself "the Light of the world." He brings the knowledge of God, and consequently of salvation and of eternal life. This spiritual sunrise involves the diffusion of purity, peace, and joy.

II THE PREFERENCE OF SOME MEN FOR DARKNESS OVER LIGHT. In itself light is best. "Light is good, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun." Those who live and walk in the light of God are spiritually blessed. If any person rejects and loathes the light, the fault is in the eye of the soul, which is manifestly diseased. The captive may prefer the dungeon to liberty. Of many of the Jews Christ"s own countrymen it was justly said, "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." And even now, when the gospel is preached, and men are invited to come into the sunshine of God"s favour, there are found those who prefer to lurk in the dark caves of ignorance, superstition, and sin.

III THEIR REASON OR MOTIVE FOR THIS PREFERENCE. Our Lord speaks explicitly and powerfully upon this. His doctrine, his religion, condemns sin; his gospel is good tidings of deliverance from sin. His own hatred to sin was such that he was crucified by sinners who could not endure his purity, whilst he endured crucifixion that he might redeem men from the power and love of sin. Hence Christ"s society was distasteful to impenitent sinners when he was upon earth, and his gospel is distasteful, is repugnant, to the same class today. Those whose works are evil will not come to the light, for thus their evil works would be exhibited in their monstrous heinousness, and they themselves would be reproved.

IV THE JUDGMENT THUS INCURRED.

1. The ground of judgment is here plainly stated; it is not so much for sin, as for that content and delight in sin, which leads to the rejection of the gospel, to the refusal of deliverance from sin, to the hatred of that Saviour who came to vanquish sin.

2. The court of judgment is implied. The lovers of darkness are condemned by their own conscience, whose dictates they disregard in order to follow the impulses of passion. Yet it is Christ himself, the Word of God, who speaks in human nature, and utters the sentence of disapproval and of condemnation. Thus it is that Christ is to all men either their Saviour or their Judge. His coming to this earth was the cause only of salvation, but to many it was the occasion of judgment and of confusion. T.

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

This is the condemnation - That is, the cause of it. So God is clear.

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

world

kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield "Mat 4:8").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Observe here, 1. The worth and dignity of a choice and invaluable privilege declared, Light is come into the world. A personal light, CHRIST; a doctrinal light, the Gospel.

Observe, 2. The unworthiness, abuse, and great indignity which the world, through infidelity, offers to this benefit: they reject it, and love darkness rather than light.

Observe, 3. The dreadful sentence of wrath which the rejection of this benefit, and the abuse of Christ, brings upon the impenitent and unbelieving world. It terminates in their full and final condemnation: This is the condemnation; that is, ’tis a just and righteous condemnation, ’tis an inevitable and unavoidable condemnation: ’tis an heightened and aggravated, ’tis an accelerated and hastened, an irrecoverable and eternal condemnation.

Learn hence, That the greater and clearer the light is, under which the unregenrated and impentient do live in this world, so much the heavier will their condemnation and misery be in the world to come, if they wilfully and finally reject it.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19, 20. This is the condemnation. That men refuse the light. Usually it is not evidence, but an honest heart and a sincere desire for truth, that are needed in order to faith. All kinds of evil doers hate the light.

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.

Connecting Statement:

Jesus finishes responding to Nicodemus.

The light has come into the world

The word "light" is a metaphor for God's truth that is revealed in Jesus. Jesus speaks of himself in the third person. If your language does not allow people to speak of themselves in the third person, you may need to specify who the light is. The "world" is a metonym for all of the people who live in the world. AT: "The one who is like a light has revealed God's truth to all people" or "I, who am like a light, have come into the world" (See: Metaphor and Metonymy and First, Second, or Third Person)

men loved the darkness

Here "darkness" is a metaphor for evil. (See: Metaphor)

so that his deeds will not be exposed

This can be stated in an active form. AT: "so that the light will not show the things he does" or "so that the light does not make clear his deeds" (See: Active or Passive)

plainly seen that his deeds

This can be stated in an active form. AT: "people may clearly see his deeds" or "everyone may clearly see the things he does" (See: Active or Passive)

translationWords

judge

light

darkness

evil

obey

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

19. αὕτη δέ ἐς. ἡ κρ. But the judgment is this; this is what it consists in. We have precisely the same construction 1Jn 1:5; 1Jn 5:11; 1Jn 5:14; and almost the same (ἵνα for ὅτι) Joh 15:12, Joh 17:3.

τὸ φῶς. This is not only S. John’s term (Joh 1:4-9) but Christ’s (Joh 8:12, Joh 9:5, Joh 12:46). On ἐλήλ. εἰς τ. κ. see on Joh 11:27.

καὶ ἠγαπ. The tragic tone again (see on Joh 1:5). Men loved the darkness rather than the Light. Litotes or meiosis (Joh 6:37, Joh 8:40); they hated the Light. Gravis malae conscientiae lux, Seneca, Ep. 122. No allusion to Nicodemus coming by night: he chose darkness to conceal not an evil work but a good one.

