The double sentence, positive and negative, is characteristic of John and lends emphasis to the statement.— πάντα, “grande verbum quo mundus, i.€., universitas rerum factarum de- notatur ” (Bengel). The more accurate expression for * all things” taken as a whole and not severally is τὰ πάντα (Col. i. 16) or τὸ πᾶν; and, as the negative clause of this verse indicates,
4—7-
685
6. ᾿Εγένετο ἄνθρωπος ἀπεσταλμένος παρὰ Θεοῦ, ὄνομα αὐτῷ g Cp. Gen.
Ἰωάννης.
7. οὗτος ἦλθεν εἰς µαρτυρίαν, ἵνα µαρτυρήσῃ " περὶ τοῦ
xi. 20. Lk. αι Ἡ µαρτυρ. περὶ freq. in Jo., not elsewhere in N. T.
1 Ίωανης in Tr.W.H., here and at every recurrence of the name.
created things are here looked at in their variety and multiplicity. Cf. Marcus Aurelius, iv. 23, ὦ φύσις, ἐκ cov πάντα, ἐν ool πάντα, eis σὲ πάντα.---δι αὐτοῦ. The Word was the Agent in creation. But it is to be observed that the same preposition is used of God in the same connection in Rom. xi. 36, ὅτι ἐξ αὐτοῦ καὶ δι’ αὐτοῦ καὶ cig αὐτὸν τὰ πάντα; and in Col. 1. 16 the same writer uses the same prepositions not of the Father but of the Son when he says: τὰ πάντα δι αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν ἔκτισται. In 1 Cor. viii. 6 Paul distinguishes between the Father as the primal source of all things and the Son as the actual Creator. (In Greek philosophy the problem was to ascertain by whom, of what, and in view of what the world was made; ὑφ᾽ οὗ, ἐξ οὗ, πρὸς ὅ. And Liicke quotes a signifi- cant sentence from Philo (De Cherub., 35): εὑρήσεις αἴτιον μὲν αὐτοῦ (τοῦ κόσμον) τὸν θεὸν, th” οὗ γέγονεν' Όλην δὲ τὰ τέσσαρα στοιχεῖα, ἐξ ὧν συν- expa9n° ὄργανον δὲ λόγον θεοῦ δι’ οὗ κατεσκευάσθη *) _ Ver. 4. ἐν αυτῷ ζωὴ ἦν. “In Him was life”? ; that power which creates life and maintains all else in existence was in the Logos. To limit “life” here to any particular form of life is rendered im- possible by ver. 3. In John ζωή is generally eternal or spiritual life, but here it is more comprehensive. In the Logos was life, and it is of this life all things have partaken and by it they exist. Cf. Philo’s designation of the Logos as πηγὴ ζωῆς.- καὶ 4 ζωὴ ἣν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων, “and the life was the light of men”; the life which was the fountain of existence to all things was especially the light of man ‘Liicke). It was not the Logos directly but the life which was in the Logos which was the light of men. O. Holtzmann thinks this only means that as men received life from the Logos they might be ex- pected in the gift to recognise the Giver. Godet says: ‘“‘ The Logos is light; but it is through the mediation of life that He must become so always; this is precisely the relation which the Gospel restores. We recover through the new creation in Jesus Christ an inner light which springs up from the life.”” Stevens
says: ‘‘The Word represents the self- manifesting quality of the Divine life. This heavenly light shines in the dark- ness of the world’s ignorance and sin.” The words seem to mean that the life which appears in the variety, harmony, and progress of inanimate nature, and in the wonderfully manifold yet related forms of aniinate existence, appears in man as “light,” intellectual and moral light, reason and conscience. To the Logos men may address the words of Ps, xxxvi. 9, wapa σοὶ πηγὴ ζωῆς, ἐν TO _ φωτί σου ὀψόμεθα pas.—Ver. 5. καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν TH σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, “' απά the light shineth in the darkness”, Three interpretations are possible. The words may refer to the incarnate, or to the pre- incarnate experience of the Logos, or to both. Holtzmann and Weiss both con- sider the clause refers to the incarnate condition (¢f. 1 John ii. 8). De Wette refers it to the pre-incarnate operation of the Logos in the O. T. prophets. Meyer and others interpret Φαίνει as meaning “present, 7.¢., uninterruptedly from the beginning until now”. The use of the aorist κατέλαβεν seems to make the first interpretation impossible ; while the second is obviously too restricted. What ‘shining ”’ is meant ? This also must not be limited to O. T. prophecy or revelation but to the light of conscience and reason (cf. νετ. 4).—év τῇ σκοτίᾳ, in the darkness which existed wherever the light of the Logos was not admitted. Darkness, σκότος or σκοτία, was the expression naturally used by secular Greek writers to describe the world’s condition. Thus Lucian: év σκότῳ πλανωμένοις πάντες éoixaper. Cf. Lucretius: