paratory revelations” (Westcott). Render therefore as Rev., ‘¢ There was the true light, even the light which lighteth every man, coming into the world.”
True (ddnIuwev). Wyc., very light (compare the Nicene ereed, “very God of very God”). This epithet is applied to light only here and 1 John ii. 8, and is almost confined to the writings of John. A different word, ddpdjs, also rendered true, occurs at iii. 83; v. 31; viii. 18, and elsewhere. The dit- ference is that adn9ys signifies true, as contrasted with false ; while aAn9ivds signifies what is real, perfect, and substantial, as contrasted with what is fanciful, shadowy, counterfert, or merely symbolic. Thus God is dAndjs (John iii. 33) in that He cannot lie. He is ddnIivos (1 Thess. i. 9), as distinguished from idols. In Heb. viii. 2, the heavenly tabernacle is called adnSun, as distinguished from the Mosaic tabernacle, which was a figure of the heavenly reality (Heb. ix. 24). Thus the expression true light denotes the realization of the original di- vine idea of the Light—the archetypal Light, as contrasted with all imperfect manifestations: “the Light which fulfilled all that had been promised by the preparatory, partial, even fictitious lights which had existed in the world before.”
‘* Our little systems have their day ; They have their day and cease to be: They are but broken lights of Thee, And Thou, O Lord, art more than they.” Tennyson, In Memortam.
Lighteth (dwrifer). See on shineth, ver. 5, and compare Luke xi. 35, 36.
Every man (dvra adv9pwrov). Not collectively, as in ver. 7, but endividually and personally.
The world (tov xoopov). As in ver. 3, the creation was des- ignated in ds several details by mavra, all things, so here, creation is regarded 7m its totality, as an ordered whole. See on Acts xvii. 24; Jas. iil. 6.
Four words are used in the New Testament for world: (1)