The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 156

ncknowledge Christ RB the Light or the expreBBion. (2) Lange, llloulton, Westcott, world; but "the diukness apprehended it Godet., applying \he ipxoµ,l'OI' .is TOI' l<O<Tµov not." The cutire prophetic dispensation, to the light rather than to man, transh\te it,. the testimony which the priestly services "That was tho truo Light which lightcth and se.crifices bore to the evil of sin and to every m1tn, by coming into the world, or that the awfulness of righteousness, 11.s well as cometh into the world." The difficulty of the oondemne.~ion of th~ follies and pleMures this is that it makes the ooming into tho of the world, Involved m John the Baptist's world, in some new sense, tho occasion of ascetic profession, might ho.ve roused all the illumination of every man, although th" Israel to believe in the Light. He gathered evangelist hM already spoken (ver. 4) of together all the foroes of the Mos»ic, pro- the Life which is the Light ot men. A phetic, Le,·itical, EBBenic ministries to beiir third method is to mo.ke the lpxoµ,.,o., ,ls TOI' on the p<'ople. Everything that Law could 1<0,rµov the true predicate of the sentence, do WRS done to reveal the Light : but "all" nnd translate thus: The veritable Light which did not helie,·e, for "the darkness appre- illumines every ine.n we.a ooming (ever hended it not." coming) into the world; 1 and there is a sense Yer. 8.-A solemn warning is given, and manner of his coming which transcends which for ever discriminates the ministry all others, n.bout which he is to speak at of man from the eternal ministry of the length. Thir might receive another mean- Logos. Ee (John, and with him all the ing if ;j., •px&µ,vov were equivalent to ~M•; proplletic, Lc,itical, e.scetic teachers in e.11 then a positive reference would here be ages) was not the Light, but [he was or came] made to the historic fact of the Incarnation. that he might bear witneu of the Light. But it seems to me the evangelist is The 1va depends upou some unexpressed drawing a contrast between the continuous verbal thought; foreveniuthepassageswhere coming into the world of the veritable Light it stands alone (eh. ix. 3; xiii. 18; xiv. 31; e.nd the specific Incarnation of ver. 14. Con- xv. 25) the reference is not obscure to some sequently, the author here travels over and pre-existing or involved verb. The distinc. connotes a wider theme, namely, the opera- tion here drawn between John and the Light tion of that archetypal Light, that veritable is thought by some expositors to point to the Light which differs from all mere reflectiol)S condition of the Ephesian Church, in the of it, or imitations of it, or luminous testi- neighbourhood of which there still lingered monies to it. The difference between a.}>.116-fis some who placed John in even a higher and a.>..116wos is important. 'AA116-fis is used position than that accorded to Jesus (Acts in eh. iii. 33 and v. 31, and very often to denoto :I.ix. 3, "I) ; but the teaching of the evan- the true in opposition to the false, the ve- gelist is far more comprehensive than this. racious as distinct from the deceptive. The Light of men has higher source and 'AJ..116wos is used in the Gospel (eh. iv. wider range of operation than that of any 23, 37; vi. 32; vii. 28; xv. l; xvii. 3), First prophetic man. AJl that he, that any seer Epistle (v. 20), and Apocalypse (iii. 7), and whatsoever can do, is to bear witness to it. hardly anywhere else (see Introduction), for The prophets, from Moses to John, derived the real as opposed to the phenomenal, the all their power, their sanction, and the corro- archetypal as opposed to the various em- boration of their message, from the Logos- bodiments of it, the veritable as distinct light shining through conscience and blazing from that which does not answer to its own through providential events and burning ideal. Now, about this veritable light, in up the stubble of human action with un- addition to all that has been said already, quenchable fire. Tbe prophets are not the two things are declared. (1) It illumines light of God; they are sent to bear witness every man, giveth light to every individual to it. man, in all time. Though the darkness ap- Ver. 9.-(b) The illuminat,ion of the arche- prehendeth it not, yet man is illumined by typal Light before incarnation. There are it. Various interpretations have been given e.t least tLree grammatical translations of of the method or conditions of this illumi- this verse. Either (1), with Meyer, we may nation. (a) The light of the reason and give to ;j., the complete sense of existence, conscience-the higher reason, which is the presence, and include in it the full predicate real eye for heavenly light, and the sphere of the sentence; thus: "Existing, present for the operation of grace. Thie would make (when John commenced his mio.i.stry), we.a the highest intellectual faculty of man a the veritable Light which enlighteneth every direct effulgence of the archetypal Lig)lt, e.ncl man coming into the world." But the confirm the poet Wordsworth's definition cle.use, "coming into the world,'' would here of consc~ence as "God's 111ost intimate pre- not only be superfiuous, but moreover, while used elsewhere and often of Christ's incar- 1 This is one of the passages whioh Hip- nation, is never used of ordinary birth in polytus tells us that Bo.eili<les quoted fi-0111 the Scriptures, though it is e. rabbinical John (' llefut. Hrer.,' vii. 22). 011, I, 1-51.] '!'HE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 13