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DON BOSCO UTUME

SALESIAN THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE

AFFILIATED TO THE SALESIAN PONTIFICAL

UNIVERSITY- ROME

KASEREKA MAYIMOTO Thierry, C.R.M

THE CONCEPT OF “LIGHT” IN JOHANNINE

LITERATURE AS A REVELATORY MEANS OF JESUS’

IDENTITY IN A SECULAR WORLD

Supervisor

Mr. Owinyo Maurice

A Long Essay Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Baccalaureate Degree in Biblical Theology

NAIROBI 2020

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DEDICATION

This work has been done in good memory of my beloved departed parents Muhindo

KANYAMA Emmanuel and KAVIRA KALUNGERO Henriette who consumed

themselves like candles to give light to others. Find in these few words the

expression of my sincere gratitude wherever you are…

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EPIGRAPH

“Just as one candle is able to light thousands of candles, so also one heart is able to

inspire and illumine thousands hearts. No one has reduced for having shared the

happiness s/he has.” (Thierry Kasereka).

“You are the light of the world…Let your light so shine before men, that they may see

your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:14, 16.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My sincere gratitude to God source of life and light who unceasingly illumines me

and gives me knowledge and ability to achieve such a work. Special thanks to the Order

of Clerics Regular Minor through the formation team for having accepted me as I am and

for the support they have given that I may complete my philosophical as well as my

theological studies.

My heartfelt thanks goes to my supervisor Mr. Maurice OWINYO for his

assistance for the achievement of this precious and compact work. Without leaving

behind all the academic staff of Don Bosco Utume Salesian Theological College; in a

particular way Ms. Pauline. I would like to thank my fellow confreres Caracciolini living

here in Nairobi for their support during the time we have been together.

My deepest compliments go to Madam Catherine LUCIA, Mss. Violet Otieno and

Mbusa Bamuswekere Ghislain for every kind of assistance you have shown to me. And

lastly my heartfelt gratitude to my siblings: Basoki Zawadi, Kavira Tsongo Clarisse,

Steven Kanyama, Kavugho Tsongo Catherine, Kahambu Tsongo Patience and Katungu

Mayimoto Wivine.

Please find in these poor words my sincere appreciation!

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STUDENT’S DECLARATION

I, the undersigned declare that this long essay is my own work. Through my time, studies

and personal scientific research, this work has taken shape as a scientific paper. It is

submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in

theology. I declare that it has never been submitted to any college or University for

academic credit. All sources have been cited in full and acknowledged.

Signed:……………………………………………………..

Name of the Student: KASEREKA MAYIMOTO Thierry CRM

Date:…………………………………………………

This Long Essay has been submitted for examination with my approval as College

Supervisor.

Signed:…………………………………………….

Name of Supervisor:………………………………………

Date:…………………………………………..

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ABBREVIATIONS

Am. Amos

BC. Before Christ

Chap. Chapter

Dan. Daniel

Deut. Deuteronomy

Ecc. Ecclesiastes

etc. And so on

Ex. Exodus

Ez. Ezekiel

Gen. Genesis

i.e. Which means

Is. Isaiah

Jer. Jeremiah

Jn. John

Lam. Lamentation

Nah. Nahum

Neh. Nehemiah

Prov. Proverbs

Ps. Psalm

Rev. Revelation

RSV. Revised Standard Version

Sam. Samuel

V. Verse

vv. Verses

Zeph. Zephaniah

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Chapter I

The Concept of Light in the Old Testament

1.0. Introduction

The concept of light is not peculiar to Johannine literature. It occurs in so many

passages of the Bible starting from the Old till the New Testament. Some scholars of the

Bible have come to the conclusion that this concept occurs 146 times in the Old

Testament and 90 times in the New Testament (these without including concepts like

‘lights’, ‘lighted’, ‘daylight’ etc.).