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.

19.] The particular nature of this decided judgment is now set forth,—that the Light (see ch. 1:4, 5, 7, and notes) is come into the world (ἐλήλυθεν, in reference perhaps to ἐλήλυθας, ver. 2), and men (= ὁ κόσμος, men in general; an awful revelation of the future reception of the Gospel) loved (the perversion of the affections and will is the deepest ruin of mankind) the darkness (see note on ch. 1:5; = the state of sin and unbelief) rather than (not = ‘and not,’ but as Bengel says, “Amabilitas lucis eos perculit, sed obhæserunt in amore tenebrarum,” see ch. 5:35; 12:43: 2Ti 3:4) the light, because their deeds were evil (their habits, thoughts, practices,—all these are included,—were perverted).

ἠγάπησαν and ἦν are the indefinite aorists, implying the general usage and state of men, when and after the φῶς ἐλήλυθεν εἰς τ. κόσ.

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

19. αὕτη δέ ἐστιν ἡ κρίσις. The form of the sentence, introducing an explanation, is thoroughly Johannine; cf. 1Jn 1:5, 1Jn 1:5:11, 14. “This is the judging,” sc. not the sentence of judgment (κρίμα), but the way in which the judgment is accomplished. It is no arbitrary sentence, but the working out of a moral law. The root of unbelief in Christ is the refusal to turn to His Light, because the man’s conduct will not bear scrutiny. Jn. traces unbelief to moral causes.

“The Light came into the world”; so he has already in the Prologue described the Advent of Christ (1:4, 5, 9); “and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for evil were their works” (see on 1:9). The comparison of wickedness to darkness and of virtue to light is, of course, found elsewhere, e.g. Philo, Quaest. in Gen. ii. 22, and Test. of XII. Patr., Naph. ii. 10, “neither while ye are in darkness can ye do the works of light.” So Job says of the wicked that they “are of them that rebel against the light” (Job 24:13). The image occurs with special frequency in Jn., e.g. 8:12, 12:35, 46, 1Jn 1:6, 1Jn 1:2:8, 1Jn 1:9, 11; that Jesus is τὸ φῶς τοῦ κόσμου (8:12) is one of his central thoughts.

With ἦν γὰρ αὐτῶν πονηρὰ τὰ ἔργα cf. 7:7, where Jesus is represented as saying that the κόσμος hated Him, ὅτι τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ πονηρά ἐστιν. The same phrase appears in 1Jn 3:12, of the deeds of Cain. Jn. always takes the darkest view of the world apart from Christ; cf. ὁ κόσμος ὅλος ἐν τῷ πονηρῷ κεῖται (1Jn 5:19). Cf. also Col 1:21, 2Ti 4:18, for τὰ ἔργα τὰ πονηρά.

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

Ver. 19. “Now this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.”

In rejecting Jesus, man judges himself. The strictest inquiry into his whole life would not prove his disposition, as opposed to what is good, better than does his unbelief. The final judicial act will have nothing more to do than to ratify this sentence which he pronounces on himself (Joh 3:28-29). In order to make the matter understood, the Lord here calls Himself the light, that is to say, the manifested good, the divine holiness realized before the human conscience.

It follows from this, that the attitude which the man takes in relation to Him, reveals infallibly his inmost moral tendency. To the view of Jesus, the experiment has been already made for the world which surrounds Him: “Men loved rather ...” There is in every servant of God, in proportion to his holiness, a spiritual tact which makes him discern immediately the moral sympathy or antipathy which his person and his message excite. The visit of Jesus to Jerusalem had been for Him a sufficient revelation of the moral state of the people and their rulers. They are the men of whom He speaks in this verse, but with the distinct feeling that they are in this point the representatives of fallen humanity. The expression loved rather is not designed, as Lucke thinks, to extenuate the guilt of unbelievers, by intimating that there is still in them an attraction, but a weaker one, towards the truth. As has been well said, the word μᾶλλον does not mean magis, more, but potius, rather. This word, therefore, aggravates the responsibility of the Jews, by bringing out the free preference with which, though placed in presence of the light, they have chosen the darkness (comp. Joh 3:11). What is, indeed, the ground of this guilty preference? It is that their works are evil. They are determined to persevere in the evil which they have hitherto committed; this is the reason why they flee from the light which condemns it. By displaying the true nature of their works, the light would force them to renounce them. The term τὸ σκότος, the darkness, includes with the love of evil the inward falsehood by which a man seeks to exculpate himself. The aorist ἠγάπησαν, loved, designates the preference as an act which has just been consummated recently, while the imperfect ἦν, were, presents the life of the world in evil as a fact existing long before the appearance of the light. The word ἔργα, works, denotes the whole moral activity, tendency and acts. In the following verse, Jesus explains, by means of a comparison, the psychological relation between immorality, gross or subtle, and unbelief.

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.