Ver. 11. els τὰ ἴδια ἠλθεν, ‘He came to His own”. In the world of men was an inner circle which John calls τὰ ἴδια, His own home. (For the meaning of τὰ ἴδια cf. xix. 27, xvi. 32, Acts xxi. 6, 3 Macc. iv. 27-37, Esther v. 10, Polybius, Hist., ii. 57, 5.) Perhaps in this place ““His own property” might give the sense as accurately. Israel is certainly signified ; the people and all their in- stitutions existed only for Him. (See Exod. xix. 5, Deut. vii. 6, ‘‘ The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people, a peculium, unto Himself” ; also Mt. xxi. 33.)—ot ἴδιοι, those of His own home (His intimates, cf. xiii. 1), those who belonged to Him, αὐτὸν οὐ παρέλαβον έρανε Him no reception”. The word is used of welcoming to a home, as in xiv. 3, πάλιν ἔρχομαι καὶ παραλήμψομαι ὑμᾶς πρὸς ἐμαυτόν. Even those whose whole history had been a training to know and receive Him rejected Him, It is not said of “ His own” that they did not ‘“‘know’”’ Him, but that they did
12. Sco. δὲ ἵ ἔλαβον αὐτὸν, 18. γενέσθαι, τοῖς "'"πιστεύουσιν i. 38. ώς αἱμάτων, οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήµατος oti. 5,6, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκ Θεοῦ ° ἐγεννήθησαν.
16. Ch, iii. 5,6. 1 Jo. passim.
not receive Him. And in the parable of the Wicked Husbandmen our Lord re- presents them as killing the heir not in ignorance but because they knew him. —Ver. 12. But not all rejected Him. ὅσοι δὲ ἔλαβον . . . ὄνομα αὐτοῦ. ὅσοι, as many as, as if they were a countable number (Holtzmann), or, rather, suggest- ing the individuality of exceptional action on the part of those who received Him. ---ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς, to them (resuming σοι by a common construction) He gave ἐξουσίαν, not equivalent to δύναμις, the inward capacity, nor just equivalent to saying that He made them sons of God, but He gave them title, warrant, or authorisation, carrying with it all needed powers. Cf. v. 27, x. 18, xix. 10, Lk. ix. i., Mk. vi. 7, where ἐξουσία includes and implies δύναμις.--- τέκνα θεοῦ γενέσθαι, to become children of God. Weiss (Bibl. Theol., § 150) says: “Το those who accept Him by faith Christ has given not sonship itself, but the power to become sons of God; the last and highest realisation of this ideal, a realisation for the present fathomless, lies only in the future consummation”. Rather, with Stevens, {ο believe and to be begotten of God are two insepar- able aspects of the same event or process” (¥ohan. Theol., p. 251). John uses τέκνα rather than the Pauline viots +. @., because Paul’s view of sonship was governed by the Roman legal process of adopting a son who was not one’s own child: while John’s view is mystical and physical, the begetting of a child by the communication of the very life of God (1 John, passim). This dis- tinction underlies the characteristic use of vids by the one writer and τέκνον by the other (cf. Westcott, Epistles of St. Ὑοῦμε, Ρ. 123). By the reception of Christ as the Incarnate Logos we are enabled to recognise God as our Father and to come into the closest possible relation to Him. Those who thus receive Him are further identified as τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἲς τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ, “ those who believe (believers, present participle) in His name”.—miorevew εἴς τινα is the favourite construction with John, and emphasises the object on which the