In this particular chapter, we shall be assessing the concept of light in the Old

Testament especially in the Jewish festivals. Also we shall be looking at its aspects either

figuratively or literally and try to contrast it with its opposite the darkness. Light is

always understood in contrast to darkness. These two can also be interpreted in a

metaphorical sense in terms of “Chaos and Order” (of the world) or “Non-being and

Being”.

1.1. Background to the study

The biblical concept of light finds itself in relation to God. Light is for example

presented in the Bible as God himself; it is a revelatory means of God’s glory (that is

God’s manifestation). God is light and there is no darkness in him (1Jn 1:5). So, whoever

wishes to be called child of God has to walk in light. Once one comes to light, all

shadows of his/her life disappear and so all fears as well disappear within him/her.

Light reveals or makes clear things which were hidden so that if they were not

ordered, they may come to be ordered. This is exactly the idea of the story of creation in

the book of Genesis. In this story we are told that the world was void and covered with

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darkness. In other words, the world was in a total chaos, a total disorder or even more a

total confusion. Things were not arranged to the extent that nobody could be able to

differentiate what is what, it was just hubbub.

Therefore, God came in, God manifested his glory and power and so ordered things,

putting everything at a right place, separating waters from the surface of the earth and

creating dry space where plants, animals and human being can live, etc. But the thing

that we should underline here is that God created everything. He didn’t order them only.

And the first thing God made was the separation between darkness and light (Gn 1:3-5).

Through the “Logos” (Word), God created everything starting with light.

We can see here already the connection between the ‘Logos’ and the glory of God

which from the very beginning shines by casting out or defeating the darkness which was

covering the earth. This Logos is being manifested through the light which has been

created. (…)And God saw that it was good (…); God admired to see how light was

shining in the day and how things are moving from chaos to order.

In so many cultures, light is considered as positive thing while darkness is in most of

the cases taken as a negative thing. The book of Isaiah did not remain far from such a

consideration. It stresses (Is 5:20b) “woe to those who put or who consider darkness for

light and light for darkness”.

The book of Genesis portrays darkness as a disorder and chaos. The same idea is

found in Isaiah 42:6c whereby God says that He will turn before his people darkness into

light. Darkness can be interpreted as absence of light. Darkness is referred to in both

Ancient and New Testament in so many ways whether figuratively or literally.

Figuratively for example we see in Isaiah 9:2 “The people who walked in

darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has

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light shined”. This is actually the true character of the one who lives in a state of

darkness, under the power of sin, who shut up in the state of unbelief, those who boast

because they have learned a lot and try to think that beyond their knowledge there is

nothing. Such people are ignorant of themselves and therefore of their condition of sin.

They can’t see in a spiritual sense and yet they are aware of the limitations of human

beings and of science as well.

Again Proverbs 4:18-19 notes “But the path of the righteous is like a light of dawn

which shines brighter and brighter until full day, the way of the wicked is like a deep

darkness, they do not know over what they stumble.

While from a literal perspective, Exodus 10:21-23 says “Then the Lord said to

Moses, ‘stretch out your hand towards heaven that there may be darkness over the land

of Egypt, a darkness to be felt. (…), and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt

three days; they did not see one another (…), but all the people of Israel had light where

they dwelt”. Here in this passage, one might think of the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart.

And the same is being seen in our contemporary world where by, even when there is no

doubt about spiritual issues, people will find reasons to stay in ignorance and therefore in

darkness.

In the book of Job 17: 13-16 RSV it is said: “ If I look for Sheol as my house, if I

spread my couch in darkness, if I say to the pit ‘you are my father’ and to the worm, ‘my

mother’ or my ‘sister’ where is my hope? (…), will it go down to bars of Sheol?”

Darkness is thus likened to the inability of finding a way, a confusion. In this

perspective, Job 12:22, 24-25 RSV says: “He (God) uncovers the deeps out of darkness,

and brings deep darkness to light…. He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the

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people of the earth, and makes them wander in a pathless waste. They grope in the dark

without light; and make them stagger like a drunken man.”

