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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comAdam Clarke Commentary - John 3:20 - 3:20
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light - He who doth vile or abominable things: alluding to the subject mentioned in the preceding verse.
The word φαυλος, evil or vile, is supposed by some to come from the Hebrew פלס phalas, to roll, and so cover oneself in dust or ashes, which was practised in token of humiliation and grief, not only by the more eastern nations, see Job 42:6, but also by the Greeks and Trojans, as appears from Homer, Iliad xviii. l. 26; xxii. l. 414; xxiv. l. 640; compare Virgil, Aen. x. l. 844; and Ovid, Metam. lib. viii. l. 528. From the above Hebrew word, it is likely that the Saxon ful, the English foul, the Latin vilis, and the English vile, are derived. See Parkhurst under φαυλος.
Lest his deeds should be reproved - Or discovered. To manifest or discover, is one sense of the original word, ελεγχω, in the best Greek writers; and it is evidently its meaning in this place.