John 1:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But if it does not embrace all, you should not be troubled by this. God approaches us not by compulsion, nor against our will, but according to our desire and good disposition. Do not shut the doors against this light, and you will receive much delight. This light comes to us through faith. When it comes, it abundantly illumines the one who receives it. If you present to it a pure life, it will dwell in you continually.

“He who loves Me will keep My word,” says the Savior, “and We will come to him,” I and My Father, “and make Our dwelling with him” (Jn 14:23).

As no one can enjoy sunlight without opening the eyes, so no one can share in this illumination without fully opening the eyes of the soul and sharpening them in every way. How can this be done? By cleansing the soul from every passion.

Sin is darkness, and deep darkness. This is clear because it is committed irrationally and secretly. “Everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light” (Jn 3:20). “For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret” (Eph 5:12).

As in darkness we do not distinguish friend from enemy, and do not know the properties of things at all, so it is also in sin. A covetous man does not distinguish friend from enemy. An envious man looks even upon the person most well disposed toward him as an enemy. A slanderer is equally armed against all. In short, everyone who commits sin is no different from those who are drunk or mad, in that he does not discern the properties of things.

At night our eyes see no difference between wood, lead, iron, silver, gold, or a precious stone, because there is no light for distinguishing these things. So a man who leads an impure life does not perceive either the excellence of chastity or the beauty of wisdom.

For in darkness, as I have said, even precious stones do not reveal their beauty. This is not because of the stones themselves, but because those who look at them do not know. Yet this is not the only misfortune that overtakes us when we live in sins. We also live then in constant fear.

As those on a journey on a moonless night feel fear, even if nothing frightening is present, so sinners cannot have boldness, even if no one accuses them. Feeling the pangs of conscience, they fear everything, suspect everything, and everything brings them fear and terror. They look around at everything with fear and tremble at everything.

Let us flee such a tormented life. After such torment there will also follow death, an immortal death. Then there will be no end to punishment. Here, those who imagine unreal things as though in a dream are no different from madmen. They imagine themselves rich when they are not rich. They think they live in luxury, while having no pleasure. They do not properly recognize this deception until they are freed from madness or shake off sleep.

For this reason Paul commands all to be sober and watchful. Christ commands the same. The one who is sober and watchful, even if he is drawn by sin, immediately repels it. But one who sleeps or is mad does not even feel what power sin has over him.

Let us not sleep. Now it is not night, but day. Therefore, “as in the day, let us conduct ourselves becomingly” (Rom 13:13). Nothing is more shameful than sin. In this respect, walking naked is not as evil as walking in sins and transgressions. Nakedness is not such a crime, and often it comes from poverty. But nothing is more shameful and contemptible than sin.

Let us imagine those who are led into court for theft and fraud. What shame and ridicule covers them as shameless, lying, and brazen people. We find it unpleasant and difficult to endure if an outer garment is worn carelessly or inside out. Even when we see this on others, we correct it. But when all of us and our neighbors walk on our heads, we do not notice it.

Tell me, what could be more shameful than when a man goes in to a dissolute woman? Who deserves more ridicule than a quarrelsome man, inclined to slander and envy? Why then do all these things seem not so shameful as walking naked? Only because of habit.

No one has ever willingly allowed himself the latter, but everyone always dares to commit sins without any fear. Certainly, if someone entered the assembly of angels, where nothing of this kind has ever occurred, he would see how worthy of ridicule it is.

But why do I speak of an assembly of angels? If someone in royal chambers brought in a harlot and used her, or became drunk with wine, or allowed himself some other dishonorable act, he would suffer the severest punishment. If such bold acts are intolerable in royal chambers, then much more should we suffer extreme punishment if we dare such things in the presence of the King who is everywhere present and sees all.

Therefore, I implore you, let us show modesty and purity in our way of life. We have a King who ceaselessly looks upon all our deeds. Let us draw to ourselves the ray of the higher light, so that it may always shine upon us in abundance. Then we shall enjoy both present and future blessings, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him and with Him, to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.

