Conservative Friends Bible Study of The Gospel of John #2

John 1:1-5

Henry begins a verse-by-verse commentary on the Greek of the Gospel of John, pointing out significant Greek meanings as he moves from verse to verse.   

Verse 1

The Greek word “pros” (often translated “with”, as in John 1:1-2) and is often translated as “. . .  and the word was with God.” However, this Greek word “pros” means “to”, “by” (as in location), or “before” (as in the vicinity or presence of God”). As a result, it might be more correctly translated as, “In the beginning was this word, and the word was by (in the presence of) God, and God was the word.”

Verse 2

In the Greek of Jesus’ time, the use of the male noun classes usually included both male and female, unless the context of the noun demanded it be interpreted as referring only to males. Henry warns that it is important not to apply our popularly-held 21st century predilection of insisting that the male noun class always excludes women. For the Greeks, they were usually inclusive and included both men and women. 

Verse 3

In the phrase, “In him was life . . . .” the Greek word for life is “zoe”, and (especially in John’s Gospel) is better understood as “eternal life”/”kingdom of God”/”kingdom of heaven”.  

Verses 4-5

The phrase “. . . the light of men” is a very good example that in the Greek mind, “anthropon” (“men”) was clearly understood as inclusively including both men and women.

The Greek word “scotia” (translated “darkness”) in the phrase, “. . . the darkness has not understood it” would be more accurately translated as “ignorance”. In addition, the Greek word, “katalaben” often translated as “understood” would more correctly be translated as. ”overcome”/”fiercely grasped”/”taken it down” as a more accurate meaning. Thus giving a rendering of “ . . . ignorance has not overcome it [the light]/taken it [the light] down”.

  The advice in our introduction is from page 32 of the Ohio Yearly Meeting's Book of Discipline.