John 1:5

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

Vv. 5: “ And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not. ”

What, then, is this darkness (σκοτία) which all at once fills the scene of the world created and enlightened by the Word? It is impossible, with some interpreters of Baur's school, to think of eternal darkness, of a kingdom of evil co-eternal with that of good. John 1:3 is positively opposed to this: everything that is, without exception, is the work of the Logos. But John, as John 1:3-4 have proved, wrote for readers who were acquainted with the account in Genesis. We must also explain John 1:5 according to this account. The darkness of which the evangelist speaks is the subjection to sin and falsehood in which humanity lives in consequence of the fact of the fall, narrated in Genesis 3. As the Logos was the principle of life and light for the world, moral obscurity invaded it, as soon as humanity had ceased to live in Him (John 1:3); there was darkness. The Logos, however, none the less perseveres in His office of illuminator (John 1:4), and He ends by appearing Himself on this theatre which He has never ceased to enlighten. Formerly, I referred the present φαίνει, it shines, to the beneficent action of the Logos before His incarnation: this is the thought which I have just shown to be contained in the second clause of John 1:4. This view approaches the explanation of de Wette, who refers the φαίνει, shines, to the revelations of the O. T., and that of the interpreters who apply it to the moral light granted to the heathen by means of reason and conscience. Three reasons have made me give up this explanation:

1. The present φαίνει, shines, is only naturally explained, especially in contrast to the two past tenses of John 1:4, if we refer it to a present fact; now this fact contemporaneous with the moment when the evangelist writes can only be the earthly appearance of Christ and of the Gospel proclamation which perpetuates the glory of it here on earth.

2. The very striking parallel passage, 1 John 2:8: “Because the darkness is passing away, and the true light already shineth” (ἤδη φαίνει), can apply only, according to the context, to the Gospel era, and it thus determines the meaning of the same expression in the Prologue.

3. The truly decisive reason, to my view, is the significant asyndeton between John 1:5 and John 1:6. The absence of a logical particle most frequently indicates, in Greek, a more emphatic and more developed reaffirmation of the thought already expressed. Now, it does not appear to me possible to interpret otherwise this form of expression in this passage. The historical fact so abruptly introduced in John 1:6 by the words: “There appeared a man....,” can only be thus mentioned with the design of giving through history the proof of the thought declared in John 1:5; and as the development which opens at John 1:6 and closes in John 1:11 relates wholly to the rejection of Christ by Israel, it follows that the second part of John 1:5, the theme of this development, can only relate to this same fact. Thus the φαίνει, shines, is understood by Ewald, Hengstenberg, Luthardt, Weiss. Some interpreters think that the act of shining can apply to the action of the Logos alike before and during His earthly life; so Olshausen, Meyer, Westcott, the last writer extending the meaning of the present shines from the moment of the creation even to the consummation of things. But the two modes of illumination, internal and external, which would be thus attributed to the Logos here, are of too heterogeneous a nature to make it possible to unite them in the same term. We have, moreover, already seen that the present shines cannot naturally apply to the time which preceded the incarnation.

The καί, and, simply indicates the calm continuity of the work of the Logos throughout these different stages; the office which He accomplished in the depths of the human soul (John 1:4) has ended in that which He has just accomplished as Messiah in the midst of the Jewish people (John 1:5-11). Weiss and Gess object to this explanation, that it forces us to give to the word τὸ φῶς, the light, a different sense in John 1:4 and John 1:5: there, the light as a gift of the Logos; here, the light as being the Logos Himself. But in John 1:4 the question is of a light emanating from the life, and consequently impersonal, while in John 1:5, John speaks of the light as visibly and personally present. This, then, is his meaning: that that moral good the ideal of which the Logos caused to shine in the human soul, He has come to realize in Himself here on earth, and thus to display it in all its brightness (John 1:5). John uses this notion of light with great freedom. We find the same two senses united in the same verse in John 8:12: “I am the light of the world” this is the sense of the light in our John 1:5 and “He that followeth me shall have the light of life” this is the sense of the word in John 1:4. The active form φαίνει, shines, is purposely employed rather than the middle φαίνεται, which would signify: appears, shows itself. John means, not that it has appeared, but that from this time forward it pours forth its brilliancy in the darkness of humanity, striving to dissipate the darkness.