It is so called because of sin. For so long as the flesh is governed by the law of nature, it has absolutely no evil.

But when it is moved beyond the bounds of nature and serves sin, it becomes and is called darkness.

They would say that the nature of other rational creatures either gathers for itself the power of understanding from its own seeds, as it were, or that God the Father implants mind and reason in it, as though the Son were unable to do this. Therefore, so that God the Word Himself might be clearly shown to be such as He was in God the Father, namely life and light, not for only some portion of creatures and not for others, but communicating Himself to all beings generally by an ineffable mode of participation as wisdom and reason. Which in rational beings is called light, so that rational beings may possess reason and those capable of thought may have thought, being unable to be such in any other way, he therefore considers it necessary to say: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

With great precision he cries out to his hearers as though saying this: I said, beloved, gladly teaching you the truth, that the life was the light of men. I did not say this so that anyone should conclude from these words, above all, that illumination from Him is received from elsewhere as a reward only by those who prove righteous and good. Rather, I said it so that you may learn again that, just as the Word is life in all creatures, clearly because He gives life to what is capable of life, so also He is light in them, because He shows that what is capable of understanding and reflection is what it is. For God the Father is all in all through the Son in the Spirit (1 Cor 15:28).

By darkness he means the nature that needs illumination, that is, created nature in general. After he has called Him light, thereby indicating that the rational creature is distinct from Him, as needing Him and participating in Him, he turns the meaning of what is signified to the opposite. As we understand it, he does this not without purpose. Without doubt he had in mind the thought that the nature of creatures, which pours forth absolutely nothing from itself, but receives decisively everything from the Creator, both being and well-being, justly hears: “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Cor 4:7).

Since, besides everything else, it also has light as a gift from God, it clearly receives it because it does not possess it. Light does not exist from itself in the creature. How, then, will it not be the opposite of light? Or should it not be called darkness?

A persuasive proof, indeed the most necessary proof, that the creature is darkness, while the Word of God, on the contrary, is light, is this: “the light shines in the darkness.” For if the nature of creatures receives the Word of God by participation, as light or as from light, then clearly it itself receives as darkness. The Son shines in it as light in darkness, though the darkness does not know the light at all. This, I think, is precisely what “the darkness did not comprehend it” means.

The Word of God shines upon all who are capable of being illumined, and in general illumines everything that has a nature capable of illumination. Yet He is not known by the darkness. For the rational nature existing on earth, that is, man, once served the creature rather than the Creator (Rom 1:25). Therefore man did not receive the light, that is, he did not know the Creator, the source of wisdom, the beginning of reason, and the root of thought.

Nevertheless, through God’s love for mankind, creatures have light. Together with their passage into being, they bring with them, as it were, the power of reason implanted in them.

Here again it must be noted that no argument permits the Son of God to be considered a creature or a created thing. In this respect He is wholly removed from us and surpasses the nature of creatures. He is completely other than what they are, and stands far from them in the quality of essence. So also, without doubt, light is not the same as darkness, but is even opposed to it and separated from it by an unjoinable difference of an entirely different nature.

Since we have already given sufficient discussion of this in our previous inquiries, let us add the rest from what follows: “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for witness, to bear witness concerning the Light” (Jn 1:6-7).

Φάινει means “shines,” though some render it as “is illumined,” as if φάινεται stood there. Κατέλαβεν occurs fifteen times in the New Testament. Everywhere it has the meaning of embracing, encompassing, seizing, taking possession, or receiving into one’s possession. This may be general and abstract, as in Jn 1:5; 12:35; Rom 9:30; 1 Cor 9:24; Phil 3:12-13. It may be external, as in Mk 9:12; Jn 8:3-4; 1 Thess 5:4. It may also be spiritual, in the sense of grasping or understanding, as in Acts 4:13; 10:34, 25, and Eph 3:18. Therefore “comprehended” accurately conveys the term. The Father understands ϰατέλαβε in the sense of intellectual and spiritual reception, as in Acts 4:13; 10:34, 25, and Eph 3:18. The implanted power of reason means innate reason.

