John Calvin Commentary John 1:11

"He came unto his own, and they that were his own received him not." — John 1:11 (ASV)

He came into his own. Here is displayed the absolutely desperate wickedness and malice of men; here is displayed their execrable impiety, in that when the Son of God was manifested in flesh to the Jews—whom God had separated to Himself from the other nations to be His own heritage—He was not acknowledged or received.

This passage also has received various explanations. For some think that the Evangelist speaks of the whole world indiscriminately; and certainly, there is no part of the world which the Son of God may not lawfully claim as His own property. According to them, the meaning is: “When Christ came down into the world, He did not enter into another person’s territories, for the whole human race was His own inheritance.”

But I more highly approve of the opinion of those who refer it to the Jews alone, for there is an implied comparison by which the Evangelist represents the heinous ingratitude of men. The Son of God had sought a dwelling for Himself in one nation; when He appeared there, He was rejected. This clearly shows the awfully wicked blindness of men.

In making this statement, the Evangelist's sole object must have been to remove the offense which many would be likely to take because of the unbelief of the Jews. For when He was despised and rejected by that nation to which He had been especially promised, who would consider Him to be the Redeemer of the whole world? We see what extraordinary pains the Apostle Paul takes in handling this subject.

Here both the verb and the noun are highly emphatic. He came. The Evangelist says that the Son of God came to that place where He formerly was; and by this expression He must mean a new and extraordinary kind of presence, by which the Son of God was manifested, so that men might have a nearer view of Him. Into his own. By this phrase the Evangelist compares the Jews with other nations, because by an extraordinary privilege they had been adopted into the family of God. Christ therefore was first offered to them as His own household and as belonging to His empire by a peculiar right. To the same purpose is that complaint of God by Isaiah:

The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib, but Israel knoweth me not (Isaiah 1:3).

For though He has dominion over the whole world, yet He represents Himself to be, in a peculiar manner, the Lord of Israel, whom He had collected, as it were, into a sacred fold.