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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 1:6

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There was a man sent from God, whose name [was] John.

6 13. The Word revealed to Men and rejected by them

6. There was a man ] Rather, There arose a man, in contrast to the ‘was’ in Joh 1:1. The word was from all eternity; John arose, came into existence, in time. Comp. Joh 10:19. Note once more the noble simplicity of language.

sent from God ] i.e. a Prophet. Comp. ‘I will send my messenger,’ Mal 3:1; ‘I will send you Elijah the Prophet,’ Joh 4:5. From the Greek for ‘send’ ( apostello) comes our word ‘Apostle.’

whose name was John ] In the Fourth Gospel John is mentioned 20 times, and is never once distinguished as ‘the Baptist.’ The other three Evangelists carefully distinguish the Baptist from the son of Zebedee: to the writer of the Fourth Gospel there is only one John. This in itself is strong incidental evidence that he himself is the other John. See on Joh 11:16.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

A man sent from God – See Matt. 3. The evangelist proceeds now to show that John the Baptist was not the Messiah and to state the true nature of his office. Many had supposed that he was the Christ, but this opinion he corrects; yet he admits that he was sent from God – that he was divinely commissioned. Though he denied that he was the Messiah, yet he did not deny that he was sent from or by heaven on an important errand to human beings. Some have supposed that the sole design of this gospel was to show that John the Baptist was not the Messiah. Though there is no foundation for this opinion, yet there is no doubt that one object was to show this. The main design was to show that Jesus was the Christ, Joh 20:31. To do this, it was proper, in the beginning, to prove that John was not the Messiah; and this might have been at that time an important object. John made many disciples, Mat 3:5. Many persons supposed that he might be the Messiah, Luk 3:15; Joh 1:19. Many of these disciples of John remained at Ephesus, the very place where John is supposed to have written this gospel, long after the ascension of Jesus, Act 19:1-3. It is not improbable that there might have been many others who adhered to John, and perhaps many who supposed that he was the Messiah. On these accounts it was important for the evangelist to show that John was not the Christ, and to show, also, that he, who was extensively admitted to be a prophet, was an important witness to prove that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ. The evangelist in the first four verses stated that the Word was divine; he now proceeds to state the proof that he was a man, and was the Messiah. The first evidence adduced is the testimony of John the Baptist.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Joh 1:6

There was a man sent from God whose name was John

The forerunner

THE MISSION OF THE BAPTIST.

1. It was immediately connected with the appearance of the Word in the flesh.

2. It was of God. And as His mission so his name.

3. It had as its special end to testify of Christ.

4. Its aim was to bring sinners to believe in Christ. This was not merely Gods intention, but his own desire. All true ministers have the same object.

5. It contemplated all to whom he addressed himself.

II. THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN CHRIST AND JOHN.

1. A current error was corrected. Men thought John the Christ. He confessed himself only the friend of the Bridegroom, the witness-bearer of the Light.

2. This correction vindicated the proper glory of Christ. All honour to the witness, but the glory of the light cannot be given to another.

3. In the marked distinction between the forerunner and Him who coming after him was preferred before him, overweening thoughts of mere instruments, however valuable, are reproved.

4. Johns honour consisted in his proclamation of his Masters glory. Nor was this honour denied him. Ministers are esteemed for their works sake.

5. The distinction in Christs case from John and all His ministers is that He is the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. (A. Beith, D. D.)

The mission of John and of Christ

I. THE TRUE NATURE OF A CHRISTIAN MINISTERS OFFICE.

1. Ministers are not priests or mediators.

2. They are not agents into whose hands men may commit their souls, and carry on their religion by deputy.

3. They are witnesses (Act_1:8; Act_2:40; Act_20:21).

II. ONE PRINCIPAL POSITION WHICH OUR LORD OCCUPIES TOWARDS MANKIND. As light.

1. He is the centre and source of all spiritual illumination, warmth, life, health, growth, beauty, and fertility.

2. He shines for the common benefit of mankind–for high and low, rich and poor, Jew and Greek.

3. He is free to all.

III. THE DESPERATE WICKEDNESS OF MANS NATURAL HEART.

1. Christ was in the world invisibly long before He was born Col 1:17). Yet He was neither known nor honoured.

2. But Christ came visibly into the world when He was born at Bethlehem and fared no better. His own rejected Him.

IV. THE VAST PRIVILEGES OF ALL WHO RECEIVE CHRIST AND BELIEVE ON HIM.

1. The privileges are those of children.

2. These privileges are to be possessed by faith (Gal 3:26).

3. Are we sons of God? Have we the marks of Sonship.

4. Do we desire to be sons of God? Then we must receive Him as Saviour. (Bp. Ryle.)

The ministry of men

I. A special way whereby Christ shineth to the world, and helpeth the world to know Him, is the MINISTRY OF MEN; whereby

1. He condescendeth to our weakness, who could not endure more glorious instruments.

2. Trieth our obedience and acknowledgment of His authority in the weak messengers.

3. Maketh manifest that the excellency of the power whereby they do so great things is of Him.

II. MINISTERS OF CHRIST MUST NOT RUN UNSENT, but ought to have a calling from God, either extraordinary (in extraordinary times and cases) or ordinary; as being that which will afford them matter of courage in undertaking their work, of comfort under difficulties, and of hope of success; for so John was a man sent from God; to wit, in an extraordinary way, as Christs forerunner.

III. MINISTERS WILL IN A MOST LIVELY WAY PROCLAIM THAT GRACE OF GOD BRINGING SALVATION WHO HAVE THEMSELVES OBTAINED GRACE AND FAVOUR BY IT. And it is a sweet thing when men prove answerable to these names and titles which Scripture giveth them because of their Christian profession; for this forerunners name was John, a name given by the angel, which signifieth one to whom the Lord had been gracious that he might actively proclaim the same to others, and a name to which Johns carriage was answerable.

IV. THE CHIEF AND SPECIAL END OF A MINISTRY, is to point out Christ in His excellences and usefulness to lost men, to declare Him in His person, offices, and benefits, how He should be believed in, served or suffered for; John came to bear witness of Christ in His glorious excellency, and as He is the light of dark man, in his comforts and directions.

V. MINISTERS ARE TO PREACH CHRIST WITH PLAINNESS AND FIDELITY in not adding or diminishing with boldness and constancy.

VI. THE END AND SCOPE OF A MINISTERS WITNESSING and preaching, is, and should be, to bring self-condemned sinners to believe in Christ; his preaching of the law and wrath is in order to that, and to bring men to see their need of Christ, and should be joined with the doctrine of the gospel; his preaching of the doctrine of sanctification and holiness should be joined with the doctrine of faith in Christ, from whom virtue floweth for that end. (G. Hutcheson.)

The witness of the Light

I. His APPEARANCE. There came–suggesting origination, commencement, dependence, mutability, decay, in opposition to the Word whose creature He was (verse: 3).

II. His NATURE. A man. Parted from the Word who was God: although honoured by the near relationship in which he stood to the Word as instrument, minister, herald, and forerunner.

III. His NAME. Jehovah is gracious–a fitting designation of one whose birth was a gift of grace (Luk 1:18), whose manhood was the flower and fruit of grace (Luk 1:80), and whose life work was to be a publisher of grace (Luk 1:76).

IV. His MISSION.

1. In its character, prophetic.

2. In its authority, Divine.

3. In its work, witness-bearing.

4. In its object, saving.

V. His RELATION TO THE LIGHT.

1. Negatively.

2. Positively (Joh 1:8). (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)

The personality of John

I image to myself a man of calm, saintly look, with eyes that seemed, to pierce the invisible, moving men not by his wild gesticulations, but by the deep solemnity of his spirit, the simple, fearless truth he spoke, and his appeal to the Messianic longings and hopes which then prevailed. Withdrawn from the luxurious world, with its enervating and selfish influences, he had lived to the age of thirty among the mountains west of the Dead Sea, preparing in solitude for the brief but great work of his life. He is, however, no hermit cut off from his fellowmen and taking no interest in their affairs, but a keen observer and discerner; and at the appointed hour he steps suddenly forward, crying to the nation, Repent, Behold the Lamb of God! (J. Culross, D. D.)

The character of John

The Baptist was characterized by

I. STRENGTH. If ever there was a man unlike the little reed that gives itself to be tossed by the wind (Mat 11:7) it was John. Your strong man is self-conscious. He has presided over the slow and painful elaboration of his character. He has looked on with satisfaction at the stiffening of his moral fibre into steel, and knows what it is worth. Humility has never been a feature of strong Jewish natures. Yet this strong man says, He that cometh after me is stronger () than I.

II. INDEPENDENCE. Yet like David in Gods presence declaring, I will be base in my own sight, so the Baptist exclaims, Whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose.

III. Above all, PURITY. An effective moral teacher must in purity of manhood stand upright. Never could he have brought men to repentance if he had not himself repented. The words generation of vipers would have been a mere scream of impotent rage if he had not crushed the serpent in his own heart. Yet, in the presence of Jesus, that pure soul seems black like the waters of a mountain lake in the neighbourhood of the newly fallen snow. The baptism of water he knew; of the baptism of fire, searching and sifting to the marrow, he recognized the need–I have need to be baptized of Thee. (Bp. Alexander.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 6. Whose name was John.] This was John the Baptist; see his name and the nature of his office explained, Mr 1:4, and Mt 3:1-3.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

There was a man sent from God; not the Christ, not an angel, but a man; yet one, than whom (as our Saviour saith) there had not risen a greater amongst those that were born of women. He did not come of his own head, but was sent; for it was he of whom it was written, Mal 3:1, Behold, I will send my messenger before thy face, & c., Luk 7:27, he was not sent of men, but from God, foretold by the angel, as to his existence, name, work, and success, Luk 1:13-17.

Whose name was John; his name was John, named by the angel, Luk 1:13, before he was born; by his father and mother, Luk 1:60,63, when he was born. John signifieth grace; and doubtless the Baptist obtained that name, because he was to be the first and a famous preacher of the grace of the gospel which came to the world through Jesus Christ.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

6-9. The Evangelist hereapproaches his grand thesis, so paving his way for the fullstatement of it in Joh 1:14,that we may be able to bear the bright light of it, and take in itslength and breadth and depth and height.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

There was a man sent from God,…. John the Baptist: he was not the Logos, or word; nor was he an angel, but a man; yet an extraordinary one, in his conception of a barren woman, and in being born when both parents were stricken in years; and whilst he was in the womb, he leaped for joy at the salutation of Mary; and as soon as born was filled with the Holy Ghost; and when he was grown up, and appeared in public, it was in an uncommon manner: his dress and his diet were both out of the common way; and his temper and spirit were that of Elias the prophet; and as for his work and office, it was very peculiar; he was the forerunner of Christ, and the first administrator of the new ordinance of baptism, and the greatest of all the prophets: this person had his mission from God, both to preach and baptize:

whose name was John; the name given him by the angel before his conception, and by his mother Elisabeth, after her neighbours and cousins had given him another; and which was confirmed by his father Zacharias, when deaf and dumb: it signifies grace, or gracious; and a gracious man he was; he was very acceptable to his parents; a man that had the grace of God in him, and great gifts of grace bestowed on him; he was a preacher of the doctrines of grace; and his ministry was very grateful to many.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Testimony of John Baptist; Christ’s Incarnation.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

The evangelist designs to bring in John Baptist bearing an honourable testimony to Jesus Christ, Now in these verses, before he does this,

I. He gives us some account of the witness he is about to produce. His name was John, which signifies gracious; his conversation was austere, but he was not the less gracious. Now,

1. We are here told concerning him, in general, that he was a man sent of God. The evangelist had said concerning Jesus Christ that he was with God and that he was God; but here concerning John that he was a man, a mere man. God is pleased to speak to us by men like ourselves. John was a great man, but he was a man, a son of man; he was sent from God, he was God’s messenger, so he is called, Mal. iii. 1. God gave him both his mission and his message, both his credentials and his instructions. John wrought no miracle, nor do we find that he had visions and revelations; but the strictness and purity of his life and doctrine, and the direct tendency of both to reform the world, and to revive the interests of God’s kingdom among men, were plain indications that he was sent of God.

2. We are here told what his office and business were (v. 7): The same came for a witness, an eye-witness, a leading witness. He came eis martyrian—for a testimony. The legal institutions had been long a testimony for God in the Jewish church. By them revealed religion was kept up; hence we read of the tabernacle of the testimony, the ark of the testimony, the law and the testimony: but now divine revelation is to be turned into another channel; now the testimony of Christ is the testimony of God, 1Co 1:6; 1Co 2:1. Among the Gentiles, God indeed had not left himself without witness (Acts xiv. 17), but the Redeemer had no testimonies borne him among them. There was a profound silence concerning him, till John Baptist came for a witness to him. Now observe, (1.) The matter of his testimony: He came to bear witness to the light. Light is a thing which witnesses for itself, and carries its own evidence along with it; but to those who shut their eyes against the light it is necessary there should be those that bear witness to it. Christ’s light needs not man’s testimony, but the world’s darkness does. John was like the night watchman that goes round the town, proclaiming the approach of the morning light to those that have closed their eyes, and are not willing themselves to observe it; or like that watchman that was set to tell those who asked him what of the night that the morning comes, and, if you will enquire, enquire ye,Isa 21:11; Isa 21:12. He was sent of God to tell the world that the long-looked-for Messiah was now come, who should be a light to enlighten the Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel; and to proclaim that dispensation at hand which would bring life and immortality to light. (2.) The design of his testimony: That all men through him might believe; not in him, but in Christ, whose way he was sent to prepare. He taught men to look through him, and pass through him, to Christ; through the doctrine of repentance for sin to that of faith in Christ. He prepared men for the reception and entertainment of Christ and his gospel, by awakening them to a sight and sense of sin; and that, their eyes being thereby opened, they might be ready to admit those beams of divine light which, in the person and doctrine of the Messiah, were now ready to shine in their faces. If they would but receive this witness of man, they would soon find that the witness of God was greater, 1 John v. 9. See ch. x. 41. Observe, it was designed that all men through him might believe, excluding none from the kind and beneficial influences of his ministry that did not exclude themselves, as multitudes did, who rejected the counsel of God against themselves, and so received the grace of God in vain.

3. We are here cautioned not to mistake him for the light who only came to bear witness to it (v. 8): He was not that light that was expected and promised, but only was sent to bear witness of that great and ruling light. He was a star, like that which guided the wise men to Christ, a morning star; but he was not the Sun; not the Bridegroom, but a friend of the Bridegroom; not the Prince, but his harbinger. There were those who rested in John’s baptism, and looked no further, as those Ephesians, Acts xix. 3. To rectify this mistake, the evangelist here, when he speaks very honourably of him, yet shows that he must give place to Christ. He was great as the prophet of the Highest, but not the Highest himself. Note, We must take heed of over-valuing ministers, as well as of under-valuing them; they are not our lords, nor have they dominion over our faith, but ministers by whom we believe, stewards of our Lord’s house. We must not give up ourselves by an implicit faith to their conduct, for they are not that light; but we must attend to, and receive, their testimony; for they are sent to bear witness of that light; so then let us esteem them, and not otherwise. Had John pretended to be that light he had not been so much as a faithful witness of that light. Those who usurp the honour of Christ forfeit the honour of being the servants of Christ; yet John was very serviceable as a witness to the light, though he was not that light. Those may be of great use to us who yet shine with a borrowed light.

II. Before he goes on with John’s testimony, he returns to give us a further account of this Jesus to whom John bore record. Having shown in the beginning of the chapter the glories of his Godhead, he here comes to show the graces of his incarnation, and his favours to man as Mediator.

1. Christ was the true Light (v. 9); not as if John Baptist were a false light, but, in comparison with Christ, he was a very small light. Christ is the great light that deserves to be called so. Other lights are but figuratively and equivocally called so: Christ is the true light. The fountain of all knowledge and of all comfort must needs be the true light. He is the true light, for proof of which we are not referred to the emanations of his glory in the invisible world (the beams with which he enlightens that), but to those rays of his light which are darted downwards, and with which this dark world of ours is enlightened. But how does Christ enlighten every man that comes into the world? (1.) By his creating power he enlightens every man with the light of reason; that life which is the light of men is from him; all the discoveries and directions of reason, all the comfort it gives us, and all the beauty it puts upon us, are from Christ. (2.) By the publication of his gospel to all nations he does in effect enlighten every man. John Baptist was a light, but he enlightened only Jerusalem and Judea, and the region round about Jordan, like a candle that enlightens one room; but Christ is the true light, for he is a light to enlighten the Gentiles. His everlasting gospel is to be preached to every nation and language, Rev. xiv. 6. Like the sun which enlightens every man that will open his eyes, and receive its light (Ps. xix. 6), to which the preaching of the gospel is compared. See Rom. x. 18. Divine revelation is not now to be confined, as it had been, to one people, but to be diffused to all people, Matt. v. 15. (3.) By the operation of his Spirit and grace he enlightens all those that are enlightened to salvation; and those that are not enlightened by him perish in darkness. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God is said to be in the face of Jesus Christ, and is compared with that light which was at the beginning commanded to shine out of darkness, and which enlightens every man that comes into the world. Whatever light any man has, he is indebted to Christ for it, whether it be natural or supernatural.

2. Christ was in the world, v. 10. He was in the world, as the essential Word, before his incarnation, upholding all things; but this speaks of his being in the world when he took our nature upon him, and dwelt among us; see ch. xvi. 28. I am come into the world. The Son of the Highest was here in this lower world; that light in this dark world; that holy thing in this sinful polluted world. He left a world of bliss and glory, and was here in this melancholy miserable world. He undertook to reconcile the world to God, and therefore was in the world, to treat about it, and settle that affair; to satisfy God’s justice for the world, and discover God’s favour to the world. He was in the world, but not of it, and speaks with an air of triumph when he can say, Now I am no more in it, ch. xvii. 11. The greatest honour that ever was put upon this world, which is so mean and inconsiderable a part of the universe, was that the Son of God was once in the world; and, as it should engage our affections to things above that there Christ is, so it should reconcile us to our present abode in this world that once Christ was here. He was in the world for awhile, but it is spoken of as a thing past; and so it will be said of us shortly, We were in the world. O that when we are here no more we may be where Christ is! Now observe here, (1.) What reason Christ had to expect the most affectionate and respectful welcome possible in this world; for the world was made by him. Therefore he came to save a lost world because it was a world of his own making. Why should he not concern himself to revive the light that was of his own kindling, to restore a life of his own infusing, and to renew the image that was originally of his own impressing? The world was made by him, and therefore ought to do him homage. (2.) What cold entertainment he met with, notwithstanding: The world knew him not. The great Maker, Ruler, and Redeemer of the world was in it, and few or none of the inhabitants of the world were aware of it. The ox knows his owner, but the more brutish world did not. They did not own him, did not bid him welcome, because they did not know him; and they did not know him because he did not make himself known in the way that they expected–in external glory and majesty. His kingdom came not with observation, because it was to be a kingdom of trail and probation. When he shall come as a Judge the world shall know him.

3. He came to his own (v. 11); not only to the world, which was his own, but to the people of Israel, that were peculiarly his own above all people; of them he came, among them he lived, and to them he was first sent. The Jews were at this time a mean despicable people; the crown was fallen from their head; yet, in remembrance of the ancient covenant, bad as they were, and poor as they were, Christ was not ashamed to look upon them as his own. Ta idia–his own things; not tous idious–his own persons, as true believers are called, ch. xiii. 1. The Jews were his, as a man’s house, and lands, and goods are his, which he uses and possesses; but believers are his as a man’s wife and children are his own, which he loves and enjoys. He came to his own, to seek and save them, because they were his own. He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, for it was he whose own the sheep were. Now observe,

(1.) That the generality rejected him: His own received him not. He had reason to expect that those who were his own should have bidden him welcome, considering how great the obligations were which they lay under to him, and how fair the opportunities were which they had of coming to the knowledge of him. They had the oracles of God, which told them beforehand when and where to expect him, and of what tribe and family he should arise. He came among them himself, introduced with signs and wonders, and himself the greatest; and therefore it is not said of them, as it was of the world (v. 10), that they knew him not; but his own, though they could not but know him, yet received him not; did not receive his doctrine, did not welcome him as the Messiah, but fortified themselves against him. The chief priests, that were in a particular manner his own (for the Levites were God’s tribe), were ring-leaders in this contempt put upon him. Now this was very unjust, because they were his own, and therefore he might command their respect; and it was very unkind and ungrateful, because he came to them, to seek and save them, and so to court their respect. Note, Many who in profession are Christ’s own, yet do not receive him, because they will not part with their sins, nor have him to reign over them.

(2.) That yet there was a remnant who owned him, and were faithful to him. Though his own received him not, yet there were those that received him (v. 12): But as many as received him. Though Israel were not gathered, yet Christ was glorious. Though the body of that nation persisted and perished in unbelief, yet there were many of them that were wrought upon to submit to Christ, and many more that were not of that fold. Observe here,

[1.] The true Christian’s description and property; and that is, that he receives Christ, and believes on his name; the latter explains the former. Note, First, To be a Christian indeed is to believe on Christ’s name; it is to assent to the gospel discovery, and consent to the gospel proposal, concerning him. His name is the Word of God; the King of kings, the Lord our righteousness; Jesus a Saviour. Now to believe on his name is to acknowledge that he is what these great names bespeak him to be, and to acquiesce in it, that he may be so to us. Secondly, Believing in Christ’s name is receiving him as a gift from God. We must receive his doctrine as true and good; receive his law as just and holy; receive his offers as kind and advantageous; and we must receive the image of his grace, and impressions of his love, as the governing principle of our affections and actions.

[2.] The true Christian’s dignity and privilege are twofold:–

First, The privilege of adoption, which takes them into the number of God’s children: To them gave he power to become the sons of God. Hitherto, the adoption pertained to the Jews only (Israel is my son, my first-born); but now, by faith in Christ, Gentiles are the children of God, Gal. iii. 26. They have power, exousian—authority; for no man taketh this power to himself, but he who is authorized by the gospel charter. To them gave he a right; to them gave he this pre-eminence. This power have all the saints. Note, 1. It is the unspeakable privilege of all good Christians, that they are become the children of God. They were by nature children of wrath, children of this world. If they be the children of God, they become so, are made so Fiunt, non nascuntur Christiani–Persons are not born Christians, but made such.–Tertullian. Behold what manner of love is this, 1 John iii. 1. God calls them his children, they call him Father, and are entitled to all the privileges of children, those of their way and those of their home. 2. The privilege of adoption is entirely owing to Jesus Christ; he gave this power to them that believe on his name. God is his Father, and so ours; and it is by virtue of our espousals to him, and union with him, that we stand related to God as a Father. It was in Christ that we were predestinated to the adoption; from him we receive both the character and the Spirit of adoption, and he is the first-born among many brethren. The Son of God became a Son of man, that the sons and daughters of men might become the sons and daughters of God Almighty.

