nobler word, seeming to have changed places with Bios. It ex- presses the sum of mortal and eternal blessedness (Matt. xxv. 46; Luke xviii. 80; John xi. 25; Acts ii. 28; Rom. v. 17; vi. 4), and that not only in respect of men, but also of God and Christ. So here. Compare John v. 26; xiv. 6; 1 John i. 2. This change is due to the gospel revelation of the essential con- nection of sin with death, and consequently, of life with holi- ness. ‘ Whatever truly lives, does so because sin has never found place in it, or, having found place for a time, has since been overcome and expelled ” (Trench).
Zw is a favorite word with John. See xi. 25; xiv. 6; vill. 12; 1 John i. 2; v. 20; John vi. 35, 48; vi. 63; Apoc. xxi. 6; xxii. 1,17; vii. 17; John iv. 14; Apoe. il. ¢ 3)xxui. 2, 14, 19; John xii. 50; xvii. 3; xx. 31; v. 26; vi. 58, 54; v. 40; iii. 15, 16, 36; x. 10; v. 24; xii. 255 vi. 27; iv. 36; 1 John vy. 12, 16; John vi. 51.
Was the Light of men (jv 76 $as THY dvIpaTrar). Passing from the thought of creation in general to that of mankind, who, in the whole range of created things, had a special capacity for receiving the divine. The Light—the peculiar mode of the divine operation upon men, conformably to their rational and moral nature which alone was fitted to receive the light of divine truth. It is not said that the Word was light, but that the life was the light. The Word becomes light through the medium of life, of spiritual life, just as sight is a function of physical life. Compare xiv. 6, where Christ becomes the life through being the truth; and Matt. v. 8, where the pure heart is the medium through which God is beheld. In whatever mode of manifestation the Word is in the world, He is the light of the world; in His works, in the dawn of creation; in the happy conditions of Eden; in the Patriarchs, in the Law and the Prophets, in His incarnation, and in the subsequent history of the Church. Compare ix. 5. Of men, as a class, and not of individuals only.