Bible Commentary (1871–1879 Edition)
The Divinity, Humanity, JOHN I. and Office of Jenis Chrld,
or revealed teaching vhich men (apart from the Incaruutioii oi the W'onl) are /nuoured Willi, tlie dnrkjtvsii eom|>rehriidc<l it not— ' did not take it in,' a liri«-!' siiiiil)i;uy of the effect of all the strivings of this uniiicarnate Word throughout this wide world from the beginning, being made conscious of the vital capacities, perceptions, and emotions of a child of God, before unknown, not of blood, &c.—not of superior human descent, not of human generation at all, not of man in any manner of way. By this elaborate threefold denial of the human source of this sonship, immense force is given to what follows—" 'jui of God." llight royal gift, which Who confers must be absolutely Divine. For who would not worship Him who can bring him into the family, and evoke within liim the very lile, of the sons of God? 1*. And the Word, &c.— ii"nd a hint of the necessity of His putting on fle.yh, if any recovery of men was to be effected. (1 Corintliians 1. 21.) 6-9. The Evangelist here approaches his grand thesis, so paving his way for the full statement of it in i. It, tliat we may be able to bear the bright light of it, and lake in its length and breadth and depth and height, tliroiigli liim—John, not that Llglit—See on ch. 5. Si). What a testimony to John to have to explain tliat "he was not that Ijight !" Yet was he but a foil to set it off, his nighttaper dwindling before the Day-spring from on high (ch.
7'o raise tlie reader to the altitude of this climax wei-e the thirteen faregoiny verses written, •was made flesh—BECAME MAN, and in man's present frail, mortal condition, denoted by the word " flesh" (Isaiah 10. 6; 1 Peter 1. 24.) It is directed probably against the Docetce, wlio held that Christ was not really but only apparently man; against whom this gentle spirit is vehement in his Epistles, 1 John 1.3; 2 John 7. 10, U. [LUCKE, &c.] Xor could He be too much so, for with the verity of tho Incarnation all substantial Christianity vanishes. But now, married to our nature, henceforth He is as pei-- sonally conscious of all that is strictly human as of ull thai
3. ZO), liglitetli ev»ry man, Ac—rather, ' which, coining into the world, enligliteneth every man;' or, is "the Light of the world" (ch. "Coining into the world" is a superfluous and quite unusual description of "every man ;
' but it is of all descriptions of Christ amongst the most familiar, especially in the writings of this Evangelist (cli. 12. 46; 16. 28; 18.37; lJohn4.9; 1 Timotliy 1. 15, &c.). 10-13. He was in tlie world, Ac—The language here is nearly as wonderful as the thought. Observe its compact simplicity, its sonorousness— " the world" resounding in oacli of its three members—and the enigmatic form in which it is eouclied, startling the reader and setting liis ingenuity a-working to solve the stupendous enigma of Christ ignored in Mis own world. " The world," in the first two clauses, plainly means the ox-ated world, " Into which He came," says v. 9; "in it He was," says this verse. By His Incarnation, He became (in Inhabitcml of H, and bound up with it. Yet it " was made by Him" (v. 3, 4, 5;. Here, is prbperly Divine; and our nature is in His Person redeemed and quickened, ennobled and transfigured, and dwelt—'tabernacled' or 'pitched his tent;' a word peculiar to John, who uses it four times, all in the sense of a permanent stay (Kevelation 7. 15; 12.12; 13.0;
21. 3). For ever wedded to our "flesh," He has entered this tabernacle to "go no more out." The allusion is to that Tabernacle vfhere dwelt the Shekinah (see on Matthew 23. ;i8, 39), or manifested " Glory of the Lokd," and with reference to GotVs permanent dwelling amongst His people (Leviticus 26. 11; Psalm 68. 18; 132. 13, 14; gzekiel 37. 27). This is put almost beyond doubt by what immediately follows, "And we beheld His glory." [LucKE, Meyer, De WBrrE, which last critic, rising higher than usual, says that thus were perfected all former partial manifestations of God in an e.twntiully Personal and histwically Human manifestation.] full of grace and tmtli—So it should read. " He dwelt anioug us full of grace and truth;" or, in Old Testament phrase, "Mercy and troth," denoting the whole fruit of God's purposes of love towards sinners of mankind, which until now existed only in promise, and the fulfilment at length of that promise in Christ; in one great word, "the sukb MEKCiES of David" (Isaiah SS-.S; Acts 13. :M; cf. 2 Samuel tlien, it is merely alluded to, in contrast partly with His being in it, but still more with tlie reception He met with from it. "The world that knew Him not" (1 John 3. 1) is of course the intelligent world of mankind. (See on v. 11,
12.) Taking the flrst two clauses as one statement, we try to apprehend it by thinking of the infant Christ conceived in the womb and born in the arms of His own creature, and of the Man Christ Jesus breathing Ilis own air, treading His own ground, supported by suljstances to which Himself gave being, and the Creator of the very men whom He came to save. But the most vivid commentary on this entire verse will be got by tracing (in His niatchless history) Him of whom it speaks walking amidst all the elements of nature, the diseases of men and death itself, the secrets of the human heart, and "the rulers of the darkness of this world" in all their number, subtlety, and malignity, not only with absolute ease, as their conscious Lord, but, as we might say, with
23. 5). In His Person all that Grace and Truth which had been floating so long in shadowy forms, and dart.ing into the .souls of the poor and needy its broken beams, took everlasting possession of human flesh and filleil it full. By this Incarnation of Grace and Truth, the leacliing of thousands of years was at once transcended and beggaretl, and the family of God sprang into Manhood, and we l)cfull consciousness on their part of the presence of their Maker, whose will to one and all of them was law. And helil Itisglory—not by the eye of sense, which saw in Him only "the carpenter." His glory was "spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2.7-15; 2 Corinthians 3;. 18; 4.4,6; tills is He of whom it is added, "the world knew Him not!" Ills own—'His own' (property or possession), for tlie wonl is in the neuter gender. It means His own land, city, temple, Messianic rights and possessions, and his own—' His own' (people); for now the word is mdsciiline.
5. 16)—the glory of surpassing grace, love, tenderness, wisdom, purity, spirituality; majesty and meekness, richness and povertj', power and weakness, meeting tojrether in unique contrast ; ever attracting and at times ravishing the "babes" that followed and forsook all for Him. the glory as of th« only iM gotten of tlie SVither—.See on Luke 1. 35—not like, but 'such as (belongs to\' such tis became or was befitting the only begotten of the Father [Chrysostom in Lucke, Calvin, Ac], acconling to a wellknown use of the wotd "as."
Jt means tlie Jews, as the " peculiar people." Both they and their land, with all that tliis included, were "His OWN," not so much as part of "the world which was made by Him," but as "thk heus" of the inheritance,
Luke 21). ll. (See also on Matthew 22. 1.) received htm tn>t—»ationa 111/, its God's chosen witnesses, biit as maity —individuals, of the " disobedient and gainsaying people." guve he power—The word signifies both mithm-il!/ and
15. A Saying oftiie Baptist Confiumatory of this. after nte—in oflicial manifestation, before me—m rank and dignity, for he was before me—In existene; "Hisgoings forth being from of old, from everlasting" (iyii<'ah 5. 2). (Anything lower than this His words cannot mcanl ; q. d., 'My Successor is my Superior, for Ho was my Pre<lecesiibility, and both are certainly meant here, to become Mark these words: Jesus Is the Son of Grixl ; He is never said to have bkcome such, the sons—or more simply "sons of God,' in name and In nature, toelleve on his name— ft phrase never used in Scripture of any mc^-e ci'ca-,iire, to express the credit given to human testimony, even of prophets or apostles, inasmuch It carries with it sor.' This enigmatic play upon the different senses of the words "before" and "after" was doubtless employeil ly the Baptist to arrest attention, and rivet the thought flie idea of trust proper only towards.GoD. In this sense of siijn-eme faith, as due to Him who "gives those that beand the Evangelist introduces it Just tochuch his own statements.
lieve in Himsetf power to become sons of God," It is manifestly used here, wlilch were born—a sonship therefore not of mere title and privilege, but of nature, the soul 128
16-18. Same Subject Continued, of bis fuluesa—of