Secondly, The privilege of regeneration (v. 13): Which were born. Note, All the children of God are born again; all that are adopted are regenerated. This real change evermore attends that relative one. Wherever God confers the dignity of children, he creates the nature and disposition of children. Men cannot do so when they adopt. Now here we have an account of the original of this new birth. 1. Negatively. (1.) It is not propagated by natural generation from our parents. It is not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of corruptible seed, 1 Pet. i. 23. Man is called flesh and blood, because thence he has his original: but we do not become the children of God as we become the children of our natural parents. Note, Grace does not run in the blood, as corruption does. Man polluted begat a son in his own likeness (Gen. v. 3); but man sanctified and renewed does not beget a son in that likeness. The Jews gloried much in their parentage, and the noble blood that ran in their veins: We are Abraham’s seed; and therefore to them pertained the adoption because they were born of that blood; but this New-Testament adoption is not founded in any such natural relation. (2.) It is not produced by the natural power of our own will. As it is not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, so neither is it of the will of man, which labours under a moral impotency of determining itself to that which is good; so that the principles of the divine life are not of our own planting, it is the grace of God that makes us willing to be his. Nor can human laws or writings prevail to sanctify and regenerate a soul; if they could, the new birth would be by the will of man. But, 2. Positively: it is of God. This new birth is owing to the word of God as the means (1 Pet. i. 23), and to the Spirit of God as the great and sole author. True believers are born of God,1Jn 3:9; 1Jn 5:1. And this is necessary to their adoption; for we cannot expect the love of God if we have not something of his likeness, nor claim the privileges of adoption if we be not under the power of regeneration.

4. The word was made flesh, v. 14. This expresses Christ’s incarnation more clearly than what went before. By his divine presence he always was in the world, and by his prophets he came to his own. But now that the fulness of time was come he was sent forth after another manner, made of a woman (Gal. iv. 4); God manifested in the flesh, according to the faith and hope of holy Job; Yet shall I see God in my flesh, Job xix. 26. Observe here,

(1.) The human nature of Christ with which he was veiled; and that expressed two ways.

[1.] The word was made flesh. Forasmuch as the children, who were to become the sons of God, were partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, Heb. ii. 14. The Socinians agree that Christ is both God and man, but they say that he was man, and was made a God, as Moses (Exod. vii. 1), directly contrary to John here, who saith, Theos en—He was God, but sarxegeneto—He was made flesh. Compare v. 1 with this. This intimates not only that he was really and truly man, but that he subjected himself to the miseries and calamities of the human nature. He was made flesh, the meanest part of man. Flesh bespeaks man weak, and he was crucified through weakness, 2 Cor. xiii. 4. Flesh bespeaks man mortal and dying (Ps. lxxviii. 39), and Christ was put to death in the flesh 1 Pet. iii. 18. Nay, flesh bespeaks man tainted with sin (Gen. vi. 3), and Christ, though he was perfectly holy and harmless, yet appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom. viii. 3), and was made sin for us, 2 Cor. v. 21. When Adam had sinned, God said to him, Dust thou art; not only because made out of the dust, but because by sin he was sunk into dust. His fall did, somatoun ten psychen, turn him as it were all into body, made him earthly; therefore he that was made a curse for us was made flesh, and condemned sin in the flesh, Rom. viii. 3. Wonder at this, that the eternal Word should be made flesh, when flesh was come into such an ill name; that he who made all things should himself be made flesh, one of the meanest things, and submit to that from which he was at the greatest distance. The voice that ushered in the gospel cried, All flesh is grass (Isa. xl. 6), to make the Redeemer’s love the more wonderful, who, to redeem and save us, was made flesh, and withered as grass; but the Word of the Lord, who was made flesh, endures for ever; when made flesh, he ceased not to be the Word of God.

[2.] He dwelt among us, here in this lower world. Having taken upon him the nature of man, he put himself into the place and condition of other men. The Word might have been made flesh, and dwelt among the angels; but, having taken a body of the same mould with ours, in it he came, and resided in the same world with us. He dwelt among us, us worms of the earth, us that he had no need of, us that he got nothing by, us that were corrupt and depraved, and revolted from God. The Lord God came and dwelt even among the rebellious, Ps. lxviii. 18. He that had dwelt among angels, those noble and excellent beings, came and dwelt among us that are a generation of vipers, us sinners, which was worse to him than David’s swelling in Mesech and Kedar, or Ezekiel’s dwelling among scorpions, or the church of Pergamus dwelling where Satan’s seat is. When we look upon the upper world, the world of spirits, how mean and contemptible does this flesh, this body, appear, which we carry about with us, and this world in which our lot is cast, and how hard is it to a contemplative mind to be reconciled to them! But that the eternal Word was made flesh, was clothed with a body as we are, and dwelt in this world as we do, this has put an honour upon them both, and should make us willing to abide in the flesh while God has any work for us to do; for Christ dwelt in this lower world, bad as it is, till he had finished what he had to do here, ch. xvii. 4. He dwelt among the Jews, that the scripture might be fulfilled, He shall dwell in the tents of Shem, Gen. ix. 27. And see Zech. ii. 10. Though the Jews were unkind to him, yet he continued to dwell among them; though (as some of the ancient writers tell us) he was invited to better treatment by Abgarus king of Edessa, yet he removed not to any other nation. He dwelt among us. He was in the world, not as a wayfaring man that tarries but for a night, but he dwelt among us, made a long residence, the original word is observable, eskenosen en hemin—he dwelt among us, he dwelt as in a tabernacle, which intimates, First, That he dwelt here in very mean circumstances, as shepherds that dwell in tents. He did not dwell among us as in a palace, but as in a tent; for he had not where to lay his head, and was always upon the remove. Secondly, That his state here was a military state. Soldiers dwell in tents; he had long since proclaimed war with the seed of the serpent, and now he takes the field in person, sets up his standard, and pitches his tent, to prosecute this war. Thirdly, That his stay among us was not to be perpetual. He dwelt here as in a tent, not as at home. The patriarchs, by dwelling in tabernacles, confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth, and sought the better country, and so did Christ, leaving us an example, Heb 13:13; Heb 13:14. Fourthly, That as of old God dwelt in the tabernacle of Moses, by the shechinah between the cherubim, so now he dwells in the human nature of Christ; that is now the true shechinah, the symbol of God’s peculiar presence. And we are to make all our addresses to God through Christ, and from him to receive divine oracles.

(2.) The beams of his divine glory that darted through this veil of flesh: We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The sun is still the fountain of light, though eclipsed or clouded; so Christ was still the brightness of his Father’s glory, even when he dwelt among us in this lower world. And how slightly soever the Jews thought of him there were those that saw through the veil. Observe,

[1.] Who were the witnesses of this glory: we, his disciples and followers, that conversed most freely and familiarly with him; we among whom he dwelt. Other men discover their weaknesses to those that are most familiar with them, but it was not so with Christ; those that were most intimate with him saw most of his glory. As it was with his doctrine, the disciples knew the mysteries of it, while others had it under the veil of parables; so it was with his person, they saw the glory of his divinity, while others saw only the veil of his human nature. He manifested himself to them, and not unto the world. These witnesses were a competent number, twelve of them, a whole jury of witnesses; men of plainness and integrity, and far from any thing of design or intrigue.

[2.] What evidence they had of it: We saw it. They had not their evidence by report, at second hand, but were themselves eye-witnesses of those proofs on which they built their testimony that he was the Son of the living God: We saw it. The word signifies a fixed abiding sight, such as gave them an opportunity of making their observations. This apostle himself explains this: What we declare unto you of the Word of life is what we have seen with our eyes, and what we have looked upon, 1 John i. 1.

[3.] What the glory was: The glory as of the only begotten of the Father. The glory of the Word made flesh was such a glory as became the only begotten Son of God, and could not be the glory of any other. Note, First, Jesus Christ is the only begotten of the Father. Believers are the children of God by the special favour of adoption and the special grace of regeneration. They are in a sense homoiousioi—of a like nature (2 Pet. i. 4), and have the image of his perfections; but Christ is homousios—of the same nature, and is the express image of his person, and the Son of God by an eternal generation. Angels are sons of God, but he never said to any of them, This day have I begotten thee, Heb. i. 5. Secondly, He was evidently declared to be the only begotten of the Father, by that which was seen of his glory when he dwelt among us. Though he was in the form of a servant, in respect of outward circumstances, yet, in respect of graces, his form was as that of the fourth in the fiery furnace, like the Son of God. His divine glory appeared in the holiness and heavenliness of his doctrine; in his miracles, which extorted from many this acknowledgment, that he was the Son of God; it appeared in the purity, goodness, and beneficence, of his whole conversation. God’s goodness is his glory, and he went about doing good; he spoke and acted in every thing as an incarnate Deity. Perhaps the evangelist had a particular regard to the glory of his transfiguration, of which he was an eye-witness; see 2 Pet. i. 16-18. God’s calling him his beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased, intimated that he was the only begotten of the Father; but the full proof of this was at his resurrection.

[4.] What advantage those he dwelt among had from this. He dwelt among them, full of grace and truth. In the old tabernacle wherein God dwelt was the law, in this was grace; in that were types, in this was truth. The incarnate Word was every way qualified for his undertaking as Mediator; for he was full of grace and truth, the two great things that fallen man stands in need of; and this proved him to be the Son of God as much as the divine power and majesty that appeared in him. First, He has a fulness of grace and truth for himself; he had the Spirit without measure. He was full of grace, fully acceptable to his Father, and therefore qualified to intercede for us; and full of truth, fully apprized of the things he was to reveal, and therefore fit to instruct us. He had a fulness of knowledge and a fulness of compassion. Secondly, He has a fulness of grace and truth for us. He received, that he might give, and God was well pleased in him, that he might be well pleased with us in him; and this was the truth of the legal types.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

There came a man ( ). Definite event in the long darkness, same verb in verse 3.

Sent (). Perfect passive participle of , to send.

From God ( ). From the side of () God (ablative case ).

Whose name ( ). “Name to him,” nominative parenthetic and dative (Robertson, Grammar, p. 460).

John (). One in Westcott and Hort. In the giving of the name see Lu 1:59-63, Hellenized form of Jonathan, Joanan (Gift of God), used always of the Baptist in this Gospel which never mentions the name of John son of Zebedee (the sons of Zebedee once, 21:2).

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

1 ) “There was a man,” (egeneto anthropos) “There was or existed a man,” a mature responsible man, a man whom wisdom and mercy and prophecy projected and employed, as introduced further, Luk 1:5-25; Luk 1:57-63.

2) “Sent from God,” (apestalmenos para theou) “Who was sent, mandated, or commissioned from God,” with special evidence of His ministry, Mat 3:1-3; Luk 3:2-4; Isa 40:3-5. John the Baptist witnessed that God sent him “to baptize” also, Joh 1:29-34.
3) “Whose name was John.” (onoma autou loannes) “Who had the name John,” or who was known by the name of John, a name that was supernaturally given, as also mandated by Gabriel, the angel of the Lord, Luk 1:13; Luk 1:19; Luk 1:60; Luk 1:63. God gave both John the Baptist and Jesus their names supernaturally, Mat 1:21.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

6. There was a man. The Evangelist now begins to discourse about the manner in which the Son of God was manifested in flesh; and that none may doubt that Christ is the eternal Son of God, he relates that Christ was announced by John the Baptist, as his herald. For not only did Christ exhibit himself to be seen by men, but he chose also to be made known by the testimony and doctrine of John; or rather, God the Father sent this witness before his Christ, that they might more willingly receive the salvation offered by him.
But it might at first sight appear ridiculous that Christ should receive testimony from another, as if he needed it; while, on the contrary, he declares that he does not seek testimony from man, (Joh 5:34.) The answer is easy and obvious, that this witness was appointed, not for the sake of Christ, but for our sake. If it be objected that the testimony of man is too weak to prove that Christ is the Son of God, it is likewise easy to reply, that the Baptist is not adduced as a private witness, but as one who, having received authority from God, sustained the character rather of an angel than of a man. Accordingly, he receives commendation not for his own virtues, but for this single circumstance, that he was the ambassador of God. Nor is this at variance with the fact, that the preaching of the gospel was committed to Christ, that he might be a witness to himself; for the design contemplated by the preaching of John was, that men might attend to the doctrine and miracles of Christ.
Sent by God. He does not say so for the purpose of confirming the baptism of John, but only mentions it in passing. This circumstance is not sufficient to produce certainty, since many run of their own accord, and boast that God has sent them; but the Evangelist, intending afterwards to speak more fully about this witness, reckoned it enough, for the present, to say in a single word, that John did not come but by the command of God. We shall afterwards see how he himself affirms that God is the Author of his ministry. We must now recollect — what I formerly noticed — that what is asserted about John is required in all the teachers of the Church, that they be called by God; so that the authority of teaching may not be founded on any other than on God alone.
Whose name was John. He states the name, not only for the purpose of pointing out the man, but because it was given to him in accordance with what he really was. There is no room to doubt that the Lord had reference to the office to which he appointed John, when he commanded by the angel that he should be so called, that by means of it all might acknowledge him to be the herald of divine grace. (16) For though the name יהוחנן (17) ( Jehohannan) may be taken in a passive signification, and may thus be referred to the person, as denoting that John was acceptable to God; yet for my own part, I willingly extend it to the benefit which others ought to derive from him. (18)
7. He came for a testimony. The end of his calling is briefly noticed; which was, that he might prepare a Church for Christ, as, by inviting all to Christ, he shows plainly enough that he did not come on his own account.
8. He was not that light. So far was John from needing commendation, that the Evangelist gives this warning, lest his excessive brightness might obscure the glory of Christ. For there were some who gazed so eagerly upon him that they neglected Christ; just as if a person, enraptured with beholding the dawning of the day, would not deign to turn his eyes towards the sun. In what sense the Evangelist employs the word light we shall immediately see. All the godly, indeed, are light in the Lord, (Eph 5:8,) because, in consequence of their being enlightened by his Spirit, they not only see for themselves, but likewise direct others by their example to the way of salvation. The apostles likewise are peculiarly called light, (Mat 5:14,) because they go before, holding out the torch of the Gospel, to dispel the darkness of the world. But here the Evangelist speaks of him who is the only and eternal source of illumination, as he immediately shows more clearly.
(16) “ Heraut et ambassade de la grace de Dieu;” — “Herald and ambassador of the grace of God.”
(17) “ Le nom de Jean, qui signifie Grace;” — “The name John, which signifies Grace.”
(18) For the meaning of the name John, derived from the Hebrew Jehohannan, the reader may consult our Author’s Commentary on the Harmony of the Three Evangelists, vol. i. page 15. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

THE WORD MANIFESTED TO THE JEWSTHEIR REJECTION OF HIM
Text 1:6-11
6
There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John.
7
The same came for witness, that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him.
8
He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light.
9
There was the true light, even the light which lighteth every man, coming into the world.
10
He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world knew him not.
11
He came unto his own, and they that were his own received him not.
Queries
a.
Which John is meant in Joh. 1:6?
b.
How could all . . . believe through him?
c.
Who is the true light?
d.
Who are his own?
Paraphrase
There came a man with a commission and message from God; this mans name was John. John came for the purpose of giving testimony to what he had heard and seen concerning the Light, Johns witness was given in order that all might come to believe on the Light through him. John was not the Light, but came for the express purpose of pointing out the genuine Light. The perfect Light, which reveals God to every man who will receive the revelation, was coming into the world. The Light was in the world prior to His incarnation, and the world which was made through Him testified to Him, but the world would not recognize Him. He came incarnate unto His own nation, and they that were His own peculiar people rejected Him.
Summary
John was not the Light, but was sent purposely to point out the Light. Even when the Light was manifested in the flesh, those who should have received Him rejected Him.
Comment
The Greek word for sent used here is apostello, from which we get our word apostle. It usually means one sent with a commission. John is a Hellenized form of Jonathan, which means gift of God. There is a great similarity between John and his Old Testament namesake. Both he and Jonathan gave up a great glory that could have been theirs in order that Gods Anointed might have the pre-eminence. With Jonathan, it was David; with John the Baptist, it was Christ. Whenever the name John is used in the fourth Gospel it is always used to refer to John the Baptist. The name of John the son of Zebedee is never mentioned.
Do you wonder why the Gospel writer would have to point out that John the Baptist was not the True Light? John had a tremendous following (Mat. 3:5). Many persons believed John to be the Christ (Luk. 3:15; Joh. 1:19). John even had disciples long after Christ had ascended, and in Ephesus, the very city where John was writing his Gospel account (Act. 19:1-3). In spite of the Baptists continual affirmation that he was not the Christ, it was necessary to emphasize that Jesus Christ was the True Light. There were preacher lovers when John the Evangelist wrote his Gospel (1Co. 1:12-13). John the Baptists unfeigned humility in seeking to decrease and let Jesus increase prompted Jesus to remark, Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist (Mat. 11:11). Every Christian ought to study intently the life of this greatest of all born of women and emulate his humility, self-denial and courage.
The grammar of the original Greek language in Joh. 1:7 indicates that John came for the very purpose of testifying. John was to point out the True Light and give what evidence he had that this was the Light. The object of belief was Jesus Christthe agency or instrument through which the object is revealed was John. Faith still comes through the agency of the preached Word, (cf. Rom. 10:14-17; Jas. 1:21; 1Pe. 1:22-25). The first disciples won by Jesus were of Johns training (Joh. 1:35-42). Thus John was instrumental in bringing faith to all who subsequently believed on Jesus through the preaching of these apostles. John was a light (Joh. 5:35) but not THE Light.
In Joh. 1:8 we have repeated what was said in Joh. 1:6-7. What an opportunity John had to pass himself off as the Christ! John showed more unselfishness, perhaps, than any man that ever lived. More preachers today need to pattern their ministry after John the Baptists. It is imperative that all Christians heed the injunction of these verses that no preacher or teacher, however great, is to be worshipped or followed . . . only Jesus Christ Our Lord.
Joh. 1:9 is said to be the Quaker Text because they use it to substantiate their Inner light theory. Every verse of Scripture must be interpreted in the light of other Scriptures. The Bible nowhere teaches that every single person is enlightened whether he wants to be or not. Even here in this context (Joh. 1:1-11), both before and after Joh. 1:9, the writer speaks of men rejecting this illuminating Light. Luther says of this passage, There is only one light that lights all men, and no man comes into the world who can possibly be illumined by any other light, This interpretation takes account of the rest of the New Testament. Just as Jesus is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, He is also the light of the world. But just as all the world will not avail themselves of His purifying blood, neither does every man receive His Light of Life. The word true in this verse could be better translated genuine or perfect, as opposed to unreal and imperfect.
There is some disagreement among commentators as to when the Light was in the world (Joh. 1:10). In the Greek text, was is in the imperfect tense (continuous existence in past time). The world was made through Him, and He gave it Life and Order. This should have been enough evidence to direct mens minds toward One Eternal Being (Rom. 1:20-23), Yet the world (men) refused to have God in their knowledge.
Joh. 1:11 shows the extreme perversity of men in that even when The Light became Incarnate, His own (generally speaking) rejected Him. The pathos of the situation comes out in a literal translation of the texthe came unto his own nation and they that were his own people did not receive him. He came to a nation that should have prepared itself for Him. He should have been welcomed like a kingbut He was rejected. Israel, her people and all her institutions, existed only for His glory and His eternal purposes (cf. Zec. 2:12; Hos. 9:3; Jer. 2:7; Jer. 16:18; Lev. 25:23; Exo. 19:5; Psa. 135:4; Deu. 7:6; Deu. 14:2; Deu. 26:18; Deu. 32:9).
They knew Him all right! The whole history of Israel was a training school (Gal. 3:24) to prepare the Jews to receive the worlds Messiah. But they didnt want a meek, unmilitaristic and uncorruptible Messiah. The Jewish leaders wanted a Messiah that would help them in their graftthe Jewish people wanted a King that would put bread on their tables, and plenty of it. The parable of the wicked husbandmen (Mat. 21:33 ff) represents the Jews as killing the Heir, not in ignorance, but because they did know who He was.
Here is the great tragedy: A people that had so long been nursed, disciplined and prepared to present the Messiah to the world for salvation, scorned and finally shamefully crucified the Incarnate Word. This is why Jesus body was racked with great sobs over the city of Jerusalem (Luk. 19:41 ff) . . . this is what caused Him to wish agonizingly that He could give them His protecting love, but they would not (Mat. 23:37 ff). What pathos there is in this verse he came unto his own homeand his own people gave him no welcome, It happened to Jesus long ago with Israeland it is still happening today within New Israel, the Church!
Quiz
1.
Why should it be emphasized that John the Baptist was not the Light?
2.
Was John a light in any sense? Are we lights (Mat. 5:14)?
3.
What is meant by the light which lighteth every man?
4.
Can we see the evidence of a Creator in nature (cf. Rom. 1:20; Psa. 19:1; Job. 12:7-10)?
5.
Why is Israels rejection of Christ so pathetic?
6.
Do you think the Jews knew that Jesus was the Messiah (cf. Act. 3:17; 1Co. 2:8)?
7.
Is Christ still rejected by His own today?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(6) There was a man, or, There appeared a man. The word is the same as that which is used in Joh. 1:3, were made, was made, and, as contrasted with the verb was in Joh. 1:1-2; Joh. 1:4, signifies the coming into being, as contrasted with original existence. In the same way man is emphatically opposed to the Word, who is the subject of the previous verses. The Word was God: the man was sent from God.
On the mission of John, see Notes on Matthew 3. The name was not uncommon, but it is striking that it is given here without the usual distinctive Baptist. The writer stood to him in the relation of disciple to teacher. To him he was the John. A greater teacher had not then appeared, but when He did appear, former teacher and disciple alike bear witness to Him. Great as was the forerunner, the least in the kingdom of heaven became greater than he was, and to after ages the disciple became the John, and his earlier master is given the title Baptist, which distinguishes the man and commemorates the work.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

6-8. Thus far the Evangelist has traced the Word from his eternity into his creation of things, his creation and original enlightening of man’s nature, and his shedding new but rejected light into man’s darkness. He is soon ( 9-18) to trace the entrance of the Logos into our living world; but he first takes care (6-8) that we shall not be led astray in our thoughts by mistaking for the Logos one who was not the Logos. The disciples of John the Baptist, even to a late date, maintained that he was the superior of Jesus. Our Evangelist John, with his brother James, had both been disciples of the Baptist; and he is, therefore, the very man to correct the error. He does so now by this preliminary statement; in which he brings John into a comparison of overwhelming inferiority with the supreme eternal Light.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

6. There was a man Yes , a man; and that is a noble title; but what is it in comparison with the Logos?
Sent from God And so sent he has a grand going forth; but what is it compared to the eternal goings forth of the Logos?
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness that he might bear witness of the light that all may believe through him.’
For the Word did not come unheralded. ‘A man’ came (in contrast with the Word Who was God), sent from God, whose name was John (the Baptiser). There is no idea here that this man was just someone who was simply ‘inspired’ in a general way, a new thinker. Rather he is seen as a man specifically ‘sent from God’. And the purpose of this sending is shown to be that he might point to a great light, that he might bear witness to One Who was the full light of God, so that through his testimony ‘all may believe’.
All the Gospels combine in pointing out that John was the preparer of the way (see Mar 1:2-3; Mar 1:7-8; Mat 3:11; Luk 3:16; Joh 1:23; Joh 1:30), and they all make clear the success of his ministry. People of every kind came to hear him and to respond to his teaching. He brought men to repentance and was renewing men’s moral awareness in order that they may respond to the coming light. But notice the verb used. ‘There came —’ (egeneto), compare Joh 1:3 where it means ‘came into being’. There is a stress that, in contrast to Jesus Who always ‘was’, John the Baptiser has ‘come into being’. In contrast with the Word, John is of the earth, not of Heaven.
‘Whose name was John.’ He wants his readers to realise that this was not just a vague someone but a genuine man who lived and taught and had a name. John the Baptiser would not be unknown to his readers. His powerful ministry had had an impact that had reached much further than Palestine, and there were followers of John the Baptiser all around the world wherever Jews could be found. It is one of the evidences that this Gospel was written by John the Apostle that he, and he alone, spoke of the Baptiser simply as ‘John’. For he never speaks of himself by that name but rather describes himself as the one ‘whom Jesus loved’, something which humbled him to the core. And the more the Apostle sought to advance Jesus Christ, the more he withdrew himself into the background. He did not want men to see him as ‘the only now-living Apostle’. He wanted to withdraw himself into obscurity so that all eyes would be on Christ. No other could have so ignored the Apostle John and intentionally have not named him or his brother.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

