John 1:12-18

Third Section: Faith, 1:12-18.

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

The appearance of the Word, therefore, did not succeed in scattering the darkness of mankind and overcoming the resistance of Israel as a nation. Nevertheless, His mission could not fail. At the moment when the people which He had prepared for Himself turns away from Him, a family of believers, divinely begotten, appears and clusters about Him.

This is the contrast pointed out by 3 John 1:12-13; 3 John 1:14; 3 John 1:14 a explains the regenerating power of this faith: it is that its object is nothing less than the absolutely unique fact of the incarnation of the Word. And the sequel proves that this fact, wonderful as it is, is nevertheless certain; certain, because He was beheld with rapture by eye-witnesses, to whose number the author belongs (John 1:14 b); certain, because He was pointed out by a divine herald, who had received the mission to proclaim Him (John 1:15); certain, because He is an object of experience for the whole Church, which through all the heavenly gifts which it receives from this unique man, called Jesus Christ, verifies in Him all the characteristics of the Divine Logos (John 1:16-18). This triple testimony of eye-witnesses, of the official witness, and of the Church itself is the immovable foundation of faith.

This third part of the Prologue, then, is indeed the demonstration of the certainty and the riches of faith. The majority of the commentators make this third part begin only at John 1:14, with the words: “And the Word was made flesh.” But this way of separating the sections has two serious difficulties: 1, John 1:12-13 become a dragging appendage to the preceding section into which they do not enter logically, since the dominant idea of that section is the unbelief which the Logos encountered here on earth; and 2, this third mention of the coming of the Word (comp. John 1:5; John 1:11), not having any introduction, has somewhat of an abrupt and accidental character. It is quite otherwise when John 1:12-13 are joined with the following section, which treats of faith. They form the antithesis to John 1:11 and thus the transition from the first to the second section of the Prologue. Thus the third and principal mention of the fact of the incarnation is occasioned by the expression of the idea of faith in 3 John 1:12-13; 3 John 1:12; 3 John 1:12. But, to all those who received Him, to them He gave the power of becoming children of God, to those who believe on His name. Δέ, but, expresses not merely a gradation, but an opposition. This is confirmed by the antithesis of the verb ἔλαβον, received, to οὐ παρέλαβον, did not welcome (John 1:11); as well as by that of the subject ὅσοι (literally, as many as there are who), to οἱ ἴδιοι, His own (John 1:11). This last term designated the nation as a body; the pronoun ὅσοι indicates only individuals. By its official representatives, the nation, as such, refused to welcome Jesus; from that moment faith took on the character of a purely individual and, so to speak, sporadic act. This is expressed by the pronoun ὅσοι, all those who. But the ὅσοι are not, therefore, only the few members of the Jewish people who did not share the national unbelief; they are all believers (τοῖς πιστεύουσιν John 1:12 b), whether Jews or Greeks, whom John contemplates as united into one family of the children of God (ἡμεῖς πάντες, we all, John 1:16). Reuss (Hist. de la theol . chret . t. ii., p. 475) thinks that if the term His own (John 1:11), designates the Jews, and not men in general, we must also conclude from this fact that the believing ὅσοι are only Jews.

But John does not say ὅσοι ἐξ αὐτῶν, all those from among them, but: all those who, in general. When the Messiah is once rejected by unbelieving Israel, there is henceforth only humanity, and in it individual believers or unbelievers. This substitution of individual faith for the collective and national welcome of the chosen people, which was wanting, is precisely that which occasions, in this verse, the use of the simple verb ἔλαβον, received, instead of the compound παρέλαβον, welcomed (John 1:11). The compound had in it something grave and solemn, which was suited to an official reception, such as the Israelitish authorities should have given in the name of the entire theocratic nation joyously introducing its divine King into His palace, the temple at Jerusalem; while the simple λαμβάνειν, which signifies to take, to seize in passing and, as it were, accidentally, is perfectly apposite to the notion of individual faith. In this verse, therefore, John substitutes, in the same manner as St. Paul does in all his epistles, the great idea of Christian individualism, with its universal and human character, for Jewish nationalism, with the narrow particularism in which it remained confined. By marking the contrast (δέ, but) between the unbelief of the Israelite nation and the faith of individual believers, whoever they may be, Jews or heathen, the apostle would succeed in making the greatness of the blessings understood of which the rebellious people were deprived, although they had been called first of all to enjoy them. Through rejecting the Word, they were deprived of a participation in the life of God which He brought in Himself. In fact, this divine guest, the Logos, conferred on those who received Him two privileges worthy of Himself: first, a new position in relation to God, and then, by reason of this position, the power to participate in His divine life.

