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Joh_1:16. Not the language of the Baptist (Heracleon, Origen, Rupertus, Erasmus, Luther, Melancthon, Lange), against which ἡμεῖς πάντες is decisive, but that of the evangelist continued.
ὅτι (see critical notes) introduces the personal and superabounding gracious experience of believers, with a retrospective reference indeed to the πλήρ . χάριτος κ . ἀληθ ., Joh_1:14, and in the form of a confirmation of John’s testimony in Joh_1:15 : this testimony is justified by what was imparted to us all out of the fulness of Him who was borne witness to.
ἐκ τοῦ πληρώμ . αὐτοῦ ] out of that whereof He was full, Joh_1:14; πλήρωμα in a passive sense; see on Col_1:19. The phrase and idea were here so naturally furnished by the immediate context, that it is quite far-fetched to find their source in Gnosticism, especially in that of the Valentinians (Schwegler, Hilgenfeld).
ἡμεῖς ] we on our part, giving prominence to the personal experience of the believers (which had remained unknown to unbelievers), Joh_1:10-11.
πάντες ] None went empty away. Inexhaustibleness of the πλήρωμα .
ἐλάβομεν ] absolute: we have received.
καὶ ] and indeed. See Winer, p. 407 [E. T. p. 546]; Hartung, Partikell. I. 145.
χάριν ἀντὶ χάριτος ] grace for grace, is not to be explained (with Chrysostom, Cyril, Severus, Nonnus, Theophylact, Erasmus, Beza, Aretius, Calovius, Jansen, Wolf, Lampe, and many others, even Paulus), N. T. instead of O. T. grace (Euthymius Zigabenus: τὴν καινὴν διαθήκην ἀντὶ τῆς παλαιᾶς ), or instead of the original grace lost in Adam (see especially Calovius), since in Joh_1:17 ὁ νόμος and ἡ χάρις are opposed to each other, and since in the N. T. generally χάρις is the distinctive essence of Christian salvation (comp. especially Rom_6:14-15); but, as Beza suggested, and with most modern expositors,[106] “so that ever and anon fresh grace appears in place of that already received.” “Proximam quamque gratiam satis quidem magnam gratia subsequens cumulo et plenitudine sua quasi obruit,” Bengel. So superabundant was the λαμβάνειν ! This rendering is sufficiently justified linguistically by Theogn. Sent. 344, ἀντʼ ἀνιῶν ἀνίας ; Philo, de poster. Caini, I. p. 254; Chrys. de sac. vi. 13,—as it is generally by the primary meaning of ἀντὶ (grace interchanging with grace); and it corresponds, agreeably to the context, with the idea of the πλήρωμα , from which it is derived, and is supported further by the increasingly blessed condition of those individually experiencing it (justification, peace with God, consolation, joy, illumination, love, hope, and so on: see on Rom_5:1 ff.; Gal_5:22; Eph_5:9). John might have written χάριν ἐπὶ χάριτι or χάριν ἐπὶ χάριν (Php_2:27), but his conception of it was different. Still, any special reference to the fulness of the special χαρίσματα , 1 Corinthians 12-14 (Ewald), lies remote from the context here (Joh_1:17); though at the same time they, as in general no εὐλογία πνευματική (Eph_1:3), wherewith God in Christ has blessed believers, are not excluded.
[106] Among whom, however, Godet regards the phrase with ἀντί as a play upon words, referring to the O. T. law of retaliation, according to which “chaque grâce était la récompense d’un mérite acquisx.” But such an allusion would be inappropriate, since χάρις in ἀντὶ χάριτος is not something human, but divine.