Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - John 3:20 - 3:20
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Doeth (πράσσων)
The present participle, indicating habit and general tendency.
Evil (φαῦλα)
Rev., ill. A different word from that in the previous verse. Originally, light, paltry, trivial, and so worthless. Evil, therefore, considered on the side of worthlessness. See on Jam 3:16.
Lest his works should be reproved (ἵνα μὴ ἐλεγχθῇ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ).
Rather, in order that his works may not be reproved. Ελέγχω, rendered reprove, has several phases of meaning. In earlier classical Greek it signifies to disgrace or put to shame. Thus Ulysses, having succeeded in the trial of the bow, says to Telemachus, “the stranger who sits in thy halls disgraces (ἐλέγχει) thee not” (“Odyssey, xxi., 424). Then, to cross-examine or question, for the purpose of convincing, convicting, or refuting; to censure, accuse. So Herodotus: “In his reply Alexander became confused, and diverged from the truth, whereon the slaves interposed, confuted his statements (ἤλεγχον, cross-questioned and caught him in falsehood), and told the whole history of the crime” (i., 115). The messenger in the “Antigone” of Sophocles, describing the consternation of the watchmen at finding Polynices' body buried, says: “Evil words were bandied among them, guard accusing (ἐλέγχων) guard” (260). Of arguments, to bring to the proof; prove; prove by a chain of reasoning. It occurs in Pindar in the general sense of to conquer or surpass. “Having descended into the naked race they surpassed (ἤλεγξαν) the Grecian band in speed (“Pythia,” xi., 75).
In the New Testament it is found in the sense of reprove (Luk 3:19; 1Ti 5:20, etc.). Convince of crime or fault (1Co 14:24; Jam 2:9). To bring to light or expose by conviction (Jam 5:20; Eph 5:11, Eph 5:13; Joh 8:46; see on that passage). So of the exposure of false teachers, and their refutation (Tit 1:9, Tit 1:13; Tit 2:15). To test and expose with a view to correction, and so, nearly equivalent to chasten (Heb 12:5). The different meanings unite in the word convict. Conviction is the result of examination, testing, argument. The test exposes and demonstrates the error, and refutes it, thus convincing, convicting, and rebuking the subject of it. This conviction issues in chastening, by which the error is corrected and the erring one purified. If the conviction is rejected, it carries with it condemnation and punishment. The man is thus convicted of sin, of right, and of judgment (Joh 16:8). In this passage the evil-doer is represented as avoiding the light which tests, that light which is the offspring of love (Rev 3:19) and the consequent exposure of his error. Compare Eph 5:13; Joh 1:9-11. This idea of loving darkness rather than light is graphically treated in Job 24 and runs through Job 24:13-17.