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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - John 9:5 - 9:5
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
When I am in the world (hotan en tōi kosmōi ō). Indefinite relative clause with hotan and present active subjunctive ō, “whenever I am in the world.” The Latin Vulgate renders here hotan by quamdiu so long as or while as if it were heōs. But clearly Jesus here refers to the historic Incarnation (Joh 17:11) and to any previous visitations in the time of the patriarchs, prophets, etc. Jesus as God’s Son is always the Light of the World (Joh 1:4, Joh 1:10; Joh 8:12), but here the reference is limited to his manifestation “in the world.”
I am the light of the world (phōs eimi tou kosmou). The absence of the definite article (to phōs in Joh 8:12) is to be noted (Westcott). Literally, “I am light to the world, whenever I am in the world.” “The display of the character varies with the occasion” (Westcott).