in the sense of the A. V., wnderstood, is inadmissible. This meaning would require the middle voice of the verb (see Acts iv. 13; x. 34; xxv. 25). The Rev., apprehended, i.e., grasped or seized, gives the correct idea, which appears in John xii. 35, “lest darkness come upon you,” i.e., overtake and seize. The word is used in the sense of laying hold of so as to make one’s own ; hence, to take possession of. Used of obtaining the prize in the games (1 Cor. ix. 24); of attaining righteousness (Rom. ix. 80); of a demon taking possession of a man (Mark ix. 18); of the day of the Lord overtaking one as a thief (1 Thess. v. 4). Applied to darkness, this idea includes that of eclipsing or overwhelming. Hence some render overcame (Westcott, Moulton). John’s thought is, that in the struggle between light and darkness, light was victorious. The darkness did not appropriate the light and eclipse it. ‘‘ The whole phrase is in- deed a startling paradox. The light does not banish the dark- ness; the darkness does not overpower the light. Light and darkness coexist in the world side by side ” (Westcott).
6. There was a man (éyéveto dv3Ipwrros). Better, Rev., “there came a man,” éyévero denoting the historical manifes- tation, the emergence of the Baptist into the economy of the revelation of the light. Compare iii. 1, there was a man (jv avSpwrros), where the mere fact that there was such a man as Nicodemus is stated. See remarks on 7, ver. 1. A distinction is also intimated between the eternal being (hv) of the Word and the coming into being of his messenger.
Sent (dmectadpévos). See on Matt. x. 2,16; Mark iv. 29; Luke iv. 18. The verb carries the sense of sending an envoy with a special commission. Hence it is used of the mission of the Son of God, and of His apostles ; the word apostle being di- rectly derived from it. It is thus distinguished from wéuzr@, to send, which denotes simply the relation of the sender to the sent. See on xx. 21, and 1 John iii. 5. The statement is not merely equivalent to was sent. The finite verb and the participle are to be taken separately, as stating two distinct facts, the appear-