God The Father Sends John the Baptist to Testify of the Light of the World Because mankind rejected the Father’s testimony of the Word since the time of creation (Joh 1:5), the Father now sends John the Baptist to testify of the coming of the per-incarnate Son of God and to reveal Him through water baptism (Joh 1:6-13). These verses focus on John’s message of Jesus Christ as the pre-incarnate Light who created all things and to whom creation bears witness of the Light and knowledge of God (Joh 1:6-9). Although many have rejected the testimony of God the Father (Joh 1:10-11), those who accept it will be born of God (Joh 1:12-13).
The Theme of the Gospel of John – Since the prologue of John embodies its theme, we can see within the passage of Joh 1:6-13 how it foreshadows the events in the Gospel of John. Jesus Christ would bring the light of the Gospel to mankind. Many of them would reject Him and His message and would crucify Him. For those who do receive him, they received the power to live as children of God. We can see within Joh 1:10-13 a summary of much of the Gospel of John. There are many passages in this Gospel about how Jesus was rejected by the Jews. In contract, there are an equal number of passages where both Jews and Gentiles received Jesus. This becomes one of the major themes that are woven within the fabric of this Gospel. John’s Gospel emphasizes those who believed upon Him as the Son of God as well as those who rejected Him.
When comparing how the other three Gospels introduce John the Baptist, it becomes very clear that Joh 1:6-13 places emphasis upon the Father’s testimony of the deity of His Son. While the other Gospels emphasize the fact that John is the herald who proclaims the coming Messiah as prophesied in Isaiah (Mat 3:1-12), or that John is the first preacher of the Gospel (Mar 1:1-8), or that John can be verified as a reliable witness of Jesus’ ministry (Luk 3:1-18), or that John is one of five witnesses of the deity of Jesus Christ (Joh 1:19-28), we clearly see a distinct emphasis in Joh 1:6-13 that John was sent by the Father as one of His witnesses as to the pre-incarnate nature of Jesus Christ. We are told that John was sent from God (Joh 1:6) to testify of the pre-incarnate Light of the world (Joh 1:7). Thus, this passage has its own particular focus and emphasis in contrast to the other passages on John the Baptist found within the Gospels.
Joh 1:6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
Joh 1:6 Comments In the midst of the spiritual darkness of human depravity, God sent John the Baptist as a witness of the incarnation of the Word; that is, to testify of the light, or revelation, that God has given to mankind through the coming of the Lamb of God.
Joh 1:7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
Joh 1:7 Comments The theme of the Gospel of John is the testimony that Jesus Christ is the son of God. The revelation of Jesus Christ as the Son of God begins with John the Baptist’s testimony. The purpose of John the Baptist was to be a witness of that light, Jesus Christ, so that all might believe in Jesus (through John’s testimony). John’s purpose was to reveal the Messiah as the Son of God (Joh 1:31). While God has given mankind general revelation of the knowledge of Himself through Creation, and He has given progressive revelation of Himself through the Old Testament prophets, John the Baptist is sent from God to give the most specific revelation to date of the Messiah, the Redeemer, who will deliver mankind from his sins.
Joh 1:31, “And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.”
Illustration – When a king visits a nation, there must be preparation. There must be someone to announce this arrival. If this protocol is followed for earthly kings, how much more the King of Kings. Therefore John the Baptist served as a forerunner of Jesus Christ.
Joh 1:8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
Joh 1:8 Comments Because of human depravity and darkness, he is easily confused about the revelation of the Word of God becoming flesh. God did not want the Jews to confuse John the Baptist with their Messiah. This is why the Jews asked John about his identity (Joh 1:19-28). Thus, God revealed to John the Baptist his own identity and ministry in relation to that of the coming Messiah.
Joh 1:9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
Joh 1:9 Comments – Jesus Christ as the Light of the World and the Light of God in the Creation Story – There are several verses in the Scriptures that give us an indication that every man born in this world has been given a measure of light, or knowledge, of God. Therefore, every man has an opportunity to respond to this light. He either receives it or he rejects it.
Now the light that God created on the first day has never ceased to exist so that still shines today. We can understand that the source of this divine light was by the presence of the Holy Spirit hovering over the earth in Joh 1:2. However, today we see in the natural realm so that we only recognize natural sunlight, which sustains the life that is already created by God. This is why some ancient peoples worshiped the sun, because they recognized it as sustaining the life around them, yet they could not see the One who created the sun. This is why Paul prayed “for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, to shine in our hearts.”
Now the light that God made on the first day is the same light that creates and gives life to us our spiritual today. It is the same source of power that keeps this present creation intact as God’s Word emanates over His creation (2Pe 3:5-7). For example, when we see the supernatural take place in the Scriptures or in modern times, we can recognize the presence of God’s creative power which takes place through this divine light which shines on us still today. This is why Jesus Christ could say that He is the Light of the World, or the True Light which lights every man. He was referring to the spiritual realm that we live in. He is the Creator and source of divine light which still shines today in order to illuminate our hearts, or the spiritual realm that we live in. From our natural senses, we call this the supernatural, or the spiritual realm.
So, the creative power and light of God has never ceased to shine upon His creation since the first day. The divine light of God was the method that God used to create life on the third day, by the light that was emitted from the presence and mouth of God. The presence of the Holy Spirit hovering over the earth was the intermediary of this light. We know that heat was a physical manifestation of the presence of light. For example, when people are healed during crusades today, do they not feel a warmth or heat come over their bodies when they are touched by the presence of the Holy Spirit? It is this same heat that emanated from this divine light and divided the vapors and liquid elements on the second day of creation and this same heat that divided the solids from the liquid elements on the third day. It is this same heat that will one day intensify until the elements are burned up with a fervent heat.
2Pe 3:10, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
The Scriptures bear witness to the fact that this divine light is still shining upon the earth since the first day of creation. It is the same divine light that shone upon the face of Moses after spending forty days in this divine realm.
Exo 34:29, “And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.”
It is the same light that shone down upon the shepherds in their fields to announce the birth of our Saviour.
Luk 2:9, “And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.”
It is the same light that shone down upon Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Mat 17:2, “And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.”
It is the same light that shone upon Paul on the road to Damascus.
Act 9:3, “And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:”
Act 22:6, “And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me.”
Paul tells us that it is this same light that God commanded to shine out of darkness on the first day of creation that has now shone in our hearts.
2Co 4:6, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Because the Holy Spirit dwells within us, Jesus tells us that we become the light of the world.
Mat 4:16, “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.”
Mat 5:14, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.”
Thus, the Scriptures use the word “light” figuratively in reference to our spiritual walk in this life.
Isa 60:1, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.”
Mat 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
Luk 1:79, “To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Luk 2:32, “A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.”
Eph 5:14, “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”
Jesus Christ told the Pharisees that they could discern the natural sunlight and heavenly signs so as to determine the weather, but that they could not discern the divine light (Mat 16:1-4). The sun bears witness to the divine light of God the Creator since sunlight works in a similar way to God’s divine creative light. Because of sin, mankind has been blinded from the recognition of this divine light.
2Co 4:4, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
Joh 1:10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
Joh 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
Joh 1:10-11 Comments The Rejection of Jesus Christ Joh 1:10-11 tells us that Jesus Christ would be rejected by most of the world. The motif of Jesus being rejected by the Jews is woven throughout the Gospel of John. Jesus is continually challenged by the scribes and Pharisees. He testified that He has no honor in His own country (Joh 4:44). Prior to His Passion, the Jewish leaders sought to kill Jesus numerous times (Joh 5:18; Joh 7:1; Joh 7:44; Joh 8:37; Joh 10:39; Joh 11:47-54), including several attempts to stone Him (Joh 8:59; Joh 10:31). Although the Synoptic Gospels mention the persecution of Jesus by the Jews, John’s Gospel makes the most references to this motif.
Joh 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Joh 1:12 Comments John’s Gospel will provide overwhelming evidence that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, concluding with a statement similar to Joh 1:12, saying, “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” (Joh 20:31) Andreas J. Ksterberger says the phrase to “receive him” means, “to entrust oneself to Jesus, to acknowledge his claims, and to confess him.” [103]
[103] Andreas J. Ksterberger, John, in Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2004), 38.
Joh 1:13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Joh 1:13 “Which were born, not of blood” Comments – A Christian is not born into the Kingdom of God by a natural birth. The Pharisees believed that it was enough to be born a biological child of Abraham (Joh 8:39).
Joh 8:39, “They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.”
Joh 1:13 “nor of the will of the flesh” – Comments – A Christian is not born into the Kingdom of God by man’s ability to live a good and moral life. The religious Jewish sects, such as the Pharisees and Sadducees, believed that their zeal for Judaism was what pleased God and made them in right standing with God (Luk 18:11-12).
Luk 18:11-12, “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.”
Joh 1:13 “nor of the will of man” – Comments – A Christian is not born into the Kingdom of God by man’s appointment. The religious Jewish sects believed in appointing titles to one another in honor of outstanding achievements.
Joh 1:13 Comments – Joh 1:13 shows that there are three natural ways to gain an identity in this life:
1. By the blood or birthright.
2. By the will of the flesh or good moral lifestyles.
3. By the will of man or by man-given titles and recognitions.
In many poor developing nations, people do not have possessions to find their identity. They have no material possessions or education that they can claim as an achievement. They long to be identified with something or someone great. As a result, they give great titles to their kings. They call their leaders, “Honorable, His Grace, His Excellence, His Holiness, etc.” Titles become very important in these countries. They want to be identified with what they believe in. They want to be identified with their tribe, clan, their king, etc.
In America and other developed nations, people find their identity in wealth, education and other achievements. Joh 1:13 shows that the identification with God who created us come by receiving and believing in Jesus Christ, His Son. Joh 1:12 gives us the conditions to being called “children of God.” We must simply receive Him in order to be called His child. This is the greatest identity of all.
Joh 1:12-13 Comments – The Acceptance of Jesus Christ Joh 1:12-13 tells us of the blessings for those who accept Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Although many will reject Jesus Christ (Joh 1:10-11), there are many who will believe upon Him when they hear this glorious Gospel.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

John the Baptist and the Logos:
v. 6. There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
v. 7. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through Him might believe.
v. 8. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
v. 9. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
There was, there came, there arose, there came into being, as the result of a special plan and purpose of God, a man, not differing from other men in any respect but in this material point: he was sent out by God. He was entrusted with a mission; he was sent out for a special, distinct purpose, as the forerunner of the Messiah. His name was John (“merciful is Jehovah”), and he had received his name by God’s order, Luk 1:13. This man came to fulfill, to carry out, his mission; he came for witness, for the purpose of witnessing. He was not to do a great work of his own, but to point to another. All his work, energy, and preaching were to be spent in testifying, in preaching as one sure of the truth of his declaration. His topic was simple, but comprehensive: he was to bear witness about, with regard to, concerning the Light. That one topic, that one subject, was to be the sum and substance of his witnessing. Everyone that witnesses in the sense of John must make the topic of John’s testimony his own, speak and preach of Jesus, the Savior. By nature no one comes to Christ; only through the Word, by means of the testimony of the true witnesses, is Christ made known to men. Through the Word, by faith, Christ is received. John did not testify concerning himself, for he himself was not the Light, he was not the Savior. But his work and office, the purpose of his life, the end and aim of his preaching was to give testimony concerning the Light, the wonderful, life-giving Light. All should believe. The gracious will of God has as its object all men; He wants all to be saved; all should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for their soul’s salvation. So John was in no way seeking his own light, his own glory and benefit, but only that of the Savior. And this was a great privilege. For the true Light, that lighteth every man, was even then coming, was on His way; He was shortly to begin His ministry for the salvation of men. That fact characterizes the true Light, that brings out His essential goodness, that the enlightenment of the world is due to Him, that He shines with His rays of beauty and glory for every person is the Sun of grace and righteousness, His rays are intended for all without exception. Every person that is saved receives the light of salvation from Christ; for without Him there is no salvation.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Joh 1:6. There was a man sent from God, The evangelist, in giving the history of the Baptist’s ministry, tells us, in the first place that he was merely a man, in opposition to article 10 in the argument wherein Cerinthus represents John as superior to our Saviour, whom the apostle has already shewn to be God. The evangelist tells us next, that John had aspecial commission from God, being called to his office by divine inspiration, as the prophets were of old; and that he was sent to bear witness of the light, or, to point out the Messiah, whom he had called in the 4th verse the light of men; because it was one of the principal prophetic characters of the Messiah, that he was to enlighten the world. Hence he is called by one prophet, the Sun of righteousness, by another, the light of Sion, and a light to lighten the Gentiles. See ch. Joh 5:35.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Joh 1:6 . In the painful antithesis of Joh 1:5 which pervades the entire Gospel, was included not merely the pre-human relation of the Logos to mankind, but His relation thereto after His incarnation likewise (see on ). This latter is now more minutely unfolded as far as Joh 1:11 , and indeed in such a way that John, to strengthen the antithesis, adduces first the testimony of the Baptist (Joh 1:6-8 ) to the Light, on the ground of which he then designates the Logos as the true Light (Joh 1:9 ); and finally, thus prefaced, makes the antithesis (Joh 1:10-11 ) follow with all the more tragic effect. The mention of John’s testimony here in the Prologue is not therefore a mere confirmation of the reality of the appearance of the Logos (Brckner), which the statements of Joh 1:9-10 did not require; still less is it a pressing forwards of the thought to the beginning of the Gospel history (De Wette), nor even the representation of the idea of the first intervention in the antithesis between light and darkness (Baur), nor “an illustrious exception” (Ewald) to the preceding , . . .; but introducing a new paragraph, and therefore beginning without a particle, it forms a historical preparation , answering to what was actually the fact, for that non-recognition and rejection (Joh 1:10-11 ) which, in spite of that testimony of the Baptist, the light shining in the darkness had experienced. Joh 1:15 stands to Joh 1:7 in the relation of a particular definite statement to the general testimony of which it is a part.
] not there was ( , Joh 3:1 ), but denoting the appearing , the historical manifestation . See on Mar 1:4 ; Luk 1:5 ; Phi 2:7 . Hence not with Chrys.: ; which Hengstenberg repeats.
Observe in what follows the noble simplicity of the narrative: we need not look out for any antithetical reference (
. . ) to Joh 1:1 (B. Crusius, Luthardt, and older expositors). With . . , comp. Joh 3:28 ; Mal 3:1-3 . Description of the true prophet; comp. also Luk 3:2-3 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