But irrational hearts may still be unable to obtain this light, because they are weighed down by their sins and so cannot see it.

Let them not think that the light somehow does not exist on the grounds that they cannot see it. They themselves, because of their sins, have become darkness.

“And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (Jn 1:5).

So then, brothers, this is like a blind man standing in the sun. The sun is before him, but he himself is far from the sun.

So also every foolish, every unrighteous, every impious man is blind in heart.

Wisdom is near him, but it is near a blind man, and it is not there for his eyes.

This is not because it is not near him, but because he himself is far from it.

What then should he do? Let him cleanse that by which God can be seen.

If he cannot see Him because his eyes are clogged and inflamed by sand, or pus, or smoke, then let the physician say to him: “Cleanse your eyes of everything that harms them, so that you may see the light of your eyes.”

Sand, pus, and smoke are sins and vices. Therefore rid yourself of all this, and you will see Wisdom, Who remains near you.

For God Himself is Wisdom, and it is said: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt 5:8).

“The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, on the way by the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations, the people sitting in darkness saw a great light” (cf. Mt 4:15-16).

He attributes this darkness to them because they were a people very far away, dwelling and living by the shore of the sea.

They had departed far from the ordinances and teaching of the Law. For this reason he calls them a people “sitting in darkness.”

The Evangelist was speaking precisely of them, since he himself said: the preceding darkness, that is, the errors, did not overcome the light, that is, His teaching and knowledge.

Undertaking to announce the beginning of that struggle which our Lord endured in His body, the Evangelist begins to speak in this way: “the darkness did not overcome Him” (cf. Jn 1:5).

Those who have endured temptation in this wave of this hour know by experience what change follows when it ends.

But God does not leave the soul in such a condition for an entire day, because it would lose Christian hope.

We have often come to know all this by experience, and for the consolation of many we have described this struggle.

Blessed is he who endures this without going outside the door.

For afterward, as the Fathers say, he will enter into a great dwelling and strength.

Yet this struggle does not end in one hour or quickly.

Grace also does not come at once in complete fullness and dwell in the soul. It comes gradually, and one thing succeeds another.

There is a time of temptation and a time of consolation. In such a state a man remains until his departure.

Let us not hope here to become completely alien to this or to be completely consoled.

The world does not hinder Him from shining and illumining. Yet it did not know Him, did not find Him, and did not behold Him. Therefore John the Theologian, to present this more clearly, adds: "That was the true Light, which enlightens every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him" (Jn 1:9-10).

From the beginning, he says, God was everywhere, enlightening and giving life to every man coming into the world. He was before the creation of the world. All things were with God before they appeared in being.

Then, when God created this sensible world, He did not become distant from it in place. For He is everywhere present and fills all things. Yet of all things existing in the world, nothing drew near to Him according to the nature and glory of His Godhead.

God, though not distant from anything that exists, is manifestly in all things. Yet no one knows Him, as our Lord says: "No one knows the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him" (Mt 11:27).

Thus God, Who was in the world and was not known by it, "came," he says, "to His own, and His own did not receive Him." By His own he means the world and the people in the world. They are His because He is their Creator and Master. They are also His through the kinship into which He entered with men through His Incarnation.

Consider carefully what we have said. Know that God the Word, Who in the beginning was with God and the Father, Who has life in Himself, Who created all things, and Who is the Light enlightening every man, is Himself the One Who was before the world existed and created the world.

He is the One Who is in the world and is not known by the world, nor comprehended by it. He came into the world and became man, that He might be manifested as God and known as He is by those who receive Him as God with faith and keep His commandments.

Therefore the holy Evangelist says: "As many as received Him, to them He gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (Jn 1:12-14).

Here it is. These very words are the mirror of which I spoke before. Look, I ask you, at the precision of the Evangelist's words. How clearly he marks the signs by which the faithful are known, so that we may know both ourselves and our neighbors.

