The Thought In John 1:3c-4 -- By: John Nolland

Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 62:2 (NA 2011)
Article: The Thought In John 1:3c-4
Author: John Nolland


The Thought In John 1:3c-4

John Nolland

Summary

With a working assumption that the final words of verse 3 belong with verse 4, the article seeks to clarify the thought in the three clauses making up verses 3c-4. It concludes that the thought expressed is this: the mystery of animate life, existing as it does ‘in the Logos’, shines as a light upon humanity, a light intended to light up the divine presence in the world in that it reveals the presence and working of the Logos. A second alternative is possibly viable: creation is life-giving, and the life it gives acts as a light revealing the Logos.

1. Introduction

There is not a scholarly consensus on whether γέγονεν (‘what has come to be’) at the end of John 1:3 belongs with the material before in verse 3, or with the material to come in verse 4. The claim has been made that most recent scholarship has favoured the latter.1 There is, however, still spirited defence of the former view.2 I side with the

scholars who favour the latter. An adequate discussion of the issues involved here lies outside the scope of the present paper, though I do appreciate that for those who think ὃ γέγονεν belongs with verse 3 the presentation offered here is a non-starter. With a working assumption that ὃ γέγονεν belongs with verse 4, the concern here is with seeking to clarify the thought in the three clauses making up verses 3c-4. When the argument has been made that ὃ γέγονεν belongs with verse 4, strong as it seems to be on other fronts, there has not been, I believe, sufficient attention given to the precise sense of the set of linked clauses in verses 3c-4 that result. The possibility of identifying a satisfactory sense offers itself as, among other things, a test of the working assumption about punctuation. (I hasten to add that this in no way claims to demonstrate the working assumption; the main weight of the case for linking the final clause of v.

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