SECOND SECTION
The personal Light or Christ in His pre-historical Presence in the World, especially in His Old Testament Advent, testified by the Old Covenant as it is represented by John the Baptist
Joh 1:6-13
CONTENTS
(1) The Representative Of The Coming Of Christ, John The Baptist, Joh 1:6-8. (2) The Coming Of Christ Into The World, In Its General Groundwork And Its Historical Genesis, Joh 1:9 (3) The Relation Of Christ To The World And The Conduct Of The World Towards Him, Or The General Groundwork Of His Advent, Joh 1:10. (4) The Relation Of Christ To Israel, And Israels Conduct Towards Him, Or The Imperfect, Symbolical Advent, Joh 1:11. (5) Christs Gradual Breaking Through In The World In The Contrast Of The Elect To The Less Susceptible, Embodied(a) In Faith, As The Beginning Of The Real Advent, Joh 1:12; (b) In The Consecration Of Birth And The Being Born Of God; The Development Of The Real Advent, Joh 1:13.
6There was [became, arose]47 a man sent48 from God, whose name was John 7 The same came for a [omit a] witness [testimony, ], to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe: 8He was not that [the] Light, 9but was sent [came, Lange: he was] to bear witness of that [the] Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man, that cometh into the world. [The true Light which lighteth (lighteneth, Shineth upon) every man, was coming ( ) 10into the world.]49 He [It] was in the world, and the world was made by him [it]50, and the world knew him not [Lange: did not recognize it in him]. 11He came unto his own [his own possessions or inheritance, ], and his own [his own people, ]51 received him not. 12But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons [children, ] of God, even to them that 13believe on [in] his name: Which [Who] were born, not of blood [bloods, ], not of the [natural] will of the flesh, nor of the [moral] will of man, but of God.52
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Joh 1:6. There was a man. [fiebat], arose, came into being; not [erat], was, absolutely [comp. Joh 8:58, Greek. The Logos was from eternity, Abraham and John began to be in time.P. S.]Chrysostom: . The life of John, so to speak, was lost in his mission (see Joh 1:23; comp. Isa 40:3).53 The appearance of John in this place is striking, and has been variously interpreted (see Meyer).54 In the introduction of the Baptist in this passage we see a representation of the whole prophetic testimony concerning Christ in concentrated, personal form, after the manner of this Gospel. The Baptist was the final recapitulation of all prophetic voices concerning Christ. The Old Testament had two sidesa hidden and a visible. The hidden side was the rise of the genealogical life of Christ itself, His Christological advent; the visible side was the prophetic testimony concerning this advent. And as the verbal prophecy anticipated the real prophecy, in the nature of the case, so the fulfilment of the verbal prophecy in John preceded the fulfilment of the real prophecy in Christ. John therefore here stands in the right place, the auroral radiance of the essential Light; the great witness of the advent of Christ; the forerunner.
[Whose name (was) John, i.e., Jehovah is merciful, from the Hebrew for , ; comp. the Greek . This significant name was given to the forerunner of our Saviour by divine direction, Luk 1:13. The evangelist laid stress on his own name, and saw in it a symbol of his relation to Christ as the disciple whom Jesus loved, Joh 20:2; Joh 21:20. Comp. Lampe and Hegstenberg.P. S.].
Joh 1:7. The same came for witness.Testimony: stronger here than preaching; stronger even than prophecy, as hitherto existing. John appeared first as a preacher, a preacher of repentance. But the preacher showed himself at the same time a prophet, announcing under divine impulse the approach of the Messianic kingdom. And then, in the miraculous manifestation at the baptism of Jesus, through the testimony of God, he became a witness of the person of Jesus of Nazareth, that He is the Messiah; so to speak, an apostle before the apostolate. As a prophet who, by divine commission, pointed to the Messiah, he completed the Old Testament prophecy in testimony. And for this testimony he was come. His mission rose into the office of forerunner. And even his martyrdom in the strict sense is in keeping. He sealed his preparatory preaching of repentance with his death (see Joh 1:33).
That [, the aim of Johns testimony] all men through him might believe.Through John, not through the Light (Grotius), or through Christ (Ewald): Meyer.55 In the divine purpose John was to lead over the faith of Israel to Christ.56 This Christ also signifies Joh 5:33 [where he calls John the burning and shining light, or candle rather, , not .P. S.] Through the unbelief of the Jews this gracious design failed; though in the truly devout, first of all in the noblest of Johns own disciples (Joh 1:35 sqq.) it was fulfilled; through them in all believers.
Joh 1:8. He was not the light.[ is emphatic and contrasted with . The article before is likewise emphatic, the Light of the world, the Light of lights, comp. , Joh 1:29; , Joh 6:32 ff.P. S.] This is certainly not said merely with reference to the unbelieving disciples of John.57 But in the wider sense the nation itself was an unbelieving disciple of John, contenting itself with the brightness of the Baptist, instead of going through him to the true Light itself, Joh 5:35. So far, therefore, as it is implied that many, even the leaders, made the Baptist rather a hindrance than a help to faith, the words are written even against the disciples of John.
But (he was).De Wette takes the but in order to, imperatively; Lcke supplies , was; Meyer, , came Since the preceding verse strongly pronounces that the whole prophetic existence of John was intended to rise into a testimony for the Messiah, we give Lcke the preference: He was, that he might bear witness. [So also Alford and Godet. Bamlein supplies , , or the like; which is not so strong. I prefer with Meyer to supply from Joh 1:7, since the phrase, , instead of is quite unusual.P. S.]
Joh 1:9. The true Lightwas coming [ ].Various interpretations: (1) He (the Logos) or it (the Light) was the true Light; so the older expositors and Luther [E. V., which supplies before , that was the true light.P. S.] But must be subject, not predicate; for in Joh 1:8 John was the subject. [So also Meyer.] (2) (coming into the world) is connected with (every man), not with (was); Origen [Syr., Euseb., Chrys., Cyril, Vulg., Aug, [and most of the ancients, Luther,58 Calvin [E. V.], etc., Hlemann, Meyer.59 [This would make either or . superfluous.] Meyer observes that it could not be connected with ; for the Logos was already in the world when John appeared. But the Evangelist here evidently goes back to the entire relation of Christ to mankind, especially goes back to Joh 1:4. He had before spoken of the witness of the advent of Christnow he depicts the advent itself. This is divided into two parts: (1) The relation of the coming Logos to man in general; (2) His relation to Israel. Hence we interpret: He was (from the beginning and in conflict with the darkness, Joh 1:5) coming, was on His advent to mankind. Therefore not (a) was come [ =]: Schttgen, etc.; (b) just came (when John appeared): De Wette, Lcke [Alford]; (c) future: was on the point of coming [venturum erat]: Tholuck; or (d) was destined to come: Luthardt; desired to come: Ewald;60 nor (e) was coming then, in the time before His baptism: Hilgenfeld, who even here would mix Valentinian Gnosis into the anti-Gnostic Gospel;but in a purely historical sense [=, came], instead of the imperfect: Bengel, Bleek, Kstlin [Hengstenberg, with reference to Mal 3:1]; and with the peculiar Johannean significance: He was continually coming, continually on his way.61 Hence the participial form. The essence of this universal advent is to be recognized in the fact, that the Logos shines in every man in his religious and moral nature and experience, as the . That the expression every man needed not the addition: that cometh into the world, is evident. And the phrase: to come into the world, is not used of the natural birth of an ordinary man, but is reserved for Christ.
[Which lighteth (enlightens, illuminates) every man.There is much force in the singular. Quisquis illuminatur, ab hac luce illuminatur (Bengel). Different interpretations: 1. The light of reason and intelligence (Cyril of Alex.). Better: Both the intellectual and moral light (reason and conscience) given to all men, as distinct from the spiritual light of saving grace given to believers. The former is the basis of the latter.62 2. The inward spiritual light given to all (Quakers). 3. The light of grace given to believers only, or to every one to whom Christ was preached (Crosby). 4. Intellectual and spiritual light sufficient for the salvation of Jews and Gentiles, though the majority are so blinded by sin as not to see Him. Christ enlightens all as far as in Him lies (Chrysostom, Hom. 8). Christ gives sufficient light to every man to leave him without excuse, but not sufficient to save (Arrowsmith, Ryle).Comp. Joh 3:19 : light is come into the world; Joh 12:46 : I am come a light into the world; Joh 6:14 : that prophet that should come into the world; Joh 18:37.P. S.]
The true [veritable, genuine] Light [].The real, essential Light in distinction from the outward, cosmical light, which, nevertheless, is His token and symbol. (See Miltons Paradise Lost: the greeting to the light. Comp. Joh 8:12; Joh 9:5.)
[There is a nice difference between (wahr), true in opposition to false, and (wahrhaftig), true in opposition to borrowed or imitated. This difference is obliterated in the E. V. The one expresses the harmony between thought and reality, word and fact; the other implies a contrast between the perfect original and a copy more or less imperfect. is a favorite term with Plato and John to signify that which is genuine, archetypal, original, true to the idea. It occurs eight times in the Gospel, ten times in the Apocalypse, three times in the first Epistle of John, but elsewhere only five times in the N. T. In this passage it stands in contrast not so much to the cosmical light (Dr. Lange), as to the borrowed intellectual and moral light of the Baptist and other human teachers; comp. Joh 5:35; Mat 5:14, where believers generally as members of Christ are called the light of the world. It is lumen illuminans, as distinct from the lumen illuminatum.P. S.]
Joh 1:10. It was in the world.Not pluperfect (Herder [Tholuck, Olsh.]); nor in the person of Jesus, when John was testifying (Meyer); but referring to His infinite presence in mankind (Baumgarten-Crusius). The repetitions of the idea of the world () are to be distinguished thus: In the first case the word combines the material and the moral world in one; in the second, it means the material or visible world alone, up to the roots of its moral conduct; in the third, the moral world alone, but considered as resting upon and representing the visible. Meyer well says: (1) The world might have known Him (constitutional affinity); (2) it should have known Him (according to His claim). [Comp. Rom 1:19 ff., where Paul fully proves the guilt of Gentiles and Jews in rejecting the light of nature and the preparatory revelation of the O. T.P. S.]
Knew him not.The whole verse strictly reads: It was in the world, and the world was made by it [or Him, ], and the world knew Him () not. The change of gender is highly significant. In the light of the world, the world should have known the personal founder of the world, the Logos. The gradation in the three clauses is also expressed by the repetition of and. The world of heathenism knew not the light, still less Him, the personal character of the light. It took the divine for something impersonal, and sough to heal the wrong by fragmentary personifications, its gods [the altar at Athens to the unknown God, Act 17:23.P. S.]
Joh 1:11. He came unto his own house or inheritance [ , comp. Joh 16:32; Joh 19:27].Here the discourse is no longer of the universal advent of Christ in the world (Corn. a Lapide, Kuinoel, etc.);63 but of the theocratic advent in Israel (Erasmus, Calvin, etc., Lcke, Meyer); yet of this advent considered as intended for mankind. Israel is Gods own people in the special sense, Exo 19:5; Deu 7:6; Sir 24:7 ff. It is not, however, the historical New Testament coming of Christ in Israel, which is here spoken of. The expression He came, as denoting the historical moving of the Logos in the history of the world, determines us against the more general conception of the own. Yet it must be kept well in mind, that in John particularly Israel stands not for itself alone, but as the medium for the entrance of Christ into the whole world. See Joh 10:16.
And his own people [, comp. Joh 13:1]i.e., the Jews. See Isaiah 6; Matthew 13; Joh 12:41; Acts 7; Act 23:25; Romans 9 [The transfer of the relation of Jehovah to Israel as His peculiar people upon Christ, implies that, in the view of John, Christ was the Jehovah of the Old dispensation; comp. Joh 12:41; Joh 8:56.P. S.]
[Received him not, stronger than , which is said of the world in general, Joh 1:10. The fact that the Jews were the peculiar inheritance of Jehovah, doubled their guilt in rejecting the Messiah. Comp. the , Mat 23:37; also Isa 1:3; Rom 10:21; and Joh 12:37. The negative expression here, as Joh 1:10 and Joh 1:5, reveals a holy grief on the part of John.64 Remember the tears of pity which the Saviour shed over unbelieving Jerusalem.P. S.]
Joh 1:12. But as many as received him[, whosoever, whatsoever persons, denotes the universality of Christs benefit without distinction of race, nationality or condition.P. S.] No contradiction of the preceding words. His own, His people, as a whole, received Him not, but individuals. See Galatians 3, 4. The antithesis: and should be observed. The Jews should , take Him in addition to the Old Testament, receive Him in pursuance of the true traditions. This they did not. Thus others receiving Him became the absolute , contrary to the outward, false tradition. in John and Paul is a strong word, denoting the moral act of faith, comp. Rom 5:11.*
To them gave he power.Opposed to the descent from Abraham and the relative sonship with God, of which the Jews boasted, John 8. is neither merely [the possibility (De Wette, Tholuck), nor the ability (Brckner, Heng., Godet),65 nor] the dignity or advantage, (Erasmus, etc.), nor the right, or privilege (Meyer),66 but the real power, the spiritual faculty (Lcke), and, at the same time, the real title. Sonship with God was growing, in its formation-state, in the Old Testament; there were only incipient sons of God, Gal 4:1, but there were such really, and progressively, according to the advancing inwardness and depth of the Old Testament faith. This sonship with God, too, is connected indeed with a semen arcanum electorum et spiritualium (contrary to Meyer, see Joh 1:9); but this must be understood neither in a Gnostic sense, nor in a Hegelian, but in a Johannean, Joh 3:21. This incipient regeneration is also most certainly ethical, but not merely ethical; it is also substantial, though the antithesis between the eternal and the regenerate by all means remains perfect, even after the advance of the latter to . The distinctions: ethical theogony in John (according to Hase), legal adoption in Paul; first appearing in the kingdom of the Messiah in the Synoptists (Meyer), are of little use; unless it may be said that John emphasizes the ideal begetting, Paul the historical new creation. The Messianic kingdom begins with the children of God, not they with it. [To become.Christ is the eternal, only begotten Son of God by nature; men become children of God by regeneration or a celestial birth; comp. Joh 3:3; 1Jn 3:9; Gal 3:26; 1Pe 1:23. Alford thinks that is a more comprehensive expression than . ., as it involves the whole generation and process of our spiritual life and our likeness to God (1Jn 5:5-7), while the other brings out rather our adoption and hope of inheritance (Rom 8:14 if.)P. S.]
To them that believe in his name.[, not ; faith being a continued act and habit of the children of God. Mark also the distinction between believing Christ, that He is, and believing in Christ, in His name, His revealed being, in His person, ;the former is purely intellectual and historical, the latter is moral and implies trust in and appropriation of Christ as our Saviour. The same difference holds with regard to the existence of God, comp. Jam 2:19 : .P. S.]Not tiological [quippe qui credunt, Meyer], but explicative; for faith is not the cause of the gift of Christ, but the organ, causa instrumentalis [the subjective condition]. The clause describes . Faith in the name of the Logos [] is faith in Christ, more definitely, in His name (Act 2:36; Act 3:16; Act 4:12); and this definiteness of faith, in the evangelical acknowledgment of the personal truth in Christ, makes it saving, makes it the medium of the saving power of Christ, because the name of Christ denotes the concentrated expression of His nature in His gospel, in which truth and personal fact are one.67 So the name of God is to be understood: the revelation of God as a personal introduction of Himself to us. So the devout of the old covenant believed in the name of the Logos, in the essential contents and subject of the Messianic promises, Joh 2:23; Joh 3:18, etc.
Joh 1:13. Who were born, not of bloods.It is confusing to ask whether refers to 68 or . The subject is in both cases the same. It is the in the historical sense who are spoken of. The Evangelist introduces the antithesis of the natural generation and regeneration, yet regarding the natural generation itself as advanced from the purely physical to the religiously consecrated theocratic generation. He first states the antithesis in general: ,not of bloods. Augustine explains the plural from the twofold sex of man and woman;69 Hlemann refers it to the successive begettings of the theocratic genealogy; Meyer finds that the plural is the same as the singular.70 We find in the plural a premonition of an ethical distinction of . In ethical matters and are not one and the same. And this the succeeding climax proceeds to say. According to Augustine [Theophyl., Schott, Olshausen] and others, denotes woman in distinction from man (). [This would require rather the disjunctive , neithernor, than the adjunctive , nornor yet; besides flesh is never used synonymously with woman.P. S.]71 Mosheim distinguishes native Jews and proselytes; others, natural children and adopted (Starke);72 Lcke takes as no more than ;73 Meyer regards the sentence as a rhetorical progress to greater definiteness: the term referring to the sexual instinct, to the procreative will of the man.74If this distinction be followed up, we must come involuntarily upon the track of the true interpretation. The common sensual desire knows nothing of procreative will, yet it doubtless has its . Baumgarten Crusius, therefore, rightly asserts that the progress is from the sensual to the most noble;75 and we see here a progress from the sensual begettings of the heathen world to the theocratically consecrated begettings, which introduce a sacred theocratic genealogy (see Langes Leben Jesu iii. 558, and Posit. Dogm. pp. 514, 532). In this passage is reflected the Scripture doctrine of hereditary blessing. Of course the Evangelist tells us also that the consecrated births may indeed exhibit an approach to regeneration, and be the instrument of it, but that they are not able to effect it, and that regeneration, as a heavenly generation, forms a counterpart to the earthly.
[The difference between , and is not very clear, but the conjunction (nornor yet), as distinct from (neithernor, comp. Winer, p. 454 f., 7th ed.), indicates a rising climax from the general () to the particular, and here again from the lower and physical agency () to the higher and moral (), although is ascribed to both. In Mat 16:17; 1Co 15:50; Eph 6:12; Gal 1:16, flesh and blood together signify human nature in its weakness. In Joh 3:6 we have the same contrast between the natural birth from the flesh, and the supernatural birth from the Spirit. The threefold denial of all human agency in regeneration gives emphasis to the affirmation of the divine agency, which is expressed by but of God, . This does not exclude mediate instrumentalities, through which, ordinarily, men are regenerated and converted. The affirmation may be analyzed so as to correspond to the three members of the negation: 1) not of blood, but of the seed of God (1Jn 3:9), which is the word of God (1Pe 1:23 : ; Jam 1:18 : ; 2) nor of the will of the flesh, but of the Spirit (Joh 3:6 : ; 3) nor yet of the will of man, but of the will of God (Jam 1:18 : ; Eph 1:5 : . Bengel analyzes differently: 1) ex clesti Patre; 2) ex amore divino; 3) ex Spiritu sancto. Grace does not descend through the channel of nature in any form, but a new creative act of God is necessary in every regeneration. Barnes, in his notes on Joh 1:13, confounds regeneration with conversion. Regeneration is an act of God, and may take place in infancy (think of John the Baptist leaping in the mothers womb); conversion or change of mind () is the act of man, by which, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, he turns, in conscious repentance and faith, from sin and Satan to God.P. S.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1.The fact that a man (John) was designated the messenger of God even, so to speak, in his origin, Luk 1:15; Luk 1:44, announced the coming of another, in whom no issue between birth and new birth should exist. Yet the distinction is as clear as the connection. John, as man, became the messenger of God; the Logos, as messenger of God, Joh 3:31; 1Co 15:25, became man. In John and Mary appear the two summits of the Old Testament spirit, the highest aspiration of human nature in the train of the Spirit of God; in Mary the summit of fervent, humble, receptive piety; in John the summit of energetic, prophetic piety in the official service of the law. Yet in them the higher spirit works from below upward under the drawing from above. In Christ the divine is before, and in Him the nisus is from above downward under the drawing of the human longing, the need of life and salvation below. The Baptist is strongly conscious of this distinction, Mat 3:11; Joh 3:31. And in accordance with this nature of Christ is the nature also of Christianity, the righteousness of faith in a righteous life.
2. The same came for witness, John the Baptist, the last, most distinct form of the Old Testament prophecy, and as such the witness of Christ in the history of the world, at the same time in his freedom from jealousy a witness to the Holy Ghost in the Old Testament. The death of John a martyrdom (witness-bearing) to his fidelity as forerunner.
3. Through John His noblest disciples came to believe, through them all succeeding disciples and Christians, (See Schleiermacher, Predigten I., p. 18.)
4. He was not the Light. An antithesis applying not only to the Old and New Testaments, but also to Christ, the fountain of light, and the Apostles and Christians, with the prophets, as receivers and bearers of the light.
5. The true Light was coming. The pre-Christian Advent. (1) Founded (a) in the nature of Christ: The true Light, which lighteneth every man, i.e., shines into him from within through the fundamental laws of personal, mental life, from without through nature and history; (b) in the nature of the world: Made by the Logos, standing by His presence. (2) Unfolding itself (a) in a general invisible force: The shining in the darkness, the lighting of every man; Christs being in the world [primordial religion]; (b) in historical theocratic form: Education of Israel for His possession, and His coming to His own (the Old Testament religion in its development).
6. Received Him not. The obduracy, a self-estrangement, as well as a hostile bearing towards the admission of the yearning Householder. The obduracy of Israel in its historical development and completion; the great warning to the Christian world; warning, and alas, still more, Mat 24:38.
7. That believe in His name.Respecting the name, see above in the exegesis of this passage. Appearance of the name of the Logos, in the more definite sense, with the Old Testament revelation (the Angel of the Lord and the Messiah). Faith in the objective Messiah was in the subject, incipient sonship. In the righteousness of faith lay a point of union between the word of God and the heart of man, a quickening germ of personal children of God, therefore the power to become sons. But this could be brought to decision and contemplation only by the historical appearance of Christ and by the redemption accomplished in Him. As the revelation of God strove from the first towards concentration in the Name, the making Himself personally, perfectly known, so true faith strives from the beginning after the concentrated receiving of a distinct personal life. Centripetal faith, living faith; centrifugal faith, dying or dead faith.
8. Who were born not of blood. The truth and the insufficiency of inherited privilege. The Biblical doctrine of covenant grace not yet duly received in the church. Its antagonism to the unchurchly conception of the relation between nature and spirit, and even to the Augustinian overstatement of original sin. Its antagonism to Pelagianism. (See Posit. Dogmatik., p. 514 sqq.)
9. But of God. First the righteousness of faith present; then circumcision as the symbol of regeneration. The idea of real regeneration develops itself with the idea of the personal Messiah. Its development or genesis is reciprocal with that of repentance, faith, the experience of grace, in the saving process as it advances from the outward to the inward.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
John the Baptist, the Old Testament Evangelist of the Light. (1) In his mission and his name; (2) in his testimony and his work; (3) in his retirement and disappearance before the Light itself.The Old Testament Advent of Christ: 1. In its ultimate basis (He was in the world); 2. in its historical manifestation (He came to His own); 3. in its earnest of victory (As many as received Him); 4, in its last attestation (There was a man).John and Christ, or the personal manifestation of the saving Light: 1. John, the attester of the Light; 2. Christ, the attested Light.The Old and New Testaments, one light of revelation: 1. The Old in the day-light of the New; 2. The New in the dawn-light of the Old.John and Christ, or the kernel of revelation, personal life.The Son of God as the nameless Name: 1. The namelessness of the name, (a) in the world in general, (b) in Israel in particular; 2. the name of the nameless, (a) in its silent development (He was in the world; He came), (b) in its great works.The Advent of Christ in the world, mistaken and yet perceived: Mistaken (a) by the heathen, (b) by the Jews. Yet perceived (a) by the yearnings of the devout in all the world, (b) by the hope of the faithful in Israel.The name of the Light, its complete personal revelation in Christ.Christ the name: 1. The name of the life in the world; 2. the name of the light in mankind; 3. the name of the salvation in the children of God.Those who are becoming believers, are becoming children of God.The power to become, or the freedom of the spirit, the groundwork of the new birth and nature.The being born of blood and born of God considered: 1. In their antagonism; 2. in their essential distinction; 3. in their congenial connection; 4. in the Mediator of their union.He who believes in the pollution of birth according to the Scriptures, must believe also according to the Scriptures in the consecration of birth.The beginnings of the regeneration in the Old Covenant, a fore-shadowing of the eternal new birth of Christ from heaven.
Starke: Jesus alone had a fore-runner.Like the aurora before the sun, so John, according to the word of prophecy, must bear himself before Christ.Hedinger: Teachers and all Christians are indeed lights also, in virtue of their divine calling, fellowship with God, and holy living, yet their main object is to bear witness of the light in Christ, to lead to it by precept and example.O glorious nobility! to be born of God, His child and heir!Behold, what manner of love! 1Jn 3:1.Osiander: What is due to Christ alone, must not be attributed to any man.The eternal light sends forth rays in the hearts of all men. He who is not enlightened, must ascribe it to himself and the dominion of darkness.Canstein: Noble family helps not to sonship and salvation, but only the being born anew of God.Mosheim : Men in the state of nature are not children of God, and therefore have no right to salvation.
Gerlach, after Augustine: Corrupt men are called the world, because they love the world more than its Creator. By love we dwell in a thing with the heart, and we have therefore deserved to bear the name of that wherein we dwell by love.
Heubner: John must prepare the way for the reception of the Light.The light must came gradually, else it blinds.The nobility of the children of God is attained only through the Spirit, through birth from God, through a proper spiritual generation.
[Joh 1:6. John the Baptist, the greatest of men before Christ, because he was nearest to Christ, and comprehended all the light of the preparatory revelations of Moses and the prophets.
Joh 1:7. Every minister only a borrowed light to lean men to Christ, the true Light.
Joh 1:8. Christ is the sun of the soul, the source of spiritual light, life and growth.P. S.]
[Joh 1:9. Arrowsmith: Christ is the true Light; 1. The undeceiving Light, in opposition to all the false lights of the Gentiles ; 2. The real Light, in opposition, to ceremonial types and shadows; 3. The underived Light, in opposition to all borrowed light; 4. The supereminent Light, in opposition to all ordinary light.
Joh 1:10. Hengstenberg: The creature should shout for joy, if its Creator comes to redeem it.
Joh 1:11. It is disgraceful if the creature despises the creature; it is doubly disgraceful if the people of the Covenant despise the Lord of the Covenant.]
[Joh 1:13. The new (celestial, divine) birth constitutes the true nobility of grace, as contrasted with the aristocracy of natural birth, the aristocracy of money, the aristocracy of merit, the aristocracy of fame.Regeneration: 1. Its origin; 2. Its growth; 3. Its manifestation; 4.Its end (the final resurrection).The children of God the salt of the earth, the light of the world, the benefactors of the race.Comp. the admirable description of Christian life in the Epistle to Diognetus, ch. v. and vi., composed soon after the Apostolic age. Christians in the world are there compared to the soul in the body: they are scattered through the world and dwell in the world, yet are not of the world: they are hated by the world, yet love and benefit it; they are imprisoned in the world, yet preserve it from corruption, they are sojourners in the perishing world, looking for an incorruptible dwelling in heaven.P. S.]
Footnotes:
[47]Joh 1:6. [The Greek here is (became), which differs from (was), Joh 1:1, as the German ward (or geworden) does from war, but it cannot be well rendered in English. It is the antithesis between temporal or created existence which has a beginning, and implies previous non-existence, and eternal or uncreated existence, which has neither beginning nor end. The same distinctionJoh 8:58 : , .P. S.]
[48]Joh 1:6. [ does not belong to = (Chrysostom, Hom. 6 p. 42, and Hengstenberg), but to .P. S.]
[49]Joh 1:9. [So Lange, Ewald somewhat differently: Ja das wahrhaflige Licht, welches jeden Menschen erleuchtet, kam stets in die welt. Others translate: that was the true Light which, coming into the world, lighteth every man. may be connected with Vulg.: hominem venientem, Luth., E. V.), or better, with (Lange, Ewald). See the Exeg. Notes. In the latter case a comma should be made after , as is done by Tischendorf, eighth ed.P. S.]
[50]Joh 1:10. [ . Cod. * read , probably an error of the copyist.P. S.]
[51]Joh 1:11. [The E.V. obliterates the distinction between the neutral , das Seine, his own things, possessions, inheritance, and the masculine , die Seinen, his own people, servants, subjects.P. S.]
[52]Joh 1:13. The difficulty of the passage has occasioned the omission of . . in Cod. E and others; and of . . in Cod. B. and others. Others, as Augustine, have transposed the clauses. [See Tischend. Oct. VIII. p. 743.]
[53][Hengstenberg adopts the construction of Chrysostom, which would have been more naturally expressed by , and defends it by referring to Mal 3:1; Mal 3:13 : Lo, I am sending my messenger, etc., compared with the words of the Baptist, Joh 3:28 : . I prefer the usual connection of with .P. S.]
[54][The Baptist is mentioned in the Prologue to confirm the reality of the historical appearance of Christ: Brckner; as a brilliant exception from the terrible darkness spoken of Joh 1:5 : Ewald; to explain the rejection of Christ by His own people, Joh 1:10-11 : Meyer; to introduce the historic manifestation of the word: Alford. He is mentioned rather as the personal representative of the whole O. T. revelation in whom the law and the promise, Moses and Isaiah, were united and pointed directly to Christ. See Lange in the text.P. S.]
[55][In the fifth edition of Meyer the reference to Ewald is omitted. In his Commentary, Ewald translates durch ihn without explaining whether ihn is meant of John or of Christ.P. S.]
[56][Ryle: One of those texts which show the immense importance of the ministerial office through which the Holy Spirit is pleased to produce faith in mans heart.P. S.]
[57][Meyer denies the reference to the disciples of John entirely. Godet, on the contrary, defends it, and justly so, in view of Joh 1:20; Joh 3:25; and in view of the Gnostic sect of the Disciples of John in the second century, who held that John the Baptist was the true Messiah. (Clementis Rom. Recognitiones l. I. c. 54 and 60. Comp. the articles of Petermann, Mender and Zabier, in Herzogs Encyclop. Vols. IX. p. 318 and XVIII. p. 341.) Only we must not suppose either that John wrote expressly, or exclusively against this error. See Dr. Lange above.P. S.]
[58][In the first ed. Luther translated: Das war ein wahr-haftig Licht, welches alle Menschen erleuchtet durch seine Zukunft in die Welt, i.e., which, coming into the world, lighteneth all men. In the later editions he followed the Vulgate.P. S.]
[59][Meyer, however, lays the emphasis on aderat, which is put first, and translates: Vorhanden war das Licht das wahrhaftiqe, welches erleuchtet jeden Menschen, der in die Welt kommt, the true light was in existence, etc. But there is no good reason why should be emphasized rather than , and then , Joh 1:10, would be a repetition of Joh 1:9. The old usual interpretation is preferable to Meyers, but both are to be rejected, because the phrase to come into the world for to be born, though Rabbinical ( =all men), is not Scriptural, as applied to common men, but is reserved exclusively for the Messiah with the implied sense of pr-existence, Joh 3:19; Joh 3:3; Joh 6:14; Joh 11:27; Joh 12:46; Joh 18:37. Bengel: Apud Hebros frequens est periphrasis hominis, veniens in mundum, sed in N. T. et. prcipue in in hoc libro id at solo Christo dicitur, sublimi significatu. Erat enim, ante etiam, quam veniret.P. S.]
[60][In his Commentary Ewald explains somewhat differently. He connects Joh 1:9 with Joh 1:4 : es kam damals immer in die Welt, it was at that time always coming into the world, so that every mortal, if he would, might have been guided by the light.P. S.]
[61][Keim: er war in stetem Kommen in die Welt. Similarly Ewald, see preceding foot-note. is stronger than , and implies a continued action, like the English, was coming, as distinct from came. Comp. , Joh 1:28. Hengstenberg accounts for this circumlocution of the simpler imperf. by the emphasis laid on as a term of the Messiah; comp. Mat 3:11 : ; Joh 11:3; Joh 1:15; Joh 1:27; Joh 1:30.P. S.]
[62]
[Comp. the lines of Gthe:
War nicht das Auge sonnenhaft,
Wie knnten wir das Licht erblicken?
Lebt nicht in uns des Gottes eigne Kraft,
Wie knnt uns Gttliches entzcken?P. S.]
[63][There is no Scripture proof that (viz., , ) means the world, and mankind in general; both expressions refer to Israel as the peculiar people of God, to the nation as a whole, to the individuals. George Campbell (on the Gospels). Alford and Barnes would understand of Palestine or Judea, and of its inhabitants.P. S.]
[64]
[Something of this feeling of sadness, in view of the ingratitude of the world to Christ, pervades the hymn of the noble Novalis:
Wenn alle untreu werden,
So bleib ich Der dock treu,
especially the second stanza:
I could weep night and morning
That Thou hast died, and yet
So few will heed Thy warning,
So many Thee forget.
O loving and true-hearted,
How much for us didst Thou!
Yet is Thy fame departed,
And none regards it now.P. S.]
[65][Godet translates: elle (la Parole) les a mis en position de devenir enfants de Dieu and explains to mean essentially the same with the Pauline , the filial relation to which man is restored by faith, yet not identical with regeneration, but a condition to it. Car Dieu ne peut communiquer sa propre vie par le qu’un homme avec qui il est reconcili. Mais une fie que l’ adoption a eu lieu, la regnration doit suivre et c st la le second privilge, resultant, du premier, que saint Jean exprime dans ces mots: Devenir enfants de Dieu. But the second is rather explanatory of the first ().P. S.]
[66][In the fifth ed. Meyer explains: er ermtchtigte sie, he empowered them. Comp. Joh 5:27; Joh 17:2.P. S.]
[67][Arrowsmith, quoted by Ryle: The word name in the Scripture is often put for person. The receivers of Christ are said to believe on His name, because the direct object of their faith is the person of Christ. It is not the believing that Christ died for all, or for me, or for the elect, or any such proposition, that saveth. It is believing on Christ. The person, or name of Christ, is the object of faith.P. S.]
[68][So Meyer, constructio , as in 2Jn 1:1; Phm 1:10; Gal 4:19. But Lange is right.P. S.]
[69][Ex sanguinibus enim homines nascuntur maris et femin ? Tract. II. 14. Ewald translates the plural aus Blut und Blut, and explains: durch blosse Missching voun Zeugungs-stoffen. Wordsworth: human commixtures.P. S.]
[70][The plural usage of in the sense of this passage occurs only in Euripides, Ion John 705: , but often in the sense of murder, in the classics and in the LXX. See quotations in Meyer.P. S.]
[71][Augustine, In Joh. Tract. II. 14, quotes Gen 2:22 and Eph 5:28-29 to show that caro may be used for uxor; bur these passages (as also Judges 7) are not to the point. Flesh here means human nature, male and female. What is born of the fiesh is flesh, Joh 3:6.P. S]
[72][So Albert Barnes; adopted by a pious man. Without a shadow of proof. Ryle and Crosby refer flesh to mans own and man to any foreign human agency. But this could have been much more clearly expressed.P. S.]
[73][So also Alford, who quotes, with Lcke, the Homeric . But Meyer denies that is ever generalized into , least of all here where the act of generation is spoken of.P.S.]
[74][Similarly God t: The will of the flesh is la volont domine par p imagination sensuelle, the will of man la volont plus independante de la nature, la resolution virile.P. S.]
[75][Nature (), desire (), will (). But the difficulty is that is used in the second as well as the third clause.P. S.]
[76]Joh 1:14. [Or, pitched his ten; Meyer, Ewald: zeltete; Godet: a dress sa tente. The verb (from , tent), which John uses also of Gods dwelling with His people on the new earth (Rev 21:3), was chosen in allusion to the Shekinah (, or , a Rabbinical theological term from to dwell), i.e., the indwelling or glorious presence of Jehovah in the holy of holies of the tabernacle and the temple, which typically pointed to the incarnation. This allusion is evident from the correspondence of the letters (Bengel: edem liter in et “), and from the following comp. Exo 25:8 (where Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion translate by ; Exo 40:34; Lev 26:11-12; Eze 37:27; Hag 2:8; Rev 7:15; Rev 21:3. In the Apocryphal books the Shekinah was especially ascribed to the Sophia (Sir 24:8 : ), and the Logos. The humanity of Christ became the Shekinah of His divinityP. S.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John: (7) The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. (8) He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
I refer the Reader for some account of John the Baptist to Mat 3 , and Luk 1 . I shall have occasion to state somewhat more of the peculiar blessedness of this man’s ministry before we close this Chapter.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Joh 1:6-13
“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Primary and Secondary Light