"As many as received Him," he says, evidently through faith, and confessed Him as God, not merely as man, "to them He gave power" through Baptism "to become children of God," freeing them from the tyranny of the devil.

Thus they are not only faithful. If they wish to live according to His commandments, they may also draw holiness to their faith through the practice of His commandments. As the Lord says elsewhere: "You shall be holy, for I am holy" (Lev 19:2). Again: "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful" (Lk 6:36).

Then the Evangelist also shows the way in which such people become children of God, saying: "who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (Jn 1:13).

Here he calls birth the spiritual change accomplished and beheld through Baptism by the Holy Spirit. As the unfailing Lord Himself says: "John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1:5).

Therefore those baptized with the Holy Spirit become like light in light, and they know the One Who begot them, because they see Him.

Those born by the grace of the Holy Spirit also need to be nourished by the holy communion of the most pure Body and precious Blood of our Lord. Hear what the Evangelist says about this: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

That these words speak of the most pure Mysteries, hear the Lord, Who says: "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him" (Jn 6:56).

When we are spiritually born by the grace of the Holy Spirit and become children of God, then Christ, the Son and incarnate Word of God, dwells and abides in us as Light through communion of the Lord's most pure Body and precious Blood.

Then this also follows: "We beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father." For when we are spiritually born of Him, when He dwells in us through the Mysteries, and when we consciously abide in Him, then, at the very hour this occurs in us, we suddenly behold the glory of His Godhead.

It is "the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father," that is, such glory as no other has, neither angel nor man. Since the Father and His Only-begotten Son are one, it is clear that the glory of both is also one.

This glory is revealed and made known to all to whom the Son wills to reveal it, through the Holy Spirit, Who proceeds from the Father.

When God was pleased to send His Only-begotten Son into the world, then light dawned for those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death.

“The people walking in darkness saw a great light” (Isa 9:2): the light of the true knowledge of God, the light of the true faith, the light of unfeigned virtue.

This light shines even now through the Gospel preaching in the darkness of our hearts.

For “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and unto the ages” (Heb 13:8).

This is what the above-mentioned saying means: “and the light shines in the darkness.”

He did not shine only then, but shines even to this day and will shine unto the ages.

As for how the darkness did not overcome Him, listen.

The incarnate Son of God, though He took upon Himself our infirmities and was like us in all things, as the divinely proclaiming Paul writes, was “tempted in all things according to our likeness, except without sin” (Heb 4:15).

Yet sin did not overcome Him, nor touch Him, nor even come near Him in the least.

He was “tempted in all things according to our likeness, except sin.”

Darkness, that is, sin, did not overcome Him. It could not come near the light, that is, Christ.

For “He committed no lawlessness, nor was deceit found in His mouth” (Isa 53:9).

Having first taught about the Godhead of the Son of God, the Theologian then begins to announce the work of His Incarnation in this way.

Verse 6. “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.”

He entrusted to them the truth of the knowledge and worship of God until the time of the renewal of the whole world.

Thus, amid the universal darkness of pagan falsehood that had seized almost all humanity, a lamp of truth was given in the Hebrew people.

The light shines in the darkness. It shines in the Law of Moses, the fullest possible revelation of truth for Old Testament man.

It shines in the prophecies, especially those about Christ. It shines in the promises, especially those about Christ.

It shines in the manifold theophanies, in which one cannot fail to see manifestations of the Word who was later incarnate.

Thus the Word was the light of the world not only from the time of His Incarnation, but in all times from the very creation of man.

At first He fully illumined the first-created man in Paradise. Then, after the fall of the first-created man, He illumined those who did not themselves turn away from Him.

Then He shone amid darkened humanity in the Hebrew people, through the Law, prophecies, promises, and theophanies.

“And the darkness did not overcome it.”

However dense this darkness was, embracing all humanity, it did not overpower, conquer, or suppress this light (cf. Chrysostom and Theophylact).

It did not completely darken its rays. The light continued to shine in the darkness.