And (Isaiah 59:9-10 RSV) stresses: “Therefore justice is far from us and

righteousness does not overtake us; we look for light and behold darkness, and for

brightness, but we walk in a gloom.”

Darkness can also signify the time of trial therefore Psalm 143:3 RSV says: “For the

enemy has pursued me; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in

darkness like those long dead.” (See also Ps 107:10).

The same idea in Job 30:26: “But when I looked for good, evil came; and when I

waited for light, darkness came.” (See also Job 19:8; 3:3-6; 23:16-17). Darkness can also

mean death and grave or Sheol (Ps 88:10-12; 49:19; Job 10:20-22).

Darkness is also taken as a sign of God’s punishment. In Exodus 10:21 we see God

telling Moses to stretch out his hand towards heaven so that there may be darkness over

the land of Egypt (…); and Ezekiel 32:8 RSV, God says: “All the bright of heaven will I

make dark over you, and put darkness upon your land, says the Lord.” See also Ps

105:28; Am 5:18,20; Joel 2:2; Zeph 1:15; Nah 1;8).We should not forget that even the

exile period for Israel was considered as a dark period (Jer 13:16).

Darkness is also a dwelling place for the wicked. Therefore, 1Samuel 2:9 RSV says:

“He (God) will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in

darkness.” Darkness becomes dangerous since it prevents one to see the steps he/she is

making. One cannot detect through it the obstacles that can lead him or her to stumble

(Prov 4:19; Jer 23:12; Is 59:10).

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The one forsaking the paths of uprightness walks in the ways of darkness (Prov

2:13). There is no gloom or deep darkness where evildoers may hide themselves (Job

34:22). Righteousness is when one experiences darkness and yet still trusting in God (Is

50:10). So the fact of being righteous cannot prevent one from experiencing darkness (Is

59:9; Lam 3:2); but by the end of the day the light will arise for the righteous one (Ps

112:4). Upon the darkness of Israel, light shall break forth like the dawn and his healing

(which is restoration) shall spring up speedily (Is 58:8, 10).

The coming of the Lord in the Old Testament is portrayed as the light of his glory

which comes to overcome the darkness of this world and so attract many people to him

(Is 60:1-3). It is through Jesus Christ [who will be incarnated into a virgin’s womb and

who comes to shine as greater light (Is 9:2) and who will suffer passion, death], that

salvation will bring light for the nations (Is 42:6; 49:6; 51: 4-5). This “light to the

nations” which Isaiah is talking about can be connected to Luke 2:32.

Light here is a symbol that represents knowledge, instruction and also true religion.

And one of the qualities of the Messiah is to be light, a light to the world or to his people.

This can be seen in Matthew 4:16 and can be compared with Isaiah 9:2. Again this is

similar to what John is trying to show in his gospel (1:4, 7, 9; 3:19; 8:12; 9:5; 12:35, 46).

So, one of the prophetic messages of Isaiah is that the religion of the Messiah shall

expand to the pagan areas and both pagans and Jews as well will share its privileges.

This light here will enlighten people with true and saving knowledge and will lead them

in the right path towards happiness from which they had gone astray. It is no wonder the

Jews celebrated the festival of light.

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Every night during the tabernacle festival (Sukkot1) there was a great ceremony

called “illumination of the Temple”, that included the lightning ritual of the four golden

lamps in the court of women. These lamps are huge candles (candelabras) called also

Menorah about seventy-five feet high.

They were lit in the Temple at night as to remind Israel of the pillar of fire which

was guiding them on their way in the desert (Is 4:5). These huge candles shine all night

long, giving light to the entire city.

The first chapter of Genesis (1:3-5) says: “And God said: let there be light, and there

was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the

darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness he called night…”

To the people of Israel, light plays a very important role. It symbolizes God’s

presence as we showed already. So, it has been said that on the night of Friday, the

mother or a senior girl of the household, could light two candles to welcome in the

Sabbath. This light is a sign of joy and hope.