The John spoken of in the first verse of the text is John the Baptist. The evangelist says that John was sent from God. Ordinary biography begins at another point. In this case, parentage, birth, training, are omitted altogether, and the very beauty of God lights up the face of the man. Men have different ways of looking at themselves. In some cases they look downward towards “the mire and the clay,” that they may keep in memory “the hole of the pit out of which they were digged”; in others, they view human life religiously, and claim the dignity and privilege of the sons of God. The influence of this view upon the uses of strength and upon surrounding life must be intense and salutary. We degrade life when we omit God from its plan. On the other hand, we descend upon our work with fulness of power when we realise that it is God that worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure. What is our view of life? Have we but a physical existence, or are we the messengers of the most High? When Moses went to his work he was enabled to say “I AM hath sent me unto you.” So when John undertook his mission he boldly claimed to be the appointed servant of God. Our greatest power is on the religious side of our nature: physically, we are crushed before the moth; religiously, we have omnipotence as the source of our strength.
“The same came for a witness,” God reveals himself to us little by little as we may be able to bear the light. He has set forth a long and wonderful procession of witnesses, from Moses even until John, who was the last of the illustrious line. It is well when a man distinctly knows the limit of his vocation. We are strong within our own bounds. John, as a professed Saviour, would have been weak and contemptible; but as a witness he was a burning and a shining light. John the Baptist was as the morning star. Or (changing the figure) he was a man standing on the highest mountain, who, catching a glimpse of the first solar ray, exclaims, “Behold, the day cometh!” And is not such an exclamation the only originality of which we are capable? There is no originality, except that which is relative, in any ministry or in any church.
“He was not that Light,” he was but a temporary ray: the brightest light which the hand of man can enkindle is instantly paled when the sun shineth in his strength, beautiful indeed is that secondary light when shining alone, and not beautiful only, but precious exceedingly to men who, without it, would be in darkness; yet could it speak, it would say, “I am but a spark of another fire; your admiration of my splendour will cease when you see the sun.” Such is the speech of the most luminous men. Our light is lunar, not solar; or solar only because Christ is in us, and according to the measure of our capacity he sheds his glory through our life.
“That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” As the sun shines for every man, so Jesus Christ lives for every man. The lamp in the house belongs to the householder: the lamp in the street is a local convenience: but the sun pours its morning and its noontide into every valley, and into the humblest home; that is the true light: the freehold of every man, the private property of none! And every man knows that the sun is the true light, feels it to be such, and without hesitation affirms it to be supreme. There is no debate as to whether the sun or the moon is the light of the world. Imagine a dark night, and an observer who has never seen the sun: a star suddenly shows itself, and the observer hails it with delight; presently the moon shines with all her gentle strength, and the observer says, “This is the fulfilment of the promise; can ought be lovelier, can the sky possibly be brighter?” In due course the sun comes up; every cloud is filled with light; every mountain is crowned with a strange glory; every leaf in the forest is silvered; the sea becomes as burnished glass, and secrecy is chased from the face of the earth: under such a vision, the observer knows that this is the true light, the sovereign all-dominating flame. It is so in the revelation of Jesus Christ. When the eyes of men are opened to see him in all his grace and wisdom and sympathy, in all the sufficiency of his sacrifice, and the comfort of his Spirit, the heart is satisfied, and every rival light is lost in the infinite splendour of God the Son.
“He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” He came unto his own things ( ), and his own people ( ) received him not. There was no room for his mother in the inn. He himself had not where to lay his head. He was as a householder coming to his own house, and being kept out by his own servants. What is the earth but one apartment in the great house of God! Its furniture, (its hills and valleys and rivers, fruits and flowers and harvest fields), is Jesus Christ’s, for apart from him was not anything made that was made; yet when he came to his own house his ownership was denied by the servants who had been put into temporary possession by his own power and grace! “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.”
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” Having believed on his name they entered upon a new relation to their Father in heaven. They had been living a life of mere creature-hood; the sense and the joy of sonship had been lost, and had become irrecoverable except by faith, which is the gift of God. Regeneration is as much the work of God as was creation. A man may unmake himself, but the power of restoration is not in his own hand. Nor is there either mystery or injustice in this. The same law holds good in the physical as in the spiritual world: a man can kill himself, but can he take back his life again? Or he can crush a flower, but can he heal it, and make it as perfect and beautiful as before? Or he may destroy his sight, but can he recover his vision? We can only destroy; we cannot create. “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.” Let us give personality to two flowers, and from their talk let us learn something on this matter: “I stand in this window from month to month, and I declare that every possible attention is paid to me; as regularly as the morning comes my roots are watered, and not a day passes without the window being opened that I may be revived by the fresh living air: so if ever flower had reason for contentment and joy I am that flower.” So far, so good. Now, the second flower, luxuriant and beautiful exceedingly, says, “Look at the difference between us! I am of the same stock as yourself; we are called by the same name; we live on the same elements; yet I am strong and blooming, and you are weak and colourless.” How is this, then? The one flower has been standing in a sunless window, the other has been living in the sun! Preach the gospel of light to that flower, and if your gospel be received with faith, the light will give it “power” to become as strong and beautiful as any member of the same family. It is even so with mankind. We are trying to live without the light, the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and our trial gives us over more and more to the power of death. Without light no soul can live I
“Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” This, again, is most emphatically in the style of John. Never can he lose sight of the perfect spirituality of Jesus Christ’s work. John shows the very religiousness of religion. Christianity is to him more than a history, more than an argument, more than a theology, it is a spiritual revelation to the spiritual nature of man. On the part of man it is to be not an attitude, but a life, the very mystery of his spirit, too subtle for analysis, too strong for repression, too divine to be tolerant of corruption.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

Ver. 6. There was a man sent from God ] As he ran not, till sent,Jer 23:32Jer 23:32 . St Paul holds it not only for incredible, but for impossible, that men should preach that are not sent, Rom 10:15 . So he declined not his ambassage, as did Jonah, ; who was therefore met with by another messenger of God, and sent into the whale’s belly to make his sermon for Nineveh; and in his prayer before, to acknowledge out of sad experience that they that hunt “after lying vanities” (as he had done) “forsake their own mercies,”Joh 2:8Joh 2:8 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

6 18. ] THE MANIFESTATION AND WORKING OF THE DIVINE WORD, JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD, INCARNATE IN OUR FLESH.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

6. ] The Evangelist now passes to the historic manifestation of the Word. , , ; (Theodor. Mopsuest [12] in loc. p. 729, ed. Migne.) He enunciates briefly in these Joh 1:6-7 , what he afterwards, Joh 1:19-36 , narrates with historical detail.
[12] Mopsuest. Theodore, Bp. of Mopsuestia, 399 428
not belonging to , but to .: the ordinary opening of an historical period, see Luk 1:5 . No stress on , as distinguished from , Joh 1:1 (Olshausen), see ch. Joh 3:1 . There was a man sent, &c. In . we have possibly a reference to Mal 3:1 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Joh 1:6-13 . The historic manifestation of the Logos and its results .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Joh 1:6 . In this verse John passes to the historical; and like the other evangelists begins with the Baptist. So Theodore Mops: , ; , “not there was (chap. Joh 3:1 ), but denoting the appearing , the historical manifestation,” Meyer. Cf. Luk 1:5 . The testimony of John is introduced not only as a historical note but in order to bring out the aggravated blindness of those who rejected Christ. This man was . Holtzmann says “an historical appearance is characterised as Godsent”. It might rather be said that an historical appearance sent to fulfil a definite Divine purpose is so characterised. There is no designation our Lord more frequently applies to Himself. In the prayer of chap. 17. some equivalent occurs six times. And in the epistle to the Hebrews He is called “the Apostle of our confession”. No distinguishing title is added to the common name “John”, Westcott says: “If the writer of the Gospel were himself the other John of the Gospel history, it is perfectly natural that he should think of the Baptist, apart from himself, as John only”. Watkins says: “The writer stood to him in the relation of disciple to teacher. To him he was the John.” Afterwards the disciple became the John.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Joh 1:6-8
6There came a man sent from God, whose name was John 7 He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. 8He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.
Joh 1:6-8 These verses and Joh 1:15 (a parenthetical flash back) record the witness of John the Baptist to Jesus. He was the last OT prophet. It is difficult to put these verses in poetic form. There is much debate among scholars as to whether the prologue is poetry or prose.
John the Baptist was the last OT prophet (in the sense of his message and perspective). He was the forerunner predicted in Mal 3:1; Mal 4:5 (cf. Joh 1:20-25). John the Apostle may have inserted Joh 1:6-8 because of the early misunderstandings which developed around John the Baptist (cf. Luk 3:15; Act 18:25; Act 19:3). John, writing later than the other Gospel writers, saw the development of this problem.
It is interesting to note that Christ is described in imperfect tense (pre-existence) verbs, while John is described in aorist (manifested in time) and perfect tense (a historical event with lasting results) verbs (cf. Joh 1:6). Jesus has always existed.
Joh 1:7 “that all might believe through him” This is a purpose clause. John’s Gospel, like all the Gospels ( a uniquely Christian genre), is an evangelistic tract. This is the wonderful offer of salvation to all who exercise faith in Christ, who is the light of the world (cf. Joh 1:12; Joh 3:16; Joh 4:42; Joh 20:31; 1Ti 2:4; Tit 2:11; 2Pe 3:9; 1Jn 2:1; 1Jn 4:14).
Joh 1:7; Joh 1:12 “believe” This verb is used 78 times in the Gospel of John, 24 times in John’s letters. It is interesting that John’s Gospel never uses the noun form, only the verb. Belief is not primarily an intellectual or emotional response, but basically a volitional response. This Greek term is translated by three English terms: believe, trust, and faith. It is parallel to “welcome Him” (cf. Joh 1:11), and “accept Him” (cf. Joh 1:12). Salvation is free in the grace of God and the finished work of Christ, but it must be received. Salvation is a covenant relationship with privileges and responsibilities.
SPECIAL TOPIC: FAITH, BELIEVE, OR TRUST
Joh 1:8 It is possible that John the Apostle, writing much later than the other Gospel writers, recognized the problem which developed among John the Baptist’s followers who had not heard or accepted Jesus (cf. Act 18:25 to Act 19:7).
SPECIAL TOPIC: WITNESSES TO JESUS
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

There was = There arose. Not the same word as in Joh 1:1.
sent. Compare Mal 3:1. Greek apostello (App-174.), whence we have our “Apostle” = one sent. John not only came, but was “sent”.
from = from beside. Greek para. App-104. Not “by”, but from. Compare Joh 15:26.
God. No Art. Compare Joh 1:1. App-98.
John: i.e. John the Baptist; the John of the narrative, not of the Gospel. Occurs twenty times, and is never distinguished by the title “Baptist”, as in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

6-18.] THE MANIFESTATION AND WORKING OF THE DIVINE WORD, JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD, INCARNATE IN OUR FLESH.
Fuente: The Greek Testament

