Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - John 1:17 - 1:17
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
17. The mention of χάρις reminds the Evangelist that this was the characteristic of the new dispensation and marked its superiority to the old: the Law condemned transgressors, χάρις forgives them.
διὰ Μωυσέως. It is regrettable that the translation of διὰ in this prologue is not uniform in the A.V. In Joh 1:3; Joh 1:10; Joh 1:17 we have ‘by,’ in Joh 1:7 ‘through.’ ‘By means of’ is the meaning in all five cases. Moses did not give the Law any more than he gave the manna (Joh 6:32); he was only the mediate agent, the μεσίτης by whose hand it was given (Gal 3:19). The form Μωυσέως is rightly given in the best MSS. The derivation is said to be from two Egyptian words mo = aqua, and ugai = servari. Hence the Septuagint, which was made in Egypt, and the best MSS., which mainly represent the text current in Egypt, keep nearest to the Egyptian form.
ἐδόθη. Not ἐγένετο. The Law given through Moses was not his own; the grace and truth that came through Christ were His own.
ἡ χάρις. The asyndeton is remarkable: the Coptic and Peshito supply an equivalent for δέ, but this is a common insertion in versions, and no proof that a δέ has dropped out of the Greek texts.
ἡ ἀλήθεια. Like χάρις, ἀλήθεια is opposed to νόμος, not as truth to falsehood, but as a perfect to an imperfect revelation.
Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. “To us ‘Christ’ has become a proper name, and as such rejects the definite article. But in the Gospel narratives, if we except the headings, or prefaces, and the after comments of the Evangelists themselves (e.g. Mat 1:1; Mar 1:1; Joh 1:17) no instance of this usage can be found. In the body of the narratives we read only of ὁ Χριστός, the Christ, the Messiah, whom the Jews had long expected.… The very exceptions (Mar 9:41; Luk 2:11; Joh 9:22; Joh 17:3) strengthen the rule.” Lightfoot, On Revision, p. 100. Note that S. John no longer speaks of the Logos: the Logos has become incarnate (Joh 1:14) and is spoken of henceforth by the names which He has borne in history.