The word ἐξουσία, authority, competency, denotes more than a simple possibility, and less than a power properly so called. What is meant is a new position, that of being reconciled, justified, which the believer gains through faith, and through this it is that he receives the power of asking for and receiving the Holy Spirit, by means of which he becomes a child of God. The expression τέκνον θεοῦ (child of God), which is used by John, includes more than υἱός (son), which is used by Paul. The meaning of this latter word does not go beyond the idea of adoption (υἱοθεσία), the right of sonship which is accorded to the believer, while the word τέκνον (child), from τίκτειν (to beget), implies the real communication of the divine life. Comp. Galatians 4:6: “ Because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts; ” a sentence which is equivalent to saying: “Because you are sons (υἱοί) by adoption God has made you children (τέκνα) by regeneration.” This ὅτι (because), of Paul, expresses precisely the relation of the idea contained in the word ἐξουσία in John. How can Hilgenfeld venture, in the face of the word γενέσθαι (become), to impute to John the dualistic system, according to which the children of God are such by nature, and before all faith in the historical Christ!

The idea of child of God, in the concrete sense in which it here appears, is foreign to the Old Testament. The words father and child, in the rare cases in which they are there employed (Psalms 103:13; Isaiah 63:16; Jeremiah 31:20; Hos 11:1), express only the sentiments of affection, tenderness, compassion. This observation is sufficient to set aside the opinion of the interpreters, who, like Lange, with the purpose of reserving the idea of the incarnation for John 1:14, refer these John 1:12-13 to the faithful ones of the Old Covenant. The expressions receive the Word and become children of God are far too strong to be applied to the Israelitish saints and would be in flagrant contradiction to the declaration of Jesus (Matthew 11:11-12); and to the reflections of John himself (John 1:17 and John 7:39).

The figurative, and consequently, somewhat vague, term receive, required to be explained, precisely defined; for the readers must know accurately the means by which they may place themselves among the number of the ὅσοι (all those who). Hence the appended phrase: τοῖς πιστεύουσιν.... (to those who believe on His name). To believe this is the means of the λαμβάνειν, the mode of this individual reception. Only, instead of connecting this explanation with the verb, they received, the author unites it with the persons of the ὅσοι (to those who). “It is one of the peculiarities of John's style,” Luthardt observes, to define the moral condition by means of which an act is accomplished, by an explanatory appendix added to one of the words which depend on the principal verb. As a point of style, this is perhaps heavy; but as an expression of thought, it is forcible. See the same construction in John 3:13; John 5:18; John 7:50, etc. We have sought to give the force of this turn in the translation. The relation between these two acts, to receive and to believe, is a close one; the first is accomplished by the very fact of the second. But why, then, is an act of faith necessary for the reception of the Word? Because His divine character is hidden from sight by the veil of the flesh which envelops it. It can only be discerned, therefore, by a perception of a moral nature. Made attentive by the testimony, the man fixes his gaze upon Christ, and, discerning in Him the divine stamp of holiness, he surrenders himself personally to Him. This is faith.

The object of faith, as here indicated, is not the Logos; it is His name. The name, the normal name of the being, is the true expression of His essence, the perfect revelation of His peculiar character. This name is thus the means which other beings have of knowing Him, of forming their idea of His person. Hence it is that this idea is sometimes called the name, in a relative and secondary sense, as in the prayer: Hallowed be thy name. In our passage, John means: those who believe in the revelation which He has given of Himself, as Logos, who have discerned under the veil of the flesh the manifestation of that divine being, the only-begotten Son (John 1:14; John 1:18), and have, because of this perception, surrendered themselves to Him. After having thus explained the term received, the apostle develops in John 1:13 the idea of the expression children of God.