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10. καὶ ὁ κόσμος. Close connexion obtained by repetition, as in Joh 1:4-5; also the tragic tone, as in Joh 1:5. Moreover, there is a climax: ‘He was in the world;’ (therefore it should have known Him;) ‘and the world was His creature;’ (therefore it should have known Him;) ‘and (yet) the world knew Him not.’ Καί = καίτοι is very frequent in S. John, but it is best to translate simply ‘and,’ not ‘and yet:’ cf. Joh 1:5; Joh 1:11. It is erroneous to suppose that καί ever means ‘but’ either in S. John or elsewhere. Ὁ κόσμος is another of the expressions characteristic of S. John: it occurs nearly 80 times in the Gospel, and 22 times in the First Epistle.
Observe that ὁ κόσμος has not exactly the same meaning Joh 1:9-10 : throughout the New Testament it is most important to distinguish the various meanings of κόσμος. Connected with κομεῖν and comere, it means (1) ‘ornament;’ 1Pe 3:3 : (2) ‘the ordered universe,’ mundus; Rom 1:20 : (3) ‘the earth;’ Joh 1:9; Mat 4:8 : (4) ‘the inhabitants of the earth;’ Joh 1:29; Joh 4:42 : (5) ‘the world outside the Church,’ those alienated from God; Joh 12:31, Joh 14:17 and frequently. In this verse the meaning slips from (3) to (5).
αὐτόν. The masculine shews that S. John is again speaking of Christ as ὁ Λόγος, not (as in Joh 1:9) as τὸ Φῶς.
οὐκ ἔγνω. ‘Did not acquire knowledge’ of its Creator. Γιγνώσκειν is ‘to get to know, recognise, acknowledge.’ Cf. Act 19:15.