John 1:9
1908 3 "That this version is incorrect, every Greek scholar must be convinced, on considering that there is no article prefixed to the participle; that the original is not panta anthropon ton erchomenon eiston kosmon, but panta anthropon erchomenon c.t.l. In the latter construction, if the particle be taken in connexion with every man the import of the words must necessarily be, every man at his coming into the world."
"But there is a degree of ambiguity in the structure of the original, which may in some measure be conveyed to the English reader by rendering the Greek words literally, and in the precise order in which they stand — 'the true light which lighteth every man coming into the world.' And on such a literal translation the question may be raised — What is it that is spoken of as 'coming into the world'? Is the participle 'coming' to be connected with every man,' or with the word 'which'? — 'the true light, which coming into the world lighteth every man.' I maintain the latter, for reasons that I shall proceed to state: only first repeating the remark that, if any will persist in maintaining the former connexion of the words, they yet must abandon the present version of them; as the Greek cannot justly be rendered 'every man that cometh into the world,' but would then necessarily import 'every man at his coming into the world.'
"Now that the words 'coming into the world' are really to be referred to 'the true light,' the Messiah, is at once rendered exceedingly probable, if we observe that the Evangelist immediately subjoins in the very next verse, He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. The phrase also of coming into the world, and other similar phrases, are of the most frequent occurrence in the scripture of the New Testament, as applied to the Messiah. Nay, in John 3:19, the expression is applied to Him in the very same connexion, as the light: this is the condemnation, that the light is come into the world, but, etc. And again in John 12:46, I am come a light into the world.
"But do we find the same phrase of coming into the world applied in like manner, to express the birth of men generally? No, truly. I believe that not a single instance of it in point can be adduced from scripture. That which might seem to approach nearest to it is, perhaps, the apostle's language in 1 Tim. 6:7, We brought nothing into the world; but here, the mention immediately subjoined of our leaving the world — 'it is certain we can carry nothing out' — at once accounts for the phraseology in the former clause. When the Messiah is said to come into the world, to be sent into the world, etc., there is evidently implied a reference to the antecedent glory, which He had with the Father before the world was (John 17:5). But the Scriptures nowhere intimate any such antecedent existence of the human race in a former state, as would justify the same general expression for their being born.
"On these grounds, I conclude, without any hesitation or uncertainty, that the words 'coming into the world', in John 1:9, refer 'to the true light'; and that the passage ought therefore to be rendered — 'that was the true light, which coming into the world lighteth every man.' Before the coming of Christ the revelation of the true God was confined (almost exclusively) to the posterity of Abraham, the Jewish people. To them were committed the oracles of God. But when, in the fulness of the appointed time, the sun of righteousness arose, its light was universally diffused. The long-foretold appearance of the Messiah introduced a dispensation which extends to every kindred, and tribe, and tongue, and people, with a universality including Gentiles as well as Jews;and which, in this view, is continually contrasted with the Jewish dispensation, that was confined to the Hebrew nation; the whole code of Levitical observance forming a middle wall of partition between them and the rest of the world, till all the Levitical law passed away as a shadow, receiving its full accomplishment in Christ, and the things of His kingdom.
"In establishing the correct translation of the passage, I have abstained from noticing those most unscriptural doctrines, which the common version has been often employed to countenance — the doctrine that the mind of the infant is at its birth in some mystic way enlightened, without the communication of any truth, human or divine; and the doctrine, that Christ actually enlightens every individual in the world, although that individual live and die disbelieving the word of Christ, and therefore under the power of darkness; or without his having ever had even that hearing of the word of Christ, by which faith cometh (Rom. 10:14-17)." J.W.