When the appointed time came, it illumined the whole universe in the ordering of His Church by the incarnate Word.

To this Church the truth of the knowledge and worship of God has been revealed in fullness.

No dark power can now break or overcome its strength (Mt 16:18).

Since through sin and in sin falsehood became the strongest principle of human life and activity in opposition to truth, the whole history of humanity is, in essence, an unceasing struggle between these two opposing principles.

By the will of God, the principle of falsehood constantly and gradually strengthened in humanity until the manifestation of the Son of God in the flesh.

It embraced almost the whole world. Only the Hebrew people were chosen from all humanity to be bearers of the divinely revealed truth.

From the time of this choosing of one people, their whole life became a struggle of pagan falsehood against this divinely revealed truth.

It also became the preservation of this people and the truth entrusted to them from the whirl of pagan falsehood.

The pressure of this falsehood was at times so strong that even the chosen people itself gave itself over to paganism and its falsehood.

Yet despite this constant and intense pressure of pagan falsehood, revealed truth was preserved unceasingly among them until the time of the Incarnation of Truth Himself.

The light shone in the darkness, and the darkness could not overcome, overpower, or suppress it.

“For this light, that is, the Word of God, is unconquerable” (Theophylact).

He continued to quicken bright hopes through the patriarchs and prophets. Among the nations, He stirred sighs for heavenly help by the sorrows and joys of life.

The heavenly Light not only brightly illumined the chosen people, but did not leave even the Gentiles without witnesses to Himself.

The chosen people, with its teaching about the true God, was resettled among them. Prophets were sent to them, such as Jonah and Daniel.

The Enlightener did everything for men, but the darkness did not overcome Him.

The words “the darkness did not overcome Him” are later replaced by the words, “and the world did not know Him.”

Darkened men, men of the world, men who loved darkness rather than light, did not know and did not make their own the truth proclaimed by the Law, the prophets, and nature.

They killed the prophets of God themselves.

By their own will they loved darkness, became akin to it, and grew coarse in it.

Thus the Light, despite all His desire, did not penetrate the thick layers of darkness.

To hearts that loved darkness, darkness seemed light, and the light remained inaccessible to their mind.

Thus Jn 1:4-5 depicts the relation of the Word to fallen humanity.

What exactly was needed, man could not have devised. God Himself appeared and arranged everything. The outward order of life was changed, in correspondence with the inward disposition, into something worse. It became, as it were, a penance for the penitent.

To bring order to the spiritual disorder and disperse the inward darkness, the promise of salvation in the seed of the woman was given to consciousness and conscience (Gen 3:15), together with corresponding institutions.

With the word of this promise, light began to shine in the darkness of the fall. It was not extinguished, but spread ever more broadly and became ever brighter through the unceasing influx of new rays of God’s Revelation.

At first all mankind equally shared in this light. Before men were scattered over the face of the earth, divine revelations and guiding rules were communicated to all without division. With their scattering, the universality of revelations ceased.

But the scattered tribes took with them everything that God had revealed up to then. They lived by that light until the manifestation of the Lord, and many still live by it to this day. This light was not preserved among them in fullness and purity. It was darkened by clouds of superstitious additions, which the nations themselves later devised to supplement the original Revelation.

Yet even when darkened, it was not completely extinguished. Its glimmerings are visible in the fundamental beliefs common to all peoples. So that the light kindled by the promise of salvation would not be wholly extinguished on earth, the Lord was pleased to choose a special people. In this people He continued to preserve the promise in force, and to increase its light by detailed revelations concerning everything related to its fulfillment.

The prophetic writings are full of such indications. Saint Peter rightly called them a lamp shining in a dark place. “We have,” he says, “the prophetic word made more sure. You do well to give heed to it as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Pet 1:19).

These words give the best interpretation of what Saint John means by the light that shone in the darkness, and how it shone. The light shone in the darkness of the fall, and the lamp shone in the dark place of the exile of the fallen.