The second part of John 1:5 is explained in two opposite ways, according to the two opposite meanings which are given to the verb, κατέλαβεν. This verb, which signifies to lay hands on, to seize, may denote a hostile act: to seize in order to restrain, to overcome, or a friendly act: to seize in order to appropriate to oneself, to possess. The first of these meanings is that which the ancient Greek interpreters (Origen, Chrysostom, etc.), adopt: for a long time abandoned, it is now again preferred by some modern writers (Lange, Weiss, Westcott); “And the darkness did not succeed in restraining, in extinguishing this light.” In favor of this meaning the expression in John 12:35 is cited: “Walk while you have the light, lest the darkness overtake you (καταλάβῃ in the hostile sense).” But even in that passage, the meaning of this verb is not overcome; Jesus speaks of the night, not as restraining the day, but as overtaking the traveler who started on his journey too late. This single example which is cited, therefore, is not really one. Besides, this meaning is excluded by the context when properly understood. We have seen that the asyndeton between John 1:5-6, implies a very close relation of thought between them. Now, this relation exists only as John 1:5 states a fact which already refers, like all that which follows, to the development of unbelief, not of faith. This it is which prevents us from translating: “and the darkness did not restrain it.” In order to find in what follows the evidence of a similar idea, we must pass beyond the entire development of John 1:6-11, and proceed to discover it in the fact mentioned in John 1:12-13: “To all those who received him...;” which is, of course, impossible, and the more so as John 1:12 is connected with John 1:11 by the adversative particle δέ. Besides, if the apostle wished to express the idea which is attributed to him, he had for this purpose the very natural word κατέχειν, to check, to repress: comp. Romans 1:18. It is fitting, therefore, to apply to the word here the other meaning which is the prevailing one throughout the whole New Testament. Comp. Philippians 3:12-13 (to attain the end); 1 Corinthians 9:24 (to lay hold of the prize); Romans 9:30 (to obtain the righteousness of faith). In the same sense it is also used in Sir 15:1-7 : καταλαμβάνειν σοφίαν (to attain to wisdom). I lay stress only on the passages where the verb is used, as it is here, in the active. The sense of comprehend in which it is taken in the middle (Acts 4:13; Acts 10:34; Ephesians 3:18) rests also on the meaning of the verb which we here adopt. John means, accordingly, that the darkness did not suffer itself to be penetrated by the light which was shining in order to dissipate it. To understand this somewhat strange figure, we must recall to mind the fact that the word darkness here denotes, not an abstract principle, but living and free beings, corrupted humanity. Understood in this sense, this second proposition is the summary statement which is developed in the following passage, John 1:6-11; it has its counterpart in the second proposition of John 1:11. The choice of the slightly different term παρέλαβεν received (John 1:11), in order to express nearly the same idea as κατέλαβεν of John 1:5, will be easily explained. The καί, and, which joins this proposition to the preceding one, takes the place, as is often the case, of a δέ, but. John presents the course of things, not from the point of view of the changing conduct of mankind towards God, but from that of the faithful and persevering conduct of the Logos towards mankind. The aorist κατέλαβεν stands out in relief on the general basis of the present φαίνει, as a particular and unique act, an attitude taken once for all. To the view of the evangelist, the refusal of the mass of mankind to allow themselves to be enlightened by the Gospel is already an accomplished fact. Comp. the saying of Jesus in John 3:19, which is, as it were, the text from which are derived the present words: “The light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil.” The apostle passes now to the account of the manner in which this decisive moral fact stated in John 1:5 was accomplished and how it was consummated in Israel. And that he may make the gravity of it thoroughly apprehended, he begins by calling to mind the extraordinary means which God adopted, in order, as it would seem, to render it impossible, John 1:6-8.