Joh 1:6. ) not . The Evangelist does not say, was of John, but was made [fiebat: is to be, , to begin to be]. The question is asked, how far the opening introduction to this book extends. The answer is. There is no introduction: the treatise itself [ipsa tractatio, the handling of the subject itself] begins with the beginning of the book. For in Joh 1:6 the Evangelist already describes the office of John, in bearing witness of the Light: and in the first five verses, he records what before had always been the nature and principle of the Light. Therefore up to this point a summary has been given of those things, which evidently preceded John; nor can these by any means be referred to the action of Jesus immediately succeeding John, as Artemonius, p. 412, refers it; and now there is unfolded by the Evangelist a more copious description of recent [new] events. Both [the things preceding John, and the things then from that point occurring] are most orderly in their arrangement.-, a man) God deals with men through agents similar to themselves, namely, men; in order that they may the more readily take [capiant, take in, understand] and accept [His offers of love].- , sent from God) The definition of a prophet. Comp. Mat 11:9-10 [A prophet? Yea-and more than a prophet. For this is He, of whom it is written, Behold I send My messenger, etc.] The Participle is here in immediate connection with the noun a man: and in mediate connection with the verb, was made [ began to be].- , from God, Joh 1:33.-, John) That is, an interpreter [exponent] of the grace of God. The greatness of John [is hereby implied], of whom mention is made immediately after the preceding statements [Joh 1:1-5]. Greater knowledge was brought into the world through John, than had been in all previous ages.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Joh 1:6
Joh 1:6
There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John.-John the Baptizer came to prepare the way for Christ.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
We have seen already that Jesus is the Eternal Word, one with the Father from all past ages; that, when everything that ever began to be came into existence, He was already there. He did not begin to be, He was. He was the Word. He was with God. He was God, and He was the Son in the beginning with God. He never underwent any change in His personality. He was the Son from all eternity even as He was the Son before all creation. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made (1:3). Has that really gripped our hearts? Do we realize that the One who hung on the cross was the Creator of the earth?
I think people often misunderstand the sacrifice He made because they do not apprehend who it was that made it. Dr. W. P. McKay, in his book Grace and Truth, tells how, on one occasion, after preaching the Word and setting forth the truth, a lady came up to him and said, I cant accept that. You cant accept what? asked Dr. McKay. Well, what you were telling us, that God allowed an innocent man to die for guilty men. That wasnt right. It wasnt righteous that guilty men should be saved in that way. He said, Madam, you have misunderstood the whole meaning of the gospel. The gospel is not that an innocent Man died for guilty men. The first declaration of the gospel is that God became Man. The One who had been sinned against in divine grace became Man that He might die for His creatures sin. On the cross we do not see an innocent Man dying for guilty men; we see the offended God giving Himself, taking our humanity, in order that the guilt of His creatures might be taken away. But is that righteous? Madam, he replied, it is love. It is infinite love that led Him to give Himself for us. That is the clear teaching of the gospel of John. He who died upon the cross was the Creator of all things. He was the One who had been wronged, sinned against by the creature, and yet when man could find no way to put his record right or to escape judgment, He came in grace to deliver those who put their trust in Him.
Now in verse 6 we enter into the story of the incarnation. First, our attention is directed to His forerunner. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John (v. 6). How often that has been true throughout the centuries! When God has called out a man to carry the gospel to a lost people, how frequently He has taken a man named John! In the Bible we have John the Baptist, the apostle John, and John Mark. Since then there have been many Johns whom the Lord called out to proclaim His Word. When we come down to the days of the Reformation we have John Knox and John Calvin, and later on in the great revival of the eighteenth century, we have John Wesley sent from God to preach to those who knew nothing of the assurance of salvation. I think one reason there are so many Johns is because the name appeals to the people of God.
You know what John means. It signifies the grace of Jehovah, the grace of the Lord. John came to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He occupied a very unique place in Scripture testimony. We read, The law and the prophets were until John (Luk 16:16). From that time the kingdom of God was preached, a kingdom of grace and truth. John was the last of the prophets, and he was the first herald of the new dispensation. The Lord Jesus Christ says that of those born of women there was not anyone greater than John. In what sense was John the greatest born of women? Because it was given to him, not only to prophesy of, but actually to welcome the Christ-to baptize Him in token of His identification with those for whom He came to die. As the baptizer of the Lord Jesus and as the proclaimer of the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world (v. 29), John had the highest place among all the prophetic brotherhood. Not one of them had the privilege that was given to him. Notwithstanding, Jesus tells us, He that is least in the kingdom of [God] is greater than he (Mat 11:11). What does He mean by that?
Well, it was given to John to call men to repentance in order to set up the kingdom of God here on earth. He opened the door to others, but he was not permitted to enter in himself. Nevertheless, he had a very unique place in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegrooms voice (3:29). John was the Bridegrooms friend and rejoiced in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He rejoiced in the glorious work that He was to accomplish and the greatness that was to be His. He said, I am not the Messiah, I am simply the Bridegrooms friend. What a wonderful privilege that was! And there was never a humbler, less exalted servant of God than John the Baptist. When they questioned him as to his identity, he never exalted himself. When any demanded his credentials, he said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, [Prepare ye] the way of the Lord (1:23).
You cannot see a voice, you can only hear it. John did not want them to become occupied with him. It was his delight simply to exalt the One whose herald he was, and in this John becomes the example for every servant of God. We are all too prone to want people to be occupied with us. We like to be thought well of, and it hurts us a bit if people misunderstand us and speak unkindly. But all that was out of Johns thoughts. He was not concerned about himself if only Christ could be glorified. The apostle Paul was one who entered into that spirit. His only concern was that Christ might be magnified, either by life or by death, and that was the special purpose of John the Baptist-a man sent from God (v. 6).
It is a great thing when God lays hold of a man and says, I want you to go on My errand. I am quite sure He put His hand upon me when I was fourteen years old. He said, I have saved your soul. I want you to go forth to preach My gospel. What a joy it has been for fifty years, through good and evil, to proclaim that glad message! Sometimes a man goes on for a number of years before God puts His hand on him. Saul of Tarsus was a mature man, beyond thirty years of age, when the blessed Lord appeared to him on the Damascus road and said, I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I now send thee (Act 26:16-17).
He came to Peter when he was a man in the fishing business. He said, Peter, leave your fish behind, and I will make you a fisher of men. He came to Matthew when he sat at the publicans desk. Someone has said that Matthew was probably the man who taught Peter to swear. Matthew was a Roman tax collector and he was a Jew, putting heavy taxes upon his own people. Every time Peter brought in a boat-load of fish it was Matthews business to go down and say, Give me twenty percent of those fish. I can imagine Peter and Matthew wrangling over the selection the government was to have, and Peter cursing and swearing because of the tax collectors exactions! But the Lord came to Matthew the publican, and said, Follow Me. Matthew left the tax collectors desk for good, and was chosen to write the first gospel.
I wonder if there is anyone reading these lines to whom God is speaking? Often in the still hours of the night you may have heard a voice saying, I want you as My servant, as My missionary. I want you to work for Me in some special way. Are you saying, Here am I, [Lord]; send me (Isa 6:8)? Do not be afraid to yield to Him. Some day people will say of you, There was a man, or a woman, sent from God. It was true of John, and he is going to get his reward for heeding the call when he stands at the judgment seat of Christ.
Now John came as a witness. That is what every minister should be-a witness. A witness does not tell the things he thinks, but the things he knows. He came as a witness-to bear witness of the Light. Does light need a witness? Yes, in a dark world like this, where men are blind. They cannot see, and they need a witness to the fact that light has come. John knew that the world was blind and he came to tell men of the Light. The wonderful thing was this: when men received and believed the message, they lost their blindness and were able to see. They beheld Christ, the Light, that all men through him might believe (v. 7).
Who was the Light? Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. That was the true Light. And while we are at this point, let me draw your attention to a slightly different rendering of this verse. Here we read, That was the true Light. Oh, there are so many false lights. There are so many false, flickering lights that men follow to their ruin. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world (v. 9). What does that mean? Does Christ give spiritual light to every man that comes into the world? Well, partly. He does give light through our consciences, and yet, I think there is more than that involved in this text. I believe it is really this: That was the true Light, which, coming into the world, casts light on every man. That is, it is not light in man, but light shining on man. I mean this, the Lord Jesus Christ came into a world made up of wickedness-made up of sinful men who rolled sin as a sweet morsel under their tongues. He came as the only holy Man that ever walked this earth, and as He walked in and out among men all other men were shown up in contrast. He cast light on every man.
I wonder if among my readers there is someone who has been saying to himself, I dont need this gospel. I am not a great sinner. I havent killed anybody. I havent robbed. I dont curse and swear. I am not a sinner. Wait a minute, my friend! Will you come and stand alongside of the Lord Jesus Christ? There you have Man in perfection. How does your life compare with His? How does your spirit, your words, and your way of looking at things compare with His? Oh, when we stand alongside of Him, He casts light on us, and that light shows up all our spiritual and moral deficiencies. That was the Light which, coming into the world, casts light on every man.
The law was given to one nation and one people. Amos calls it a plumb line, by which all crookedness could be detected. He has in mind the building of a wall. One looks at it and says, That wall is not straight. The builder resents this, but when he takes a plumb line and drops it down by the wall, it manifests its imperfection.
Here is a man who claims to be perfect and God says, Test him by My law and you will find that he is crooked. Scripture says that if a man will keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all (Jam 2:1). But Jesus answered its every claim; He met its every demand. In him is no sin (1Jn 3:5). He knew no sin (2Co 5:21). [He] did no sin (1Pe 2:22). That is what man should be for God. When you take your place beside Him, at once all your imperfection is shown up. He casts light upon you.
That is the true Light which, coming into the world, casts light on every man. Well, has He only come to show up my sin? Has He only come to make manifest my imperfection? No, indeed. He must make me first see my need, but it is only that He may reveal Himself as my Savior!
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not (v. 10). Not one of His fellow townsmen dreamed that God Himself had come down to dwell among them.
I remember as my wife and I were walking down the streets of Nazareth we were appalled by the dirt and filth-the unclean children playing about the open sewers running down both sides of the street. As we were walking along, my wife began to weep. The tears were running down her cheeks. I said, Why, my dear, what is the matter? Are you ill? Oh, no, she said. But I was thinking of Mary and Jesus-Mary bringing up her holy Child in a place like this, for it must have been even worse then than it is now. You know how many Oriental cities are, vile and terrible. Some of you think you have smelled terrible things in America, but unless you have visited certain places in the Orient, you havent smelled anything yet! But Jesus grew up amidst all the filth and vileness like a pure white lily coming up from the muddy contaminated water at the bottom of the lake. Jesus, the pure; Jesus, the holy One. He was in the world and the Creator of all things, and they knew him not (v. 10). He made their tables and chairs and fitted in the doors and windows into their houses, and nobody realized that it was God Himself walking among them until by-and-by He went to the cross and died for our sins. They laid him away in the tomb, and on the third morning He burst the bands of death and arose in triumph. He is never to be humiliated again. He is the Head of the new creation-of those who have trusted Him and are one with Him in resurrection life.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not (v. 11). The first His own is in the neuter; the second is personal. We might read, He came unto His own things, and His own people did not receive Him. Yes, He came into His own world. He created this world. He came into the world His hands had made. He came to His own country, His own city, the city of Jerusalem. He came to His own temple-In thy sanctuary, every whit of it uttereth his glory, said David. He came unto His own things, but His own people, the Jews, the people who had been waiting for Him presumably for all those hundreds of years, did not recognize Him and they received him not.
Have you received Him? There were those who heard Him speaking and they opened their hearts to Him. As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name (v. 12). We have the whole truth of the way of salvation right here, so far as our part is concerned. God has set Him forth a Prince and a Savior, and when we receive Him we become His. Do you say, How may I avail myself of His saving grace? Here you have it. As many as received him. To receive Him is to trust Him, to open your heart to Him. Have you received Him? As many as received him. Do not make a difficulty out of that which is so simple. God has used the plainest possible terms. Jesus says, Come unto me, and I will give you rest (Mat 11:28). Believe on Me, and you will have eternal life. Look to Me, and you will be saved. Receive Me, and I will make you My own. To receive Him, throw the hearts door wide and He will come in. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me (Rev 3:20).
There is a beautiful gospel song that says, You must open the door. You must open the door. Jesus will not force His way in. Will you open the door? Will you let Him in? At this very moment you can bow your head, open your heart, and say, I want You to come in and be Lord of my life. Wont you receive Him? As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God. You see, men are not Gods children by natural birth. Jesus said to a certain group of His day, Ye are of your father the devil (Joh 8:44), and of all who are saved the apostle says, [Who were at one time] children of wrath (Eph 2:3). We are born of sinful flesh. In order to become children of God we need to be regenerated. As many as received Him. To receive Him is to believe in His name, to take Him at His word. It is to trust Him. Do not try to make a great mystery of faith. Faith is simply putting your Amen to what God says. We receive the witness of men. Some man comes to us in whom we have confidence. We believe what he tells us. We receive the witness of men. Very well, God has given us His witness concerning His Son. Do you receive His testimony into your heart? Would you dare make God a liar by refusing to believe the testimony He has given concerning His Son?
Notice what is said of those who believe in His name: [To] as many as received him, to them gave he [the] power [or authority] to become the [children] of God. There are three ways by which you cannot become a child of God.
First, which were born, not of blood (v. 13a). That means that even if your parents were two of the best Christians that ever lived, they cannot give you divine life. They cannot communicate their new nature to you. It is only God who can do that. You are not a child of God by blood.
Second, nor of the will of the flesh (v. 13b). You cannot simply make yourself a Christian by your own will: It is not of him that willeth, or of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy (Rom 9:16). Here is a man who says, Well, I havent any employment, so I will become a soldier. He finds that he must have a uniform, so he goes to an outfitting shop and buys the uniform. He comes down the street wearing it and imagines he is a soldier. We may inquire, How did you become a soldier? Well, I put on a uniform, and I am a soldier. Does that make him a soldier? Certainly not. He must be enlisted. No man can become a Christian by simply saying, From now on, I am a Christian. That does not make you a Christian. You must come to God as a sinner and receive Christ. He will make you a Christian. He will give you new life. It is not just by trying to be better but by letting God make of you a new creature.
Third, nor of the will of man (v. 13c). No one on earth can make you a Christian. People imagine some minister or priest can make Christians of them by baptism or sacraments. But these cannot save you. Ye must be born again (Joh 3:7). Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. God alone produces that new life in the soul of every believer in His blessed Son.
Now the last verse in this section: And the Word was made flesh (v. 14). That is not the best translation. Actually, as we have remarked already, the Word was never made anything. The Word became flesh. Link that up with the first verse, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh. He who was one with the Father from all eternity became Man. It means He took upon Him our humanity, body and soul and spirit. He became a Man, and yet He was God, and dwelt among us. The word dwelt might be rendered tabernacled among us. Of old God dwelt in the tabernacle in the wilderness. Now He has been manifested in His Son. The Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us, and we beheld his glory, the divine glory shining out. John lived with Him, walked with Him, prayed with Him. He saw in His holy life the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
These words were written by one who knew Jesus practically all His life. He was related to Him by natural ties, and he must have known Him when He was growing up there in Nazareth. One of the earliest church historians tells us that John was an adolescent when Christ called him to be a fisher of men. He spent three-and-a-half years of most intimate fellowship with Jesus, and he was the one who leaned on Jesus breast at the last supper. He was probably about ninety years of age when he wrote this book, and as he looked back over the years he says, We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. That revelation he shares with us as he pens these wonderful chapters.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

am 3999, bc 5
a man: Joh 1:33, Joh 3:28, Isa 40:3-5, Mal 3:1, Mal 4:5, Mal 4:6, Mat 3:1-11, Mat 11:10, Mat 21:25, Mar 1:1-8, Luk 1:15-17, Luk 1:76, Luk 3:2-20, Act 13:24
John: Luk 1:13, Luk 1:61-63
Reciprocal: Pro 2:13 – walk Pro 6:9 – when Son 3:2 – will rise Mar 9:12 – restoreth Mar 11:30 – General Luk 20:4 – baptism Joh 5:33 – he
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BAPTIST
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
Joh 1:6
There are two things about John which we have to remember:
I. He was a fearless man.In those days, as now, people were very fond of having their own way; and John went into the midst of these people, and he told them of their sins, and did not spare one of them, whether it was a soldier, or statesman, or king.
II. He was a very humble man.Men brave in the battlefield are generally the humblest in other things. John did not want anything himself; he wanted to be lost in Christ.
III. He was a burning and a shining light, but only so to prepare for the Sun of Righteousness. He was a burning light, full of the warmth of love; a shining light to light them on the path they ought to go. We all ought to be that. That ought be the object and calling of every one of us.
Rev. Canon Teignmouth Shore.
Illustration
A ship was wrecked at sea and a boat was launched with the passengers. But the night grew so terribly dark and the storm beat so fiercely that they gave themselves up as lost. At last, a sailor who knew the coast said he was acquainted with a creek into which they could run if they only had a light. But there was no light. Suddenly, however, they saw a little flicker, and it grew larger, and by its guidance, with a shout of joy, the brave sailors rammed the boat into the creek, and they were saved. That night a little girl, very young, had heard a wild cry above the storm out at sea, and with her little hands she rolled down an old tar-barrel by the shore. She had stuffed it with straw and set a match to it, saying, Perhaps even my little light may save some one. And it did. You never know what power you may be to save some shipwrecked life.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
WITNESSING TO THE LIGHT
Seven hundred years before, Isaiah foretold the office of John the Baptist (Isa 40:3), and the Old Testament itself ends with a prophecy of the great messenger of Christ (Mal 3:1). He was the harbinger, the forerunner, the pioneer of the Lord: to prepare for Christ, to glorify Christ, was the object of his birth and the sum of his existence.
The secret of Christ-like living in public is Christ-like praying in secret; and most certainly John himself was a man of prayer. John was Christs witness
I.By his words.
II.By his life.
III.In his death.
Christ expects all who love Him to be His witnesses. Let us never forget that our religion ought not only to be a possession to be enjoyed, but also a talent for which we are responsible, and a light which by all means we must spread.
Rev. F. Harper.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

6
The preceding 5 verses may be considered as John’s preface to his account of the Gospel. The importance of the light of heaven, as it was to be shed on the world by the personal life of Christ, was of such great proportions, that God deemed it well to send a forerunner among men, to prepare a people for the reception of the Light. That man’s name was John (the Baptist).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

JOHN, after beginning his gospel with a statement of our Lord’s nature as God, proceeds to speak of His forerunner, John the Baptist. The contrast between the language used about the Savior, and that used about His forerunner, ought not to be overlooked. Of Christ we are told that He was the eternal God,-the Creator of all things,-the source of life and light. Of John the Baptist we are told simply, that “there was a man sent from God, whose name was John.”
We see, firstly, in these verses, the true nature of a Christian minister’s office. We have it in the description of John the Baptist: “He came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe.”
Christian ministers are not priests, nor mediators between God and man. They are not agents into whose hands men may commit their souls, and carry on their religion by deputy. They are witnesses. They are intended to bear testimony to God’s truth, and specially to the great truth that Christ is the only Savior and light of the world. This was Peter’s ministry on the day of Pentecost.-“With many other words did he testify.” (Act 2:40.) This was the whole tenor of Paul’s ministry.-“He testified both to the Jews and Greeks repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Act 20:21.) Unless a Christian minister bears a full testimony to Christ, he is not faithful to his office. So long as he does testify of Christ, he has done his part, and will receive his reward, although his hearers may not believe his testimony. Until a minister’s hearers believe on that Christ of whom they are told, they receive no benefit from the ministry. They may be pleased and interested; but they are not profited until they believe. The great end of a minister’s testimony is “that through him, men may believe.”
We see, secondly, in these verses, one principal position which our Lord Jesus Christ occupies towards mankind. We have it in the words, “He was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”
Christ is to the souls of men what the sun is to the world. He is the center and source of all spiritual light, warmth, life, health, growth, beauty, and fertility. Like the sun, He shines for the common benefit of all mankind,-for high and for low, for rich and for poor, for Jew and for Greek. Like the sun, He is free to all. All may look at Him, and drink health out of His light. If millions of mankind were mad enough to dwell in caves underground, or to bandage their eyes, their darkness would be their own fault, and not the fault of the sun. So, likewise, if millions of men and women love spiritual “darkness rather than light,” the blame must be laid on their blind hearts, and not on Christ. “Their foolish hearts are darkened.” (Joh 3:19; Rom 1:21.) But whether men will see or not, Christ is the true sun, and the light of the world. There is no light for sinners except in the Lord Jesus.
We see, thirdly, in these verses, the desperate wickedness of man’s natural heart. We have it in the words, Christ “was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.”
Christ was in the world invisibly, long before He was born of the virgin Mary. He was there from the very beginning, ruling, ordering, and governing the whole creation. By Him all things consisted. (Col 1:17.) He gave to all life and breath, rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons. By Him kings reigned, and nations were increased or diminished. Yet men knew Him not, and honored Him not. They “worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator.” (Rom 1:25.) Well may the natural heart be called “wicked”!
But Christ came visibly into the world, when He was born at Bethlehem, and fared no better. He came to the very people whom He had brought out from Egypt, and purchased for His own. He came to the Jews, whom He had separated from other nations, and to whom He had revealed Himself by the prophets. He came to those very Jews who had read of Him in the Old Testament Scriptures,-seen Him under types and figures in their temple services,-and professed to be waiting for His coming. And yet, when He came, those very Jews received Him not. They even rejected Him, despised Him, and slew Him. Well may the natural heart be called “desperately wicked”!
We see, lastly, in these verses, the vast privileges of all who receive Christ, and believe on Him. We are told that “as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.”
Christ will never be without some servants. If the vast majority of the Jews did not receive Him as the Messiah, there were, at any rate, a few who did. To them He gave the privilege of being God’s children. He adopted them as members of His Father’s family. He reckoned them His own brethren and sisters, bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh. He conferred on them a dignity which was ample recompense for the cross which they had to carry for His sake. He made them sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty.
Privileges like these, be it remembered, are the possession of all, in every age, who receive Christ by faith, and follow Him as their Savior. They are “children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:26.) They are born again by a new and heavenly birth, and adopted into the family of the King of kings. Few in number, and despised by the world as they are, they are cared for with infinite love by a Father in heaven, who, for His Son’s sake, is well pleased with them. In time He provides them with everything that is for their good. In eternity He will give them a crown of glory that fadeth not away. These are great things! But faith in Christ gives men an ample title to them. Good masters care for their servants, and Christ cares for His.
Are we ourselves sons of God? Have we been born again? Have we the marks which always accompany the new birth,-sense of sin, faith in Jesus, love of others, righteous living, separation from the world? Let us never be content till we can give a satisfactory answer to these questions.
Do we desire to be sons of God? Then let us “receive Christ” as our Savior, and believe on Him with the heart. To every one that so receives Him, He will give the privilege of becoming a son of God.
==================
Notes-
v6.-[There was a man sent from God…John.] This is a short and striking description of John the Baptist. He was the messenger whom God promised to send before Messiah’s face. He was born when his parents were aged, by God’s miraculous interposition. He was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb. He received a special commission from God to preach the baptism of repentance, and to proclaim the immediate coming of Christ. In short, he was specially raised up by God to prepare the way for the Messiah. For all these reasons he is here called “a man sent from God.” It is, in one sense, the common mark of all true ministers of the Gospel. Ignorant, blind, and unconverted ministers may be ordained and sent by man. But they are not “sent from God.”
v7.-[Came for a witness.] This does not mean, as it might at first sight appear, “came to be a witness.” The Greek word which we translate “witness,” does not mean “a person,” but the testimony which a witness bears.
[To bear witness of the light.] This means, to testify concerning Jesus Christ the light of the world, that He was the promised Messiah, the Lamb of God, the Bridegroom, the Almighty Saviour, to whom all dark souls ought to apply.
[All men.] This cannot of course signify “all mankind.” It means all who heard John’s testimony, and all Jews who were really looking for a Redeemer. One end of John the Baptist’s testimony was that all such should believe on Christ the true light.
[Through him.] This does not mean “through Christ” and Christ’s grace, but through John the Baptist and John’s testimony. It is one of those texts which show the immense importance of the ministerial office. It is a means and instrument through which the Holy Spirit is pleased to produce faith in man’s heart. “Faith cometh by hearing.” Through John the Baptist’s testimony, Andrew was led to believe in Jesus and become a disciple. Just so now, through the preaching of ministers sinners learn to believe on Christ and are saved.
v8.-[He was not that light.] This expression would be more literally rendered, “He was not the light,” the promised light of sinners, the light of the world. The Greek article “the,” is used in a similar emphatic manner, to denote eminence and distinction, in the following passages. “That bread.” Joh 6:32. “That prophet.” Joh 1:21-25. “That day.” 1Th 5:4. “That way.” Act 9:2.
Let it be noted that our Lord himself calls John the Baptist at a later period, “The burning and shining light.” (Joh 5:35.) But it is a curious fact that the Greek word there rendered “light,” is not the one used here. It is a word which is frequently translated “candle.” John the Baptist was a “candle,” but not the light itself. Believers are called “the light of the world.” (Mat 5:14,) but only as members of Christ the light, and borrowing light from him. Christ alone is the great sun and fountain of all light, the light itself.
v9.-[That was the true light.] The force of the expression “true” in this sentence, is well brought out by Arrowsmith in his commentary on this verse. He says that Christ is “the true light” in four respects. Firstly, He is undeceiving light, the true light in opposition to all the false lights of the Gentiles.-Secondly, He is real light, true in opposition to ceremonial types and shadows.-Thirdly, He is underived light, true in opposition to all light that is borrowed, communicated, or participated from another.-Fourthly, He is supereminent light, true in opposition to all that is ordinary and common.
[Which lighteth every man…cometh…world.] This sentence has caused much difference of opinion among commentators, in respect to two points.
(a.) In the first place, men differ as to the application of the words, “that cometh into the world.” Some connect these words with “the true light,” and read the words, “this is the true light that coming into the world lighteth every man.” In favour of this view, the words “light is come into the world,” (Joh 3:19,) and “I am come a light into the world,” (Joh 12:46,) deserve notice.-Others connect the words with “every man,” and regard them as a sweeping description of every one naturally born of the seed of Adam. That “coming into the world ” is a Hebrew phrase for being born, is shown by Nifanius. The construction of the whole verse in the original Greek, is such that either rendering is grammatical and correct.
Opinions are so nicely balanced on this point, and so much may be said on either side, that I venture my own judgment with much hesitation. But I am inclined to think on the whole, with Chemnitius and Glassius, that our translators are right, and that the clause “that cometh into the world,” is better connected with “every man” than with “the true light.”-If the verse is rendered “this is the true light that coming into the world lighteth every man,” it seems rather to narrow the blessing of the true light, and to confine his illumining benefits to the times after His incarnation. This, be it remembered, is precisely the view of the Socinian. And yet it is unquestionably true that Christ’s incarnation increased greatly the spiritual light in the world. John says, “The darkness is past and the true light now shineth.” (1Jn 2:8.) If, on the other hand, the verse is rendered as our version has it, the words “that cometh into the world,” seem very suitably joined to “every man,” as expressing the universality of the blessings which Christ confers on man. He is not only the true light of the Jew, but of “every man that is born into the world,” of every name, and people, and tongue. To suppose, as some have done, that this application of the words “come into the world,” involves the preexistence of souls, is, to say the least, a foolish thought.
The point is, happily, one on which men may agree to differ. Sound doctrine may be got out of either view.
(b.) The second difference of opinion respecting this verse arises from the words, “lighteth every man.” This expression has received widely different interpretations. All, except heretics, are agreed that the words cannot mean that all are converted, and cannot signify the final, universal salvation of all mankind. What then do they mean?
Some think, as Cyril, that Christ “the true light,” lighteth every man and woman on earth with the light of reason, intelligence, and consciousness of right and wrong. This view is partially true, and yet it seems weak and defective.
Some think, as the Quakers are reported to do, that Christ lighteth every man and woman on earth with an inward light of grace, sufficient to save him, if he will only use it. This view is a dangerous one, and beside contradicting many texts of Scripture, leads on to downright Pelagianism.
Some think, as Augustine, that Christ lighteth all that are lighted by His grace, and that “every man” is practically the same as every believer. They quote in support of this view, the verse, “The LORD upholdeth all that fall,” (Psa 145:14,) where “all” can only mean, “all those that are upheld are upheld by the Lord.” A favourite illustration of this view is the saying, that a schoolmaster “teaches all the boys in a town,” that is, “all who are taught are taught by him.” This interpretation, however, is not thoroughly satisfactory, and has an appearance of quibbling and unfairness about it.
Some think, as Chrysostom, and Brentius in his Homilies, and Lightfoot, that Christ is really given to be the light of all mankind. They think that when it is said, He “lighteth every man,” it means that He shines sufficiently for the salvation of all mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, (like the sun shining upon all creation,) though the majority of men are so blinded by sin that they do not see Him. Yet Christ is for every man. “He lighteth all,” says Chrysostom, “as far as in Him lies.”-“There is power and good will in the light,” says Chemnitius, “to illumine all; but some love darkness rather than light.” Arrowsmith says, “Christ doth dispense to every one light sufficient to leave him without excuse. But Christ doth not dispense to every one converting light sufficient to bring him to salvation.”
I believe this last view to be the most probable one, though I confess that it is not unattended by difficulties. But I rest in the conclusion that Christ is offered as a light to all the world, and that every one born into the world will prove at last to have been in some way indebted to Christ, even though not saved.
Pearce says of the Greek word rendered “lighteth,” that, “in the Hebrew tongue that which is only intended to be done is often expressed as a thing actually done.” He regards this expression before us as a similar one. He gives, as parallel instances, 1Co 10:33, “please,” for “intend to please,” Gal 5:4, “justified,” for “intend to be justified,” and 1Jn 2:26, “seduce,” for “intend to seduce.”
The Greek word rendered “lighteth” is used eleven times in the New Testament, and is translated “to give light, to light, to bring to light, to enlighten, to illuminate.”
v10.-[He was in the world, &c…knew him not.] This verse describes the unbelief of the whole world before Christ’s incarnation. He “was in the world” invisibly, before He was born of the virgin Mary, as in the days of Noah. (1Pe 3:19.) He was to be seen in His works and in His providential government of all things, if men had only had eyes to see Him. And yet the very world which He had made, the work of his hands, did not acknowledge, believe, or obey Him. It knew Him not. At Athens, Paul found an altar “to the unknown God.”
That the expression applies to Christ before His incarnation, and not after, is said by Lampe to be the unanimous opinion of Origen, Chrysostom, Augustine, Cyril, Theodoret, Beda, Theophylact, and Euthymius.
There is a striking similarity between the declaration of this Terse and the contents of the latter part of the 1st chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. In fact the line of argument by which Paul shows the Gentiles to be guilty, in the first chapter of that epistle, and the Jews to be equally guilty and excuseless in the second chapter, is only a full exposition of what John here states briefly in two verses.
v11.-[He came unto his own…received him not.] This verse describes the unbelief of the Jewish nation after the incarnation of Christ, and during His ministry among them. He came to a people who were peculiarly His own, by their redemption from Egypt, by their introduction into the land of Canaan, and by their possession of the law of Moses, and the covenants, and yet they did not believe on Him, or receive Him, but actually rejected and slew Him.
There is a peculiarity about the Greek words rendered “his own,” in this verse, which ought not to be overlooked. The first “his own” is in the neuter gender, and means literally “his own things.” The second “his own” is in the masculine gender, and means “his own men, servants or subjects.” It is probably meant to show that our Lord came to a people whose land, territory, cities, temple, were all His own property, and had been originally granted by Himself. The Jews, Palestine, Jerusalem, the temple, were all Christ’s peculiar possession. Israel was “His inheritance.” (Psa 78:71.)-This made the sin of those who “received Him not,” even more sinful.
v12.-[As many as received Him.] This expression signifies, “as many as believed on Christ, and acknowledged Him as the Messiah.” It is only another form of the expression at the end of the verse, “believed on His name.” To receive Christ is to accept Him with a willing heart, and to take Him as our Saviour. It is one of many forms of speech, by which that justifying faith which unites the sinner’s soul to Christ is expressed in the Bible. To believe on Christ with the heart, is to receive Him, and to receive Him is to believe on Him.-Paul says to the Colossians, “As ye have received Christ, so walk ye in Him.” (Col 2:6.)
The Greek word rendered, “As many as,” is literally, “whosoever,” “whatsoever persons.” Glassius remarks, that the expression denotes the universality of the benefits which Christ conferred. “Whosoever” received Him, Pharisees, Sadducees, learned or unlearned, male or fi-male, Jews or Gentiles, to them He gave the privilege of sonship to God.
[To them gave he power to become the sons of God.] This expression means, “He gave them the privilege of adoption into God’s family.” They became the “children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:26.) “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” (1Jn 5:1.) There is no sonship to God without living faith in Christ. Let this never be forgotten. To talk of God being men’s Father, and men being God’s children, while they do not believe on the Son of God, is contrary to Scripture. Those are not children of God who have not faith in Jesus.
The word “power” in this sentence requires careful guarding against misrepresentation. It means, as the marginal reading says, “right or privilege.” It does not mean strength or ability. It does not mean that Christ confers on those who receive Him a spiritual and moral strength, by which they convert themselves, change their own hearts, and make themselves God’s children. No doubt Christ gives to all His people all needful grace to supply all the wants of their hearts, and the necessities of their position. No doubt He gives them strength to carry the cross, fight the good fight, and overcome the world. But that is not the truth taught in the words before us, and must be sought in other places. The words before us only mean that Christ confers the privilege of adoption on all believers, and did so especially on His first disciples. While their unbelieving fellow-countrymen were boasting of being children of Abraham, Christ gave His disciples the far higher privilege of being children of God.
The Greek word rendered “power” is used 102 times in the New Testament, and never on one occasion in the sense of physical, moral, or spiritual strength to do a thing. It is generally translated, “authority, right, power, liberty, jurisdiction.”
[To them that believe on His name.] These words are added to make clearer, if possible, the character of those who have the privilege of being sons of God. They are they who receive Christ and believe on His name. Arrowsmith remarks, “The word ‘name,’ in the Scripture, is often put for person. The receivers of Christ are said to believe on His name, because the direct object of their faith is the person of Christ. It is not the believing that Christ died for all, or for me, or for the elect, or any such proposition, that saveth. It is believing on Christ. The person, or name of Christ, is the object of faith.”
The expression, “believe on His name,” ought not to be overlooked. Arrowsmith remarks that there is a known distinction amongst divines, between believing God, that there is such a Being,-believing God, that what He says is true,-and believing on God in the way of faith and confidence as our God. And he observes, most truly, that precisely the same distinction exists between faith that there is such a Saviour as Christ,-faith that what Christ says is true,-and faith of reliance on Christ as our Saviour. Believing on Christ’s name is exactly this faith of reliance, and is the faith that saves and justifies.
v13.-[Which were born, &c., &c…of God.] The birth here spoken of is the new birth, or regeneration, that complete change of heart and nature which takes place in a man when he becomes a real Christian. It is a change so great that no other figure but that of birth can fully express it. It is as when a new being, with new appetites, wants, and desires is brought into the world. A person born of God is “a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.” (2Co 5:17.)
The persons who believe on Christ’s name are said to be born “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” The interpretation of this expression which is usually given by commentators appears to me neither correct nor seemly. The true meaning of the words, I believe, is this. Believers did not become what they are “by blood,” that is by descent from Abraham or blood connection with godly people. “Grace does not descend from parent to child.-Nor yet did believers become what they are by the will of the flesh,-that is by the efforts and exertions of their own natural hearts. Nature can never change itself. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.”-Nor yet did believers become what they are by the will of man,-that is by the acts and deeds of others. Neither ordained ministers, nor any one else, can confer grace upon another. Man cannot regenerate hearts.-Believers become what they are solely and entirely by the grace of God. It is to God’s free grace, preventing, calling, converting, renewing and sanctifying, that they owe their new birth. They are born of God, or, as the third chapter says more distinctly, “born of the Spirit.”
The word which we render “blood,” in the singular number, is, in the Greek, plural, “bloods.”-This peculiarity has made some conjecture that the expression refers to the blood shed in circumcision and sacrifice, and teaches the inability of these things to regenerate man. But this idea seems far-fetched and improbable. The use of the plural number appears to me intended to exclude all fleshly confidence in any descent or relationship. It was neither the blood of Abraham, or of David, or of Aaron, or of Judah, or of Levi, which could give grace or make any one a child of God.
This is the first time the new birth is spoken of by name in Scripture. Let us not fail to notice how carefully the doctrine is fenced against errors, and how emphatically we are told what this new birth does not come from, as well as what it does come from. It is a striking fact that when Peter mentions the new birth, he fences it in like manner, (1Pe 1:23,) and when he speaks of baptism “saving” us, he carefully adds that it is “not the putting away of the filth of the flesh.” (1Pe 3:21.) In the face of all these cautions, it is curious to observe the pertinacity with which many overthrow the whole doctrine of the new birth by the assertion that all baptized persons are born again!
We must be careful that we do not interpret the words “which were born” as if the new birth was a change which takes place in a man after he has believed in Christ, and is the next step after faith. Saving faith and regeneration are inseparable. The moment that a man really believes in Christ, however feebly, he is born of God. The weakness of his faith may make him unconscious of the change, just as a new-born infant knows little or nothing about itself. But where there is faith there is always new birth, and where there is no faith there is no regeneration.
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels

