Vincent Word Studies - John 1:30

Vincent Word Studies - John 1:30 - 1:30

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Vincent Word Studies - John 1:30 - 1:30

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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Of whom (περὶ οὗ)

i.e., “concerning whom;” but the proper reading is ὑπὲρ οὗ, “on behalf of whom;” in vindication of.

A man (ἀνὴρ)

Three words are used in the New Testament for man: ἄῤῥην, or ἄρσην, ἀνήρ, and ἄνθρωπος. Ἄρσην marks merely the sexual distinction, male (Rom 1:27; Rev 12:5, Rev 12:13). Ἁνήρ denotes the man as distinguished from the woman, as male or as a husband (Act 8:12; Mat 1:16), or from a boy (Mat 14:21). Also man as endowed with courage, intelligence, strength, and other noble attributes (1Co 13:11; Eph 4:13; Jam 3:2).

Ἄνθρωπος is generic, without distinction of sex, a human being (Joh 16:21), though often used in connections which indicate or imply sex, as Mat 19:10; Mat 10:35. Used of mankind (Mat 4:4), or of the people (Mat 5:13, Mat 5:16; Mat 6:5, Mat 6:18; Joh 6:10). Of man as distinguished from animals or plants (Mat 4:19; 2Pe 2:16), and from God, Christ as divine and angels (Mat 10:32; Joh 10:33; Luk 2:15). With the notion of weakness leading to sin, and with a contemptuous sense (1Co 2:5; 1Pe 4:2; Joh 5:12; Rom 9:20). The more honorable and noble sense thus attaches to ἀνήρ rather than to ἄνθρωπος. Thus Herodotus says that when the Medes charged the Greeks, they fell in vast numbers, so that it was manifest to Xerxes that he had many men combatants (ἄνθρωποι) but few warriors (ἄνθρωποι) vii., 210. So Homer: “O friends, be men (ἀνέρες), and take on a stout heart” (“Iliad,” v., 529). Ἁνήρ is therefore used here of Jesus by the Baptist with a sense of dignity. Compare ἄνθρωπος, in Joh 1:6, where the word implies no disparagement, but is simply indefinite. In John ἀνήρ has mostly the sense of husband (Joh 4:16-18). See Joh 6:10.