The Sabbath ends with a service known as ‘Havdalah’ (which means separation), in

which spices, wine and twisted candles are used to invigorate or fortify the senses and

take the faithful through another week. Now, the kind of prayer that has to be said during

that celebration was to show the distinction between light and darkness. At the very end

they thank God for having created light of fire.

The story of the feast of Hanukkah does not appear clearly in the Old Testament

because the events for its inspiration occurred after the Torah were written. It however

appears in the New Testament when Jesus attended the Feast of Dedication.

1 Cf. A. Yee Gale, Jewish Feasts and the Gospel of John, (Wilmington, Delaware, 1989), 76.

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The events for the inspirations of the Hanukkah festival took place during a

particular phase where Jews were experiencing turbulence. We should remember that

around 200 BC, Judea fell under Antiochus III Seleucid king of Syria. This king gave to

the Jews the freedom of continuing the practice of their religion. Unfortunately, his son

Antiochus Epiphanes IV ordered the Jews to worship the gods of the Greeks. Therefore,

in 168 BC, he sent his troops to Jerusalem to massacre thousands of people and desecrate

the Temple by erecting an altar to Zeus and sacrificing impure animals such as pigs

inside the Temple.

Therefore, among the Jews rose a man called Mattathias who was a priest and who

had five sons. He led a rebellion which fought Antiochus and the Seleucid monarchy.

After the death of Mattathias in 166 BC; Judah his son who was known as Judah

Maccabee took the commandment of the rebellion. Within two years the Jews succeeded

to defeat Syrians and sent them out of the city Jerusalem. Then Judah called for the

cleansing of the Temple and rebuilt its altar and lit its menorah.

According to the Talmud (one of the Judaism’s most central text), Hanukkah (which

is the festival of light) is for Judaism the well-known symbol of light. Therefore, apart

from celebrating it with the purpose that has been shown above, this festival also

celebrates the miracle of light that took place in 165 BC.

For a gentle reminder, during the time Antiochus Epiphanes was ruling over

Seleucid Empire, expanded from Anatolia to the Hindus valley. Then, it was said that

when the Jews came back to the Temple, after having defeated Antiochus Epiphanes,

they found that the temple had been desecrated and the temple light extinguished. After

a long moment of research, they discovered a small sealed container of oil (a cruise) and

used it to re-light the Temple menorah (which are the 7 branches candlestick).

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Something strange is that the oil was enough for one day, but a miracle was operated in

the sense that for eight days it burnt without being extinguished.

So this was understood by the Jews as a confirmation by God that this festival of

light celebrates God’s presence. It therefore wondrously inspired the Jews sages to

proclaim a yearly eight-day festival. But, if you read 1Maccabee tells another version of

the story describing an eight day celebration that followed the re-dedication but making

no reference to the miracle of the oil.

Celebrating and anticipating the return of Shekinah glory of Israel, men could dance

and sing psalms of joy and praise before the Lord during the whole night. This festival is

to recall Israel what Yahweh promised to send the messiah for the renewal of Israel’s

glory, to restore their joy and release them from bondage of slavery. And this is exactly

what Jesus Christ meant in the Temple while being among his brethren (Jn 8:12). We

shall come to this in our second chapter. Jesus is actually the True light (i.e he is the

source of illumination to the point that all those who live in darkness may come out of it

and see light.

This was the reason for Jesus to come in the Temple in Jn 7. He went into the

Temple to illumine his brethren by teaching them on this festivity. We should remember

that it was again during such a festival that he taught them by declaring himself as being

the light and the living water portrayed and celebrated in this feast( Jn 8:12; 7:37-39).