Among the people of Israel it shone through the prophetic word. Among the other nations it shone through the natural light and through the revelations they had taken with them when they were scattered over the earth. Toward the end, such revelations also began to pass to them from Israel.

This light was concentrated in the person of the Savior and proceeded from Him, illumining all things. He always is light for those who have fallen into spiritual darkness and are held by it. That the light shone in darkness is God’s work.

What then is man’s work? It is to receive the light and make use of its shining. Was this how it happened? Darkened minds did not understand it. Dark impulses opposed it. Dark powers resisted it and attempted in every way to extinguish it.

But this evil relation of the darkened to the light did not take from the light the power of shining, nor the possibility of illumining those who sought the light and were ready to receive it and use it savingly. The darkness did not overcome the light.

Both in Israel and among the other nations there were those who thirsted for the light and awaited it from above. They were immediately revealed as soon as the signs of the time of the Lord’s coming became clear, and especially when the Forerunner proclaimed that the very Sun of righteousness, Christ the Lord, would soon appear.

Then the preaching of the holy Apostles gathered them all, scattered over the face of the earth, and formed from them the Church of the saints. In turn, the Church became a lamp shining in the dark place of this world, not by herself, but by the power of the Lord who had summed up all things in Himself.

6. The darkness of the fall is sinful darkness.

When sin enters, it brings darkness into the soul. It darkens the soul’s consciousness and conscience, and brings all its actions into confusion and disorder. The consciousness of the Godhead departs, or rather, it does not so much depart as is driven away. At the same time, the fear of God, if it does not disappear, weakens until it has no power to determine the will.

The voice of conscience becomes indefinite and unclear, and deeds begin to be done haphazardly. Man gropes about as at night. A taste develops for things that do not satisfy, but only irritate various needs. These needs contradict one another and constantly trouble the heart. This holds man as though in a whirlwind of dust or a snowstorm.

This darkness of disorder and confusion in thoughts, feelings, and desires began with the fall. It does not cease to be on earth and covers all who live in sin. Yet the light of God, which began in this darkness with the first words of the promise of salvation, does not fade in the sinful turmoil.

The hope of salvation always lives in the sinner’s heart, so long as he does not fall into hopelessness and from it into despair. However sinful anyone may be, he still thinks that not everything is lost. There is still a way out and a possibility of correction.

This expectation also supports the intention to amend. Although its fulfillment is postponed from day to day, the thought of it does not disappear completely, but comes and goes. This is the light shining in sinful darkness: the hope of salvation and the thought, today or tomorrow, of abandoning sin.

To this weak light there are sometimes added rays that strengthen it. They come from the remnants of the original light placed in man’s nature and never wholly dying. Sometimes the fear of God visits him, from an accidental or deliberate awareness of God’s impartial justice and indescribable goodness.

Sometimes conscience is stirred and raises its voice, clearly presenting the ugliness of his deeds and punishing them with its incorruptible judgment. Sometimes tastelessness and revulsion come upon him toward the vanities and amusements that fed sin. This is joined with a sense that the supports on which his pleasant life rests are unreliable. Or else the joy of a life free from all these bonds breathes upon him, bonds that demand much and give nothing.

Then much light appears in the soul, and all the darkness caused by sin is sufficiently illumined. Even so, this light is no more than the light that shone in the darkness of the fall for the Gentiles. Its indications are indefinite. It only exposes what is wrong, without precisely defining what is right or showing the way out of the disastrous state of sin.

It receives this definiteness when the evangelical word comes to it, just as the light that fell to the lot of the Gentiles received definiteness from the prophetic word. The evangelical word, living and active, completes the inward illumination and finally drives away the sinful darkness.

Those who attend to the first light do well. But this is only on condition that they do not remain satisfied with it alone. They must receive it only as a stimulus to seek zealously that the day of Christ may dawn and the morning star of saving faith in Christ may rise in their hearts.

That is a preparatory action. The reception of the evangelical word is the perfecting action. That is the forerunner. This is Christ Himself.