Joh 1:6. There arose a man, sent from God, whose name was John. With this verse we pass forward into the times of the Incarnate Word. The section upon which we first enter is, as compared with the second, general; hence the Incarnation is only implied, not expressly mentioned. The immediate preparation for this new period is the testimony of the Baptist; and the words with which he is introduced to us stand in striking contrast to what we have been told of the Word in Joh 1:1. He arose,literally, he came into being, as distinguished from the was of that verse. He was a man sent from God, as distinguished from the Word who was with God. In adding, his name was John, the Evangelist (we may perhaps say) does more than identify him as the great prophet who had so powerfully impressed all classes of the people. If we remember the deep significance attached to name in this Gospel, it will seem possible that the antithesis to Joh 1:1 is still continued. The personal name needed for identification amongst men is placed in contrast with that name by which the eternal attributes of the Son are expressed, the Word (comp. Joh 1:12).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Here the evangelist proceeds in declaring Christ to be really God, because he was that original, that essential light, which had no beginning, suffers no decay, but is so diffusive, and in some kind and in some measure or other, to enlighten every man that cometh into the world. Some of the Jews had a conceit, that John the Baptist was the promised Messiah, as appears by Luk 3:15 The people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John whether he were the Christ or not.
Here therefore, to undeceive the Jews, the evangelist adds, that John was not that light; John was a great light, a burning and a shining light, but not such a light as the Messias was to be.
John was a light instrumentally, Christ efficiently,
John was a light enlightened, Christ was a light enlightening;
John’s light was by derivation and particiapation, Christ’s was essential and original;
John’s light was the light of a candle in a private house, in and among the Jews only: but Christ’s light was as the light of the sun, spreading over the face of the whole earth.
This is the true light, that lighteth every man that cometh into the world; that is, he enlightens all mankind with the light of reason, and is the Author of all spiritual illumination in them that receive it. Christ is called a light in regard of his office, which was to manifest and declare that salvation to his church which lay hid before in the purpose of God; and he is called the true light, not so much in opposition to all false light, but as opposed to the types and shadows of the Mosaical dispensation.
Learn, 1. That every man and woman that comes into the world is enlightened by Christ in some kind and measure or other. All are enlightened with the light of reason and natural conscience: some with the light of grace and supernatural illumination.
Learn, 5. That Christ being the essential, original, and eternal Light, enlightening and enlivening the whole creation, is an evident and undeniable demonstration that he is truly and really God.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Joh 1:6-9. There was a man sent from God The introducer of a new dispensation, the morning star, preceding the rise of the Sun of righteousness; whose name was JOHN That is, grace; a name fitly given to the Messiahs forerunner, who was sent to proclaim the immediate accomplishment of Gods gracious intentions toward men, the expectation of which had been raised in them by all his preceding dispensations. The same came for a witness , for, or, in order to give, a testimony of an infinitely important kind; to bear witness of the light , that he might testify concerning the light: namely, the light mentioned above, Christ, the light of the world; that all men through him Through his testimony; might believe In Christ, the light. He John, though an extraordinary messenger of God, was himself not that light, but was merely sent to bear witness of that light And thereby to draw mens attention to it, and induce them to believe in it; namely, in the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world Both as he is their Maker, who has put into their minds the light of reason and conscience, and as he visits and strives with them by his Spirit, and is the author of that revelation, which was not intended to be confined to the single nation of the Jews, but to be communicated to all mankind.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

[See also the “General Considerations on the Prologue” in the comments of Joh 1:18.]
Ver. 6. There appeared a man sent from God; his name was John.
The forerunner is not mentioned here as representing, either the whole of the Jewish economy, or prophetism in particular, as is thought by the interpreters who endeavor to find an historical plan in the Prologue. The apostle speaks of the forerunner only with respect to his personality and from the point of view of his relation to that of the Saviour.
The mention of the forerunner in this place with such particularity is, as Weiss observes, characteristic of the Apostle John, to whom the Baptist had served as a guide to conduct him to Christ.
The word , became, appeared, points to an historical fact, and might thus form a contrast with the verbs , was, which in Joh 1:1 designated the eternal existence of the Word; but between them the two of Joh 1:4 have intervened. The word , a man, might also be the antithesis to the divine subject who has alone been brought forward up to this point; yet there is nothing which indicates this with sufficient positiveness.
The analytic form sets forth the importance of the person of John in a better way than the simple , which would have reference only to his mission. He was the first prophetic person raised up by God since a time long past. On the word sent, comp. Joh 3:28 : Because I am sent before him, as well as Mal 3:1, from which passage this expression is certainly drawn. The name John (God shows grace) marked the character of the era which was about to open. Yet it is not for this reason that the evangelist mentions the name here. He means simply to say: This man, of whom I speak to you, is the one who is known by you all under the name of John. It is remarkable that our evangelist uses simply the name John, without adding the epithet Baptist, which had early become inseparable from this name, as we see from the Synoptics, and even from the Jewish historian, Josephus. Does not Meyer reasonably conclude from this omission (Introd. p. 31), that the author of our Gospel must have known the forerunner otherwise than through the general tradition of the Church? If he had really known him before the public voice had given him this title, it was very natural that he should designate him simply by his name. Credner thought that, inasmuch as the title Baptist served in the Church to distinguish the forerunner from another person of the same name (John the apostle), the latter omitted the title in order that he might not attract attention to himself by the contrast; an ingenious observation, but, perhaps, less well- founded than the preceding. After having introduced this personage, the author describes his role:
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

TESTIMONY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST
Joh 1:6-51. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, that he may testify concerning the Light, in order that all may believe through him. He was not that Light, but that he may testify concerning that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. John the Baptist clearly and powerfully preached the gracious possibility of universal salvation, involving the saving efficiency of Christ from the foundation of the world. Darkness here means sin, and light means grace. Hence, you see that the true, saving grace of God in Christ is actually given to every human being, of all ages and nations, Pagan, Mohammedan, Papist, and Protestant.
Christ died for all, and by His Spirit shines on all. Hence, none will have an excuse for their own damnation, as all they have to do is to walk in the light God gives, and in that case, the blood cleanses from all sin. (1Jn 1:7) Hence, people are only lost for rejecting the light, as God only requires all to be true to the light and the grace given.
He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. The Savior was unknown, misunderstood, falsely accused, unjustly condemned, and cruelly put to death. Two hundred millions of martyrs have added their blood to His for the same reason; i.e., because the World knew them not. Jesus and the martyrs suffered condemnation and death as malefactors, while they were the best people in the world. Such will always be the case till our Lord comes in His glory. The people of this wicked world will never understand Gods true people. When they understand and appreciate you, an awful suspicion arises that you have gotten wrong. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not; i.e., He came to the Jews, His own consanguinity, and given to Him in an everlasting Covenant. Because they were carnal and worldly, they misunderstood, disowned, and killed Him. If He had been carnal, like themselves, they would have received Him all right, as they did several false Christs within forty years after His crucifixion. But in that case, He could not have saved them, but must have failed, like all of those false Christs.
But so many as received Him, unto them gave He the privilege to become the children of God, to them that believe on His name, who were born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. In this wonderful and beautiful passage, setting forth so clearly and gloriously the great fundamental doctrine of regeneration, the word translated power in E.V. is exousia, signifying, not only power, but more properly, privilege, right, authority. The word most prevalent in the New Testament and translated power is dunamiz i.e., dynamite, an infinitely stronger word than exousia. It means the very omnipotence of the Almighty; whereas, exousia here means the right or the privilege of every one that receives Christ to become the children of God through faith, salvation being optionary with the recipient; i.e., you can all believe and be saved, or disbelieve and be lost. The specification here given on the negative side is exceedingly valuable, as it is Gods Warning against Satans delusion. Not from bloods. Until the date of this Scripture, all Church services consisted in bloody sacrifices. Hence the conclusion, that no one can be regenerated by water baptism, the eucharist, good works, or ritual ceremonies of any kind; nor from the will of the flesh i.e., you can not receive the Divine birth by the carnal will. The Ethiopian can not change his skin, nor the leopard his spots. Wonderful force in this Scripture! The black man may exercise all the power of his will, and put forth the greatest possible resolution to become a white man, and yet his skin remains black as an Ethiopian sky ever tanned. This certifies the utter impossibility of regeneration superinduced by everything we can possibly do. Nor from the will of man. The pope of Rome, and all the interceding priests on the face of the whole earth, and you may add to them all the apostles, if they were risen from the dead, can not possibly impart life to the dead soul of the sinner. As inspired John here well says, none but Cod can possibly do this work. When God calls you from death to life, He always reveals to you the glorious fact. How few, comparatively, have the witness of the Spirit that they are born of God!
The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten with the Father, full of grace and truth.
As depravity, in all its forms and phases, is antithetical to grace, it is impossible for any one to be full of the latter and contain any of the former. A bucket is not full of water if it has a quantity of rock or dirt at the bottom. Hence, we see this statement annihilates a dogma somewhat now afloat; i.e., that Jesus had depravity, having inherited it from His mother.
For we have not a High Priest who is not able to sympathize with our infirmities; He also having been tempted in all things, in like manner, without sin. (Heb 4:15.)
This Scripture sweeps all controversy from the field. They argue that the fact of His temptation is a proof that He had depravity. You see this Scripture covers all the ground, though He was tempted in all things as we are, yet He was without sin. The Word of the Lord is the end of all appeal. Consequently this question is settled. Sin and error are Siamese twins, which always live and die together. Jesus was full of grace; therefore He had no sin, and no depravity, which is but another word for sin. Neither did He have any infirmity, which is the normal effect of sin. He was full of truth; therefore He had no error.
John testifies concerning Him, and cried, saying, This is He of whom I spoke; He that cometh after me was preferred before me, because He was before me. While John the Baptist stood before the people as the forerunner and introducer of Jesus, he is very emphatic in his testimony to His uncreated eternity. Of His fullness, we all receive grace upon grace, or grace in addition to grace; i.e., the grace of sanctification in addition to the grace of justification. Because the law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The law never had any power to save, but only to convict, and thus prepare people for the saving grace and truth which God gave in Christ.
No one hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, being in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. Did not Moses stand face to face with God on Mt. Sinai? Did not the Lord visit Abrahams tent at Mamre, and eat with him? These, like the Form of the Fourth, seen by Nebuchadnezzar in the fiery furnace, were all manifestations of Christ, the Jehovah of the Old Testament being identical with the Christ of the New, and the incarnate manifestations to Moses, Abraham, and Nebuchadnezzar being adumbrations of His first coming, like His appearing to Paul near Damascus and in the temple at Jerusalem, anticipatory of His second advent.
Joh 1:19-22. Here John relates the history of the Jews sending priests and Levites to John the Baptist, to interview him directly with reference to a problem much agitated among them; the learned clergy and theologians standing on the desert sand hours together, straining their eyes, looking over the long rolls of prophecies, diagnosing and investigating the phenomena of Johns ministry, and trying to settle the question whether he is the Christ; but finally sending their delegation to interrogate him in presence of the multitude, Art thou the Christ or do we look for another? John the Baptist puts a final quietus to all their inquiry by a candid and unequivocal negation, responding,
I am not the Christ, but the voice of one roaring in the desert, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said. (Isa 40:3.)
Here, as recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, John the Baptist certifies constantly and repeatedly that his office is to roar out the warning to the people to repent and make straight ways to the Lord; i.e., get rid of all their crookedness, so the Lord can come into their hearts.
Joh 1:28. These things took place in Bethany, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. E.V. has here Bethabara, which is incorrect; Bethany, which means house of dates, being the correct reading. The town of Bethany was ten miles up the Jordan in Perea, on the other side, the Baptist having moved thither since our Saviors baptism.
Joh 1:29. The following day, John sees Jesus coming to him, and says, Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. This occurred the day following the transactions of the preceding verses, and after Jesus had been baptized and gone away into the wilderness, spent the forty days and more, and has now returned to the scene of Johns baptism, ten miles up the river, and on the other side, at the town Bethany. O that all the world would take this good, solid, Baptist doctrine! John the Baptist preaches no shoddy gospel, but entire sanctification all the time. He does not represent Jesus as suppressing sin or conquering it, and leaving it, like a rattlesnake, coiled up. and hidden in the deep subterranean regions of the fallen soul; but he describes Him as taking it away, world without end. The world is full of counterfeit salvation, multitudes standing in the pulpit and preaching a counterfeit Savior, who does not take away sin. Remember that sin here is in the singular number, not meaning simply sinful acts, but the sin principle; i.e., the body of sin, root, branch, germ, and seed, the entire entity, without any exception. It is the sin peculiar to the world i.e., the depravity which, though operating in different ways, is identical with all races, colors, sexes, and nationalities. If you could leap through the earth, and jump out in China, you would find sin there just what it is here. Jesus came, not to wash, dress, educate, and control it, but to take it away. This is simple, unmistakable gospel truth, preached by holy John the Baptist. Good Lord, help us all to receive it and preach it to others! O how few this day stand up and cry, Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world! Here, again, John asserts the priority of Jesus.
Joh 1:31. And I did not know Him; but in order that He may be manifest to Israel, on this account I came baptizing with water. John testified, saying, That I saw the Spirit descending like a dove from heaven, and He remained on Him. I did not know Him, but the One sending me to baptize with water, He said to me, On whom you may see the Spirit descending and abiding on Him, the same is the One baptizing with the Holy Ghost. And I have seen, and I have testified that He is the Son of God. We are not to conclude from these statements that John was utterly unacquainted with Jesus before the baptism, as they were related by consanguinity and the families acquainted. But God had revealed to John that he should have the indisputable confirmation of our Lords identity by the descension of the Holy Ghost on Him and His abiding there, thus revealing to John, and all the people, that He is truly the Christ, the only One in all the universe who baptizes with the Holy Ghost; John, His precursor and introducer, faithfully preparing the people by not only preaching to them a genuine, evangelical repentance, which was to be perseveringly perpetuated unto remission of sins, but it was his office also to symbolize the baptism of Jesus with the Holy Ghost and fire by the baptism with water. You see here in verse 34 that John, like Mark, omits the fire in the record, Matthew and Luke giving it, illustrating and confirming the fact, as attested by Paul (Eph 5:4) i.e., the unity of baptism the fire being a concomitant of the Spirit, and the water the symbol.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Joh 1:6-8. The Preparation for the Final Manifestation.The way was prepared for the final revelation by the work of John. The author takes the opportunity of asserting Johns true position as against the extravagant claims apparently made for him, either by his own followers, or the Jews in general. His duty was that of the forerunner to herald the approach of the light.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

1:6 {4} There was a man sent from God, whose name [was] John.
(4) There is another more full manifestation of the Son of God, by the consideration of which men are in good time stirred up, even to John’s voice, who is as it were the herald of Christ.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

B. The witness of John the Baptist 1:6-8
John the Apostle introduced John the Baptist because John the Baptist bore witness to the light, namely, Jesus. John the Baptist was both a model evangelist pointing those in darkness to the light and a model witness providing an excellent example for believers who would follow him. [Note: See David J. MacLeod, "The Witness of John the Baptist to the Word: John 1:6-9," Bibliotheca Sacra 160:639 (July-September 2003):305-20.] John the Baptist introduced the Light to a dark world. He inaugurated Jesus’ ministry. Therefore mention of him was appropriate at the beginning of the Apostle John’s account of Jesus’ ministry.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

In introducing John the Baptist the writer stressed that God had sent him. The name "John" means "God is gracious." John was a prophet in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets who bore witness to the light (Exo 3:10-15; Isa 6:8; Jer 1:4; cf. Joh 3:17). He was a man, in contrast to the Word, who was God. The other Gospel writers described John with the words "the Baptist," but John the Evangelist did not. He probably called him simply John because this is the only John that the Apostle John mentioned by name in his Gospel. [Note: See Cornelis Bennema, "The Character of John in the Fourth Gospel," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 52:2 (June 2009):271-84.] He always referred to himself obliquely either as the disciple whom Jesus loved or as the other disciple or in some other veiled way.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