During the time of Jesus the climax of the Sukkot feast was the ‘drawing of water’

ceremony. Reason why when Jesus will identify himself as being the light of the world

and the living water, in the Jews minds they could identify him as being in the lineage of

David (being Son of David) who was expected to come and deliver Israel from the

Roman oppression (Jn 7:14-30, 37-38; 8:12).

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The final day of celebration of the harvest represents the last stage of Yahweh’s plan

of salvation which is the second resurrection and judgement day. Those who were not

fitting for the first resurrection will now rise up to human life after the 1000 years (Rev

20:5-6) and will be judged at that moment, the moment of ‘great salvation’ or ‘many

hoshannas.’

Some will be judged for eternal life while others for eternal damnation (Rev 20:11-

15), the moment of separation of sheep from goats according, wheat from chaff as

described in Matthew’s gospel. And this time shall be the end of sin. Afterwards will the

glory of God illumine the city, the New Jerusalem, and pure water of the river of life will

flow from the throne of God and of the Lamb and the trees that grow by it shall be for

the salvation of the nations (Rev 21:22-24; 22:1-4).

1.2. Statement of the problem

The survey of the concept of light in the Old Testament reveals its significance in

the New Testament. We have come to realize that light plays a very important role

within the Jewish culture. The present study seeks to focus on the usage of this concept

in the Johannine literature. Our question will be how the literature uses the concept as

revelatory means to the identity of Jesus.

1.3. Significance of the study

You will realize with me that the man of the 21st century has lost faith. He is

vacillating blindly in some crisis like identity crisis, secularism, etc., without knowing

where he goes. He has even tried to make himself live a better life, a so called free life to

the extent of trying even to manipulate the lives of other beings for his/her own good.

There is no sense of sacredness anymore, only the facts justify the means.

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This work is done to awake our minds and conscience as Christians, that since we

have experienced God’s love through Jesus Christ, we may be light to those who are still

walking in darkness. We hope that whoever will read this work will be able to open up

his/her mind and heart and that he/she may come to know God manifested through Jesus

Christ, the dawn from on high, who came not to judge the world but to save it from the

power of darkness. And for us now as his disciples this work calls us to walk in light as

sons and daughters of the day, so as to shine (through love of one another) as lamps in

dark places until the day where God will be all in all.

1.4. Objectives of the study

This work is to help man of 21st century regain his sight and once again come to

know (recognize) the true identity of God and Jesus Christ whom He (God sent ) as the

savior and redeemer of the world. It will help this man to shift from a secular world, the

world of unbelief, to the world of belief. Finally it will open his mind to the realities of

above by giving him guidelines of being reflection of God’s light to this world which

vacillates in so many waves of this time like individualism and secularism, drawing

many to live like small monads.

In this particular study we shall assess the concept of light in both the Old Testament

and New Testament and contrast it to its opposite darkness. Then we shall examine how

light is a revelatory means for Jesus identity in Johannine literature, and at the end we

shall try to establish how as Christians and sons of God we should be lights to this world

which stagnating in the darkness of individualism, consumerism, secularism, etc.

1.5. Framework of the study

The work will be within the framework of biblical analytical-exegesis in order to

deepen more the spiritual and theological understanding of light.

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1.6. Ethical consideration

From the ethical point of view, this work is an alarm for the man of the 21st century

who has been drawn out by the waves of secularism and individualism to the extent that

nobody cares about another. Technology and social media have blinded us to the point

that instead of coming to the rescue of one in need, we keep taking pictures and post

them on social media as facts.

We are living in the world in which, like the blind man who was cured by Jesus in Jn

9. People hope that one might show them where to find God, where they can be led to

the one who can give light or sight to their eyes, open their mind and satisfy their desire.

The today’s world is in need of light, a true light that can illumine their minds and heart

as well in order to regain fellowship with God manifested through love of Neighbor.

We cannot say that the time of creation was the only time when light came from

God. The theme of light is very common all over the Old Testament. We know that

whenever God wanted to be manifested, light or fire were among things that could

accompany or precede his manifestation. We should recall the burning bush, the pillar of

fire in the desert as well as the shining face of Moses after the meeting with God.

