Charles Ellicott Commentary John 1:8

"He was not the light, but [came] that he might bear witness of the light." — John 1:8 (ASV)

He was not that Light, but was sent.—It is necessary to repeat the statement of John’s position and work in an emphatic form. Now, for the first time in 400 years, a great teacher had appeared in Israel. The events of his birth and life had excited the attention of the masses; his bold message, like the cry of another Elijah, found its way in burning words to the slumbering hearts of people; and even from the least likely classes—from Pharisee and Sadducee, from publican and soldier—there came the heart’s question, “What shall we do?” The extent of the religious revival does not impress us, because it passed into the greater one that followed, but the statement of a publican living at the time is that “Jerusalem, and all Judæa, and all the region round about Jordan, went out to Him, and were baptized of Him in Jordan, confessing their sins” (Matthew 3:5–6).

But what was this power among them? Who could be the person uttering these more than human words? A comparison of John 1:19-20 in this chapter with Luke 3:15 shows a widespread opinion that he was at least possibly the Messiah. He himself with true greatness recognised the greater, but as in many similar cases in later days, the followers did not all have the leader’s nobility of soul. We shall meet signs of this in John 3:26; John 4:1. We find traces of it in Matthew 9:14 and following (see Note at this place), and even in Ephesus, as late as St. Paul’s third missionary journey, we find “certain disciples” knowing nothing more than “John’s baptism” (Acts 19:1–6). It was at Ephesus that this Gospel was written, and the existence of a body of such “disciples” may have led to the full statement in this verse, made by one who had himself been among the Baptist’s earliest followers.

It was otherwise with the disciple who wrote these words. He is content to claim for his master, as for himself, the noblest human work: “to bear witness of that Light.” No one can add to it; all can, in word and life, bear witness to it. Every discovery in science and advance in truth is a removal of some cloud that hides it from people; every noble character is manifesting it; every conquest of sin is extending it. It has been stored in mines of deepest thought in all ages. The heedless pass over the surface unconscious of it. The world’s benefactors are those who bring it forth to people as the light and warmth of the rays of the Sun of Righteousness. (Compare to John 5:35, and Note there.)