Charles Ellicott Commentary John 1:5

"And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not." — John 1:5 (ASV)

And the light shineth in darkness.—The vision of brightness is present for only a moment and passes away before the black reality of the history of humankind. The description of Paradise occupies only a few verses of the Old Testament. The outer darkness casts its gloom on every page. But in the moral chaos, too, God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. The first struggle of light into and through darkness until the darkness received it, rolled back before it, passed away into it—the repeated comprehension of light by darkness, as in the dawn of every morning the night passes into day, and the earth, now shrouded in blackness, is now bathed in the clear white light of an Eastern sun—this has its counterpart in the moral world.

There, too, the Sun of Righteousness has shone, is ever shining; but as the Apostle looks back on the history of the pre-Christian world, or, perhaps, looks back on the earthly ministry of Christ Himself, he seeks in vain for the victory of truth, for the hearts of nations, or of people, penetrated through and through with heaven’s light, and he sums up the whole in one sad negation, “The darkness comprehended it not.” Yet in this very sadness there is firm and hopeful faith.

The emphatic present declares that the light still, always, “shineth in darkness.”

True are those words of patriarch, lawgiver, and prophet, as they followed the voice that called, received God’s law for humankind, or proclaimed the word that came to them from Him. True are they of every poet, thinker, and statesman, who has grasped some higher truth, chased some lurking doubt, or taught a nation noble deeds.

True are they of every evangelist, martyr, and philanthropist, who has carried the light of the gospel to human hearts, who has in life or death witnessed to its truth, who has shown its power in deeds of mercy and of love. True are they of the humblest Christian who seeks to walk in the light, and from the sickroom of the lowliest home may be letting a light shine before others that leads them to glorify the Father who is in heaven.

The Light is ever shining, often, indeed, colored as it passes through the different minds of different people, and meeting us across the space that separates continents and the time that separates ages, in widely varying hues. But these shades pass into each other, and in the harmony of all is the pure light of truth.

Comprehended it not.—The meaning of this word differs from that rendered “knew not” in John 1:10. The thought here is that the darkness did not lay hold of, did not appropriate the light, so as itself to become light; the thought there is that individuals did not recognize it. Compare the notes on Romans 9:30; 1 Corinthians 9:24; Philippians 3:12–13, where the same Greek word occurs. See also Ephesians 3:18, which is the only passage in the New Testament, besides the present one, where the word is rendered by “comprehend.”