In so many ways within the Old Testament the light shines over things which are in

darkness (Gen 1:3-4; 2Sam 22:29; Job 12:22 etc.). Light enables us to see (Ps 36:9; Job

12:25), through light things which were hidden are illuminated and so they come to be

known (Pr 20:27; Job 24:14-17; Dan 2:22).

Light shows the road we should take (Ps 43:3; 119:105; Job 29:3, Ecc 2:14, Neh

9:12). Whenever light is blot out nobody can see (Deut 28:29), nothing is revealed (Job

24:14-16) and people do live in trial and error because they don’t know where to go (Ps

82:5; Jer 13:16).

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God can give light to one area while withholding it from another. A clear example is

the plague of darkness and light on the Egyptian on one hand and on the Jews or Israel

on another hand (Ex 10:23). For life to continue there is necessity of light. Reason why

Job exclaimed saying that his eyes will look upon the light because of God’s salvation

(Job 33:28). Also we should understand that for Job, the withholding of light goes

together with death (Job 18:5-6).

In other words we can say that in the Old Testament light is from God through

natural sources that God made. And also we should recall that whenever God made. And

also we should recall that whenever God wants to reveal himself, any revelation is

followed by light. Light comes to us through heavenly bodies and also through man’s

creativity (local sources). Through light plants grow, thus there is necessity of light for

the life of the plants. It cast out darkness and reveals hidden things, it enables sight for

people. There is no wonder for using light in a metaphorical sense in reference to the

Divine and sometimes in reference to one who has experienced God.

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Chapter II

Light as Revelatory mean of Jesus’ Identity in John’s gospel

2.1. Introduction

Whenever green plants lack sunlight, they turn yellow and end up fading. This

means that even plants, if not all of them then the majority of them require light to live

and grow. And we as human beings, for our healthy living, need light.

In john’s gospel there is an inseparable link between light and life, and these two are

means to reveal Jesus. Their opposite (darkness and death) are associated with evil or

devil. In this particular chapter we shall see that whoever wishes to live must accept

Jesus as light and life. The gospel of John is one of the two major pillars of Christian

theology which gives a very interesting Christological background. It tackles the issue of

the identity and mission of Jesus as the Messiah, his nature and the significance of his

death.

In this particular chapter, we shall be assessing the concept of light while showing

how it constitutes a revelatory means for Jesus identity; and also the way the light is

connected to life, truth, way, and logos.

2.2. Background of John’s gospel

Allow me to say that John is a kind of a spiritual commentary of what Jesus taught

and did. This gospel is a kind of story of the real Jesus, a story of what God the Father

did through the person of Jesus. He, John, highlights a theological and spiritual meaning

of Jesus. In the Prologue we find a Christological confession and even more than that.

We see in the Prologue that the “Logos” pre-existed from all ages, turning into a loving

union with God (1:1-2). And the rest of the Prologue tells us about the ‘inbreak’ of the

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Logos as “light and life” (vv. 3-5, 9) “flesh” (v 14), “the fullness of a gift which is truth”

(vv. 14, 16-17), the “only Son” (vv. 14, 18), “Jesus Christ” (v. 17)2.

John starts his gospel with a presupposition shared by many of his time that the

“world” is captured in the darkness (1:5) and so is unable to “see” or “know” the mystery

of God. Previously, God could be known in a very restricted way that is through the Law

which was given to Moses. But in our time, that ‘gift” of the Law has been replaced by

the “fullness of all the gifts” that is “the Truth” revealed through the person of Jesus

Christ (1:16-17), the only begotten Son” of God (vv. 14, 18).

John usually uses dualism in his writings of which we can enumerate a number of

Judaism conception that steeped in ideas of a sovereign Lord of creation and a world

trapped by forces opposing the divine way only to be finally overcome by the messianic

appearance3.

