John 12:46Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

“I have come as light into the world.” Since the Father is everywhere called light, both in the Old and in the New Testament, He also applies this name to Himself. Therefore Paul, having learned from this, calls Him the radiance. In general, He shows here His great kinship with the Father and establishes no difference. For faith in Him, He says, is not referred to Him alone, but passes over to the Father. He called Himself light because He destroys error and disperses intellectual darkness.

Again, by these words He shows His consubstantiality with the Father. For as the Father is everywhere in Scripture called Light, so He also says of Himself: "I have come as light into the world."

Therefore the Apostle Paul also calls Him Radiance (Heb 1:3), showing that there is nothing intervening between the Father and the Son. The Father and the Son are together, as light and radiance are together.

Thus the Son is also Light, because He delivers from error and disperses noetic darkness. As light, when it appears, becomes visible itself and shows the other visible things, so also the Son came and appeared to us.

He gave knowledge of Himself and of the Father, and enlightened the hearts of those who received Him with every kind of knowledge.

Here again He touches on faith in Himself and at one and the same time attains two useful ends. By confessing that He is light, He shows Himself to be God by nature.

For it belongs by nature to God alone to be so called. By adding the reason for His coming, He puts to shame the one who despises love for Him.

Moreover, one must certainly think that those who have not yet believed in Him are in darkness, if it belongs only to those who believe in Him to abide in the light that comes from Him.

He also leads them to remember the frequent sayings about Him, in which His coming for the illumination of the whole world is foretold. Such are: "Shine, shine, O Jerusalem, for your true Light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you" (Is 60:1).

In one place He says to His disciples: "You are the light of the world" (Mt 5:14). Yet He did not say to them: "You are light and have come into the world, that whoever believes in you should not remain in darkness."

All the saints are lamps, but they are illumined by Christ through faith. If anyone departs from Him, he is plunged into darkness.

But the Light that illumines them cannot be separated from Himself, for He is wholly unchangeable. Thus we believe that a prophet or apostle is light poured out in this way.

Yet we believe him so that, in the end, we believe not in what is itself illumined, but together with him in that very Light by which he too is illumined.

“I have come as light into the world,” as spiritual light, destroying spiritual darkness and showing the rays of the Godhead to sound eyes through His divine works and words. “That whoever believes in Me may not remain in darkness,” that is, in the darkness of error and the darkness of sin. Jesus Christ often speaks of this with particular assurance. By such constancy He wished to soften the hard heart of the Jews and communicate to them everything that could concern Himself. Therefore He also “cried out” (Jn 12:44).

The Evangelist made the above observation about the fruits of Jesus Christ's public activity after previously noting that Jesus, after His discourses concerning the Greeks' desire to see Him, "departed and hid Himself from them" (36).

Here, however, without noting when or where this occurred, he says: "But Jesus cried out and said."

Some commentators think that the Evangelist interrupted Jesus Christ's discourse, spoken in connection with the Greeks' desire to see Him, by his reflection on the people's unbelief. According to them, he now gives its continuation.

Other commentators base their view on the fact that the discourse cited here contains only sayings spoken by Jesus Christ at various times. These sayings were transmitted by the same Evangelist in different places.

As He was leaving the temple, Christ for the last time addressed the people. He explained the purpose of His coming to earth and repeated what He had said earlier about His unity with the heavenly Father.

"I have come into the world so that everyone who believes in Me should not remain in darkness," that is, in ignorance of the will of God. "For I have not spoken of Myself."

"The Father who sent Me commanded Me what to say. And all that I speak, I speak just as the Father told Me."

"And I know that His commandment, His will, is that all men should be deemed worthy of the blessedness of eternal life, and that all should be saved."

"For this reason He sent Me. He sent Me not to judge the world, but to save it. Therefore I judge no one" (Jn 8:15).

And what need is there to judge now, when everyone who does not fulfill the will of God proclaimed by Me condemns himself?

Outside Him, the Teacher sent to men from heaven, there was only death and darkness. To see this, it was enough to cast a glance at the surrounding world. In His words truth shone forth with full persuasive power. “I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in Me may not remain in darkness.” Woe, therefore, to him who, through his obstinacy, does not acknowledge the divine Teacher and closes his eyes before the manifestation of His glory.

“I am the light,” and so forth: see Jn 8:12; Jn 9:5; Jn 12:35. “May not remain in darkness”: see Jn 12:35-36 and Jn 1:4 and following. The meaning is this: I am the herald of divine truth, which enlightens every man. He who believes in Me and My teaching will not remain in the darkness of ignorance and sin.

Verse 46: “I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in Me may not remain in darkness.” The thought had been set forth in Jn 8:12. Only here the sorrowful state of man who remains without faith in Christ is presented sharply. Whoever remains without faith in Jesus will remain in darkness, whatever measures he may take to come out of the darkness.

The Lord does not say that He brought light into the world, but that He, the Light Himself, came into the world. He, Himself absolute Light and the sole source of light, appeared in the world in order to enlighten the world.

The Lord's appearing illumined the world with truth. It disclosed all the mysteries of spiritual life, of development, and of the human soul's ascent toward God when it is illumined by this light.

On the other hand, the appearance of the Light clearly showed the wounds of humanity and the darkness in which it dwelt. It also showed the fall of the human soul, which is called by the Lord from darkness to Himself, the Light.