; Joh 1:15-34
Chapter 3
THE BAPTISTS TESTIMONY.
There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for witness, that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light…. John beareth witness of Him, and crieth, saying, This was He of whom I said, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for He was before me. For of His fulness we all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. And this is the witness of John, when the Jews sent unto him from Jerusalem priests and Levites to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; and he confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elijah? And he saith, I am not. Art thou the prophet? And he answered, No. They said therefore unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet. And they had been sent from the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said unto him, Why then baptizest thou, if thou art not the Christ, neither Elijah, neither the prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: in the midst of you standeth One whom ye know not, even He that cometh after me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Bethany beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. On the morrow he seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, After me cometh a Man which is preferred before me: for He was before me. And I knew Him not; but that He should be made manifest to Israel, for this cause came I baptizing with water. And John bare witness, saying, I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven; and it abode upon Him. And I knew Him not: but He that sent me to baptize with water, He said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon Him, the same is He that baptizeth with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.- Joh 1:6-8; Joh 1:15-34.
In proceeding to show how the Incarnate Word manifested Himself among men, and how this manifestation was received, John naturally speaks first of all of the Baptist. There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for witness … that all might believe through him. The Evangelist himself had been one of the Baptists disciples, and had been led to Christ by his testimony. And to many besides, the Baptist was the true forerunner of the Messiah. He was the first to recognise and proclaim the present King. John had come under the Baptists influence at the most impressible time of his life, while his character was being formed and his ideas of religion taking shape; and his teachers testimony to the dignity of Jesus had left an indelible print upon his spirit. While his memory retained anything it could not let slip what his first teacher had said of Him who became his Teacher and his Lord. While, therefore, the other Evangelists give us striking pictures of the Baptists appearance, habits, and style of preaching, and show us the connection of his work with that of Jesus, John glances very slightly at these matters, but dwells with emphasis and iteration on the testimony which the Baptist bore to the Messiahship of Jesus.
To us, at this time of day, it may seem of little importance what the Baptist thought or said of Jesus. We may sympathise rather with the words of the Lord Himself, who, in allusion to this witness, said, I receive not testimony from man. But it is plain that, at any rate from a Jewish point of view, the witness of John was most important. The people universally accepted John as a prophet, and they could scarcely think him mistaken in the chief article of his mission. In point of fact, many of the most faithful adherents of Jesus became such through the influence of John; and those who declined to accept Jesus were always staggered by Johns explicit indication of Him as the Christ. The Jews had not only the predictions of prophets long since dead, and descriptions of the Christ which they could perversely misconstrue; they had not merely pictures of their Messiah by which they might identify Jesus as the Christ, but of which it was also quite possible for them to deny the likeness; but they had a living contemporary, whom they themselves acknowledged to be a prophet, pointing out to them another living contemporary as the Christ. That even such a testimony was to a large extent disregarded shows how much more the inclination to believe has to do with our faith than any external proofs.
But even to us the testimony of a man like John is not without importance. He was, as our Lord bore witness, a burning and a shining light. He was one of those men who give new thoughts to their generation, and help men to see clearly what otherwise they might only dimly have seen. He was in a position to know Jesus well. He was His cousin; he had known Him from His childhood. He was also in a position to know what was involved in being the Messiah. By the very circumstance that he himself had been mistaken for the Messiah, he was driven to define to his own mind the distinctive and characteristic marks of the Messiah. Nothing could so have led him to apprehend the difference between himself and Jesus. More and more clearly must he have seen that he was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. Thus he was prepared to receive with understanding the sign (Joh 1:33) which gave him something more than his own personal surmises to go upon in declaring Jesus to the world as the Messiah. If there is any mans testimony we may accept about our Lord it is that of the Baptist, who, from his close contact with the most profligate and with the most spiritual of the people, saw what they needed, and saw in Jesus power to give it; the business of whose life it was to make Him out, and to arrive at certain information regarding Him; a man whose own elevation and force of character made many fancy he was the Messiah, but who hastened to disabuse their minds of such an idea, because his very elevation gave him capacity to see how infinitely above him the true Christ was. Seen from the low ground the star may seem close to the top of the mountain; seen from the mountain-top it is recognised as infinitely above it. John was on the mountain-top.
Of Johns person and work nothing need here be said save what serves to throw light on his witness to Christ. Going from the comfortable home and well-provided life and fair prospects of a priests family, he went to the houseless wilderness, and adopted the meagre, comfortless life of an ascetic; not from any necessity, but because he felt that to entangle himself with the affairs of the world would be to blind him to its vices, and to silence his remonstrance, if not to implicate him in its guilt. Like thousands besides in all ages of the worlds history, he felt compelled to seek solitude, to subdue the flesh, to meditate undisturbed on things Divine, and discover for himself and for others some better way than religious routine and the good wine of Mosaic morality turned to the vinegar of Pharisaism. Like the Nazarites of the earlier times of his country, like the old prophets, with whose indignation and deep regret at the national vices he was in perfect sympathy, he left the world, gave up all the usual prospects and ways of life, and betook himself to a life of prayer, and thought, and self-discipline in the wilderness. When first he went there, he could only dimly know what lay before him; but he gathered a few friends of like disposition around him, and, as we learn, taught them to pray. He formed in the wilderness a new Israel, a little company of praying souls, who spent their time in considering the needs of their fellow-countrymen, and in interceding with God for them, and who were content to let the pleasures and excitements of the world pass by while they longed for and prepared themselves to meet the great Deliverer.
This adoption of the rle of the ancient prophets, this resuscitation of their long-forgotten function of mourning before God for the peoples sin, and addressing the nation authoritatively as Gods voice, was outwardly shown by his assumption of the prophets dress. The rough skin for a cloak; the long, uncared-for hair; the wiry, weather-beaten frame; the lofty, calm, penetrating eye, were all eloquent as his lips. His whole appearance and habits certified his claim to be the voice of one crying in the wilderness, and gave him authority with the people. Slightly altering what has been said of a great modern, we may much more truly say of the Baptist,-
He took the suffering human race, He read each wound, each weakness clear: He struck his finger on the place, And said, Thou ailest here, and here. He looked on (Isrels) dying hour Of fitful dreams and feverish power, And said, The end is everywhere,(Christ) still has truth, take refuge there.
He was listened to. It is so always, in our own day as in others; the men who are unworldly and have the good of their country or of any class of men at heart, the men who are saintly and of few desires, these are listened to as the commissioned messengers of heaven. It is to these men we look as the salt of the earth, who preserve us still from the corrupting, disintegrating influence of doubt. To these men, no matter how different they be from us in creed, we are forced to listen, because the Holy Spirit, wherever He is, is the Spirit of God; and all men instinctively acknowledge that those who are themselves in the kingdom of God have authority to summon others into it, and that those who are themselves unworldly have alone a right to dictate to worldly men. There is no power on earth like the power of a holy, consecrated life, because he who is leading such a life is already above the world, and belongs to a higher kingdom. There is hope for our country, or for any country, when its young men have something of Johns spirit; when they school the body until it becomes the ready instrument of a high and spiritual intention, fearless of hardship; when by sympathy with Gods purposes they apprehend what is most needed by men, and are able to detect the weaknesses and vices of society, and to bear the burden of their time.
But the Baptists equipment for the most responsible office of proclaiming the Messiahship of Jesus was not completed by his own saintliness of character and keen perception of the peoples needs, and knowledge of Jesus, and incorruptible truthfulness. There was given to him a sign from heaven, that he might be strengthened to bear this responsibility, and that the Messiah might never seem to be only of the Baptists appointing and not of Gods. Some degree of disappointment may be felt that external signs should have intruded on so profoundly spiritual and real an occasion as the baptism of Christ. Some may be ready to ask, with Keim, Is it, or was it ever, the way of God, in the course of His spiritual world, above all upon the threshold of spiritual decisions affecting the fate of the world, and in contradiction to the wise economy of revelation pursued by His supreme ambassador Himself, to take away from seeking and finding souls the labour of deciding their own destiny? But this is to suppose that the signs at the baptism of Jesus were mainly for His encouragement, whereas John describes them as being given for the certification of the Baptist. I knew Him not-that is, I did not know He was the Messiah-but He that sent me to baptize with water, He said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon Him, the same is He that baptizeth with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.
The baptism of Jesus was, in fact, His anointing as the Messiah; and this anointing by which He became the Christ was an anointing, not with a symbolic oil, but with the Divine Spirit (Act 10:38). This Spirit descended upon Him in a bodily shape (Luk 3:22), because it was not one member or faculty or power which was communicated to Jesus, but a whole body or complete equipment of all needful Divine energies for His work. God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him; there is no gauge, no metre checking the supply. Now for the first time can the whole Spirit be given, because now for the first time in Jesus is there room to receive it. And that the Baptist may confidently proclaim Him as King the sign is given,-not the outward sign alone, but the outward sign accompanying and tallying with the inward sign; for it was not said to the Baptist, Upon whomsoever thou shalt see a dove descend, but, upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descend.
This anointing of Jesus to the Messiahship occurred at the moment of His truest identification of Himself with the people. John shrank from baptizing One whom he knew to be already pure, and to have no sins to confess. But Jesus insisted, identifying Himself with a polluted people, numbered with transgressors. It was thus He became true King and Head of mankind, by identifying Himself with us, and taking upon Him, through His universal sympathy, all our burdens, feeling more shame than the sinners self for his sin, pained with the suffering in all their pain. It was the Divine Spirit of universal love, attracting Him to all sorrow and suffering, which identified Him in the mind of His first confessor as the Christ, the Son of God. This to the Baptist was the glory of the Only-begotten, this sympathy which felt with all, and shrank from no sorrow or burden.
Thus equipped, the Baptist gives his testimony with confidence. This testimony is manifold, and uttered on several occasions,-to the Sanhedrims deputation, to the people, and to his own disciples. It is negative as well as positive. He repudiates the suggestions of the deputation from Jerusalem that he himself is the Christ, or that he is in their sense Elijah. But the most remarkable repudiation of honours which could be rendered to Christ alone is found recorded in Joh 3:22-30, when the growing popularity of Jesus excited the jealousy of those who still adhered to the Baptist. Their complaint was the occasion of calling up clearly in the Baptists own consciousness the relation in which he stood to Jesus, and of prompting the most emphatic enouncement of the unrivalled dignity of our Lord. He says to his jealous disciples, If I do not gather a crowd of followers while Jesus does, this is because God has appointed to me one place, to Him another. Beyond Gods design no mans destiny and success can extend. What is designed for me I shall receive; beyond that I desire to receive and I can receive nothing. Least of all would I covet to be called the Christ. You know not what you say in even remotely hinting that such a man as I could be the Christ. It is no mere unworldliness or purity which can raise a man to this dignity. He is from above; not to be named with prophets, but the Son of God, who belongs to the heavenly world of which He speaks.
To make the difference between himself and Christ clear, the Baptist hits upon the happy figure of the Bridegroom and the Bridegrooms friend. He that has and keeps the Bride is the Bridegroom. He to whom the world is drawn, and on whom all needy souls lean, is the Bridegroom, and to Him alone belongs this special joy of satisfying all human needs. I am not the Bridegroom, because men cannot find in me satisfaction and rest. I cannot be to them the source of spiritual life. Moreover, by instigating me to assume the Bridegrooms place you would rob me of my peculiar joy, the joy of the Bridegrooms friend. The function of the bridegrooms friend, or paranymph, was to ask the hand of the bride for the bridegroom, and to arrange the marriage. This function the Baptist claims as his. My joy, he says, is to have negotiated this matter, to have encouraged the Bride to trust her Lord. It is my joy to hear the glad and loving words that pass between Bridegroom and Bride. Do not suppose I look with sadness on the defection of my followers, and on their preference for Christ. These crowds you complain of are evidence that I have not discharged the function of paranymph in vain. To see my work successful, to see Bride and Bridegroom at length resting in one another with undisturbed, self-forgetting confidence, this is my joy. While the Bridegroom cheers the Bride with His voice, and opens to her prospects which only His love can realize, shall I obtrude myself and claim consideration? Is it not enough for one life to have had the joy of identifying the actually present Christ, and of introducing the Bride to her Lord? Has not that life its ample reward which has been instrumental in achieving the actual union of God and man?
Probably, then, the Baptist himself would think we waste too much emotion over his self-sacrifice and magnanimity. After all, it not being possible to him to be the Messiah, it was no small glory and joy to be the friend, the next, to the Messiah. The tragic character of the Baptists death, the despondent doubt which for a time shook his spirit during his imprisonment, the severe life he had previously led, all tend to make us oblivious of the fact that his life was crowned with a deep and solid joy. Even the poet who has most worthily depicted him still speaks of
John, than which man a sadder or a greater Not till this day has been of woman born.
But the Baptist was a big enough man to enjoy an unselfish happiness. He loved men so well that he rejoiced when he saw them forsake him to follow Christ. He loved Christ so well that to see Him honoured was the crown of his life.
Besides this negative repudiation of honours that belonged to Jesus, the Baptist emits a positive and fivefold testimony in His favour, (1) to His dignity (Joh 1:15; Joh 1:27; Joh 1:30), He that cometh after me is preferred before me; (2) to His pre-existence (Joh 1:15; Joh 1:30), which is adduced as the reason of the foregoing, for He was before me; (3) to His spiritual fulness and power (Joh 1:33), He baptizeth with the Holy Ghost; (4) to the efficacy of His mediation (Joh 1:29), Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world; (5) to His unique personality (Joh 1:34), this is the Son of God.
1. Three times over the Baptist declared the superiority of Jesus; a superiority so immense that language failed him in trying to represent it. The Rabbis said, Every office which a servant will do for his master a scholar should perform for his teacher, except loosing his sandal-thong. But this exceptionally menial office the Baptist declares he was not worthy to perform for Jesus. None so well as the Baptist himself knew his limitations. He had evoked in the people cravings he could not satisfy. There had gathered to him a conscience-stricken people, longing for renewal and righteousness, and demanding what he had no power to give. Therefore, not merely his explicit enouncements from time to time, but his entire ministry, pointing to a new order of things which he himself could not inaugurate, declared the incomparable greatness of Him that was to come after him.
2. This superiority of Christ was based on His pre-existence. He was before me. It may appear unaccountable that the Baptist, standing on Old Testament ground, should have reached the conclusion that Jesus was Divine. But it is at any rate evident that the Evangelist believed the Baptist had done so, for he adduces the Baptists testimony in support of his own affirmation of the Divine glory of the Incarnate Word (Joh 1:15). After the wonderful scene at the Baptism, John must have talked closely with Jesus regarding both His work and His consciousness; and even if the passage at the close of the third chapter is coloured by the Evangelists style, and even by his thought, we must suppose that the Baptist had somehow arrived at the belief that Jesus was from above, and made known upon earth the things which He, in a pre-existent state, had heard and seen.
3. The Baptist pointed to Jesus as the source of spiritual life. He baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. Here the Baptist steps on to ground on which his assertions can be tested. He declares that Jesus can communicate the Holy Ghost-the fundamental article of the Christian Creed, which carries with it all else. No one knew better than the Baptist where human help failed; no one knew better than he what could be effected by rites and rules, by strength of will and asceticism and human endeavour; and no one knew better at what point all these become useless. More and more they seemed to him but a cleansing with water, a washing of the outside. More and more did he understand that, not from without, but from within, true cleansing must proceed, and that all else, save a new creation by the Spirit of God, was inefficacious. Only Spirit can act upon spirit; and for true renewal we need the action upon us of the Divine Spirit. Without this no new and eternal kingdom of God can be founded.
4. The Baptist pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. That by this title he meant only to designate Jesus as a person full of gentleness and innocence is out of the question. The second clause forbids this. He is the Lamb that takes away sin. And there is only one way in which a lamb can take away sin, and that is, by sacrifice. The expression no doubt suggests the picture in the fifty-third of Isaiah of the servant of Jehovah meekly enduring wrong. But unless the Baptist had been previously speaking of this chapter, the thoughts of his disciples would not at once turn to it, because in that passage it is not a lamb of sacrifice that is spoken of, but a lamb meekly enduring. In the Baptists words sacrifice is the primary idea, and it is needless to discuss whether he was thinking of the paschal lamb or the lamb of morning and evening sacrifice, because he merely used the lamb as the representative of sacrifice generally. Here, he says, is the reality to which all sacrifice has pointed, the Lamb of God.
5. The Baptist proclaims Jesus as the Son of God. That he should do so need not greatly surprise us, as we read in the other Gospels that Jesus had been thus designated by a voice from heaven at His baptism. Very early in His ministry, not only His disciples, but also the demoniacs ascribe to Him the same dignity. In one sense or other He was designated Son of God. No doubt we must bear in mind that this was in a rigidly monotheistic community, and in a community in which the same title had been freely applied to Israel and to Israels king to designate a certain alliance and close relation subsisting between the human and the Divine, but of course not suggesting metaphysical unity. But considering the high functions which clustered round the Messianic dignity, it is not unlikely that the Messiahs forerunner may have supposed that a fuller meaning than had yet been recognised might be latent in this title. Certainly we are safe in affirming that by applying this title to our Lord, the Baptist intended to indicate His unique personality, and to declare that He was the Messiah, Gods Viceroy on earth.
Whether we can add to this testimony the thoughts contained in the closing paragraph of the third chapter may be doubted. The thought of the passage moves within the circle of ideas familiar to the Baptist; and that the style is the style of the Evangelist does not prevent us from receiving the ideas as the Baptists. But there are expressions which it is difficult to suppose that the Baptist could have used. The preceding conversation was occasioned by the growing popularity of Jesus; was this, then, an occasion on which it could be said, No one receives His testimony? Is this not more appropriate to the Evangelist than to the Baptist? It would seem, then, that in this paragraph the Evangelist is expanding the Baptists testimony, in order to indicate its application to the eternal relations subsisting between Jesus and men generally.
The contents of the paragraph are a most emphatic testimony to the pre-existence and heavenly origin of Christ. In contrast to persons of earthly origin, He is from heaven. He cometh from above, as if His entrance into this world were a conscious transition, a voluntary coming from another world. His origin determines also His moral relationships and His teaching. He is above all, in dignity, in authority, in spirit; and He speaks what He has seen and heard. But in the thirty-fourth verse a new idea is presented. There it is said that He speaks the words of God, not directly, because He is from above, and speaks what He has seen and heard, but because God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him. What are we to understand by this double Divine inhabitation of the humanity of Jesus? And what are we to understand by the Spirit being given without measure to the Incarnate Word?
In the Old Testament two ideas present themselves regarding the Spirit which illustrate this statement. The one is that which conveys the impression that only a limited amount of spiritual influence was communicated to prophetic men, and that from them it could be conveyed to others. In Num 11:17 the Lord is represented as saying to Moses, I will take of the Spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and in 2Ki 2:9 Elisha is represented as praying that the eldest borns portion, the two-thirds of Elijahs spirit, might be bequeathed to him. The idea is a true and instructive one. The Spirit does, in point of fact, pass from man to man. It is as if in one receptive person the Divine Spirit found entrance through which He might pass to others. But another idea is also frequent in the Old Testament. The Spirit is spoken of rather as conferring a gift here and a power there than as dwelling wholly and permanently in men. One prophet had a dream, another a vision, a third legislated, a fourth wrote a psalm, a fifth founded an institution, a sixth in the power of the Spirit smote the Philistines, or, like Samson, tore a lion in pieces.
In Christ all powers are combined-power over nature, power to teach, power to reveal, power to legislate. And as in the Old Testament the Spirit passed from man to man, so in the New Testament Christ first Himself receives and then communicates to all the whole Spirit. Hence the law noticed at a subsequent stage of this Gospel that the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified (Joh 7:39). We cannot see to the bottom of the law, but the fact is apparent, that until Christ received into every part of His own humanity the fulness of the Divine Spirit, that Spirit could not fill with His fulness any man.
But why was the Spirit needed in a personality of which the Word, who had been with God and known God, was the basis? Because the humanity of Christ was a true humanity. Being human, He must be indebted to the Spirit for all impartation to His human nature of what is Divine. The knowledge of God which the Word possesses by experience must be humanly apprehended before it can be communicated to men; and this human apprehension can only be arrived at in the case of Christ by the enlightenment of the Spirit. It was useless for Christ to declare what could not be apprehended by human faculty, and His own human faculty was the measure and test of intelligibility. By the Spirit He was enlightened to speak of things Divine; and this Spirit, interposed, as it were, between the Word and the human nature of Jesus, was as little cumbrous in its operation or perceptible in consciousness as our breath interposed between the thinking mind and the words we speak to declare our mind.
To return to the direct testimony of the Baptist, we must (1) acknowledge its value. It is the testimony of a contemporary, of whom we know from other sources that he was generally reckoned a prophet-a man of unblemished and inviolable integrity, of rugged independence, of the keenest spiritual discernment. There was no man of larger size or more heroic mould in his day. In any generation he would have been conspicuous by his spiritual stature, his fearless unworldliness, his superiority to the common weaknesses of men; and yet this man himself looks up to Jesus as standing on quite a different platform from his own, as a Being of another order. He can find no expressions strong enough to mark the difference: I am not worthy to loose His shoe latchet; He that is of the earth (that is, himself) is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: He that cometh from heaven is above all. He would not have used such expressions of Isaiah, of Elijah, of Moses. He knew his own dignity, and would not have set so marked a difference between himself and any other prophet. But his own very greatness was precisely what revealed to him the absolute superiority of Christ. These crowds that gathered round him-what could he do for them more than refer them to Christ? Could he propose to himself to found among them a kingdom of God? Could he ask them to acknowledge him and trust in him for spiritual life? Could he promise them His Spirit? Could he even link to himself all kinds of men, of all nationalities? Could he be the light of men, giving to all a satisfying knowledge of God and of their relation to Him? No; he was not that light, he could but bear witness of that light. And this he did, by pointing men to Jesus, not as a brother prophet, not as another great man, but as the Son of God, as One who had come down from heaven.
It is, I say, impossible that we can make nothing of such a testimony. Here was one who knew, if any man ever did, spotless holiness when he saw it; who knew what human strength and courage could accomplish; who was himself certainly among the six greatest men the world has seen; and this man, standing thus on the highest altitudes human nature can reach, looks up to Christ, and does not only admit His superiority, but shrinks, as from something blasphemous, from all comparison with Him. What is the flaw in his testimony, or why are we not accepting Christ as our light, as able to take away our sins, as willing to baptize us with the Holy Ghost?
But (2) even such testimony as Johns is not sufficient of itself to carry conviction to the reluctant. None knew better than Johns contemporaries that he was a true man, not liable to make mistakes in a matter of this kind. And his testimony to Christ did stagger them, and often held them in check, and no doubt threw a kind of undefined awe over the person of Christ; but, after all, not many believed on account of Johns testimony, and those who did were not influenced solely by his testimony, but by his work as well. They had become concerned about sin, sensitive to defilement and failure, and were thus prepared to appreciate the offers of Christ. The two voices chimed, Johns voice saying, Behold, the Lamb of God! the voice of their own conscience crying for the taking away of sin. It is so still. The sense of sin, the feeling of spiritual weakness and need, the craving for God, direct the eye, and enable us to see in Christ what we do not otherwise see. We are not likely to know Christ until we know ourselves. What is the mans judgment regarding Christ worth who is not conscious of his own littleness and humbled by his own guilt? Let a man first go to school with the Baptist, let him catch something of his unworldliness and earnestness, let him become alive to his own shortcomings by at last beginning to strive after the highest things in life, and by seeking to live, not for pleasure, but for God, and his views of Christ and his relation to Him will become satisfactory and true.
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary

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