Looking at the stories in the gospel we find series of contrasts: light/darkness (1:5),

truth/falsehood (8:44-45), above/below (8:23), life and death (3:36), spirit/flesh (3:6),

heaven/earth (3:31), God/ devil (13:27) etc. These oppositions do not only coexist but

they are in a kind of perpetual conflict.

Let us take some illustrations. The light shines in darkness and darkness didn’t

overcome it (1:5); Now is the judgment of the world, now shall the ruler of the world be

cast out (12:31). According to the New Jerome Commentary4, the origin of this dualism

is not easy to define. It continues saying that meanwhile, this form of dualism was not

2 Cf. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary edited by Raymond BROWN Et Alii, (London,

Bloomsbury, 2013), 1420.

3 Cf. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, 1421.

4 The New Jerome Biblical commentary, 1422.

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foreign to the first century Jewish thinking. It was central to the Gnosticism in the 2nd

century.

This dualism can be found also in the Dead Sea scrolls.5 From within Judaism, some

scholars started seeking for a school behind this manuscript. This research was extended

to the Jewish religious movements which were present at that time (Pharisees, Essenes,

Samaritans, etc.). The text was well analyzed in order to find out the Johannine

community behind them;6 but agreements differed.

George R. Beasley-Murray sees Christology as John’s first theological concern. This

gospel, he says, attributes many titles to Jesus. One of them being the “Ego eimi” sayings

of Jesus.7 Light shows Jesus to be the mediator who fully represents God the Father to

humankind.

2.3. Symbolism of darkness

John 3:1-21 is the story of Nicodemus, a man who went to Jesus ‘in the night’. The

question is: to what do the symbols of “night” and “darkness” refer? Nicodemus, one of

the great leaders among the Jewish and Pharisaic sect, most probably a member of those

who hold the Jewish doctrine (Sanhedrin) went in the night (that is the darkness) to see

Jesus.

5 Richard Bauckham, Gospel of Glory: Major Themes in Johannine Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker

Academic, 2015), 115.

6 D.A. Carson and Douglas J. Moo, An Introduction to the New Testament, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids:

Zondervan, 2005), 274. This section includes a brief history of

the development of John’s studies in the 20th Century.

7 George Baesley-Murray, John, ed. Bruce M. Metzger, John D.W. Watts, James W. Watts, Ralph P.

Martin, and Lynn Allan Losie, Vol. 36 2d ed., Word Biblical Commentary

(Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1999), lxxxii.

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Jesus appears for Nicodemus like another Rabbi of Israel who can perform miracles.

Nicodemus blindness hinders him to understand Jesus’ origin and mission, a mission

which is that we may be born a new into eternal life. As long as Jesus’ origin is from

above, he therefore has the potentiality to give life from above (Jn. 3:3). Nicodemus,

focused on below, has darkness over him, could not get the immediate meaning. Hence,

he focused on the impossibility of going back into his mother’s womb. The man is a

teacher of the law, who still vacillates in the darkness (1:5).

The reading of 4:1-42 draws a parallel between the woman’s reaction to Jesus and

the one of Nicodemus. Some characteristics are that the woman has quite a different

background from the one of Nicodemus. Nicodemus for instance is a teacher and

therefore, a respectful person while the woman is despised even from the point of view

of her origin first (a Samaritan), then she is a woman (place of women in Jews culture),

lastly her carrier.

The two had different moments of meeting with Jesus (Nicodemus at night while the

woman at noon). The common characteristic from both Nicodemus and the Samaritan

woman is that just as Nicodemus could not understand out the sayings of Jesus

concerning the new birth, the woman also could not understand Jesus’ reference to

spiritual needs (living water) as referring to physical needs (she too stayed in darkness of

ignorance).

When Jesus realized that the woman, likewise was not yet enlightened, he resolved

to tell her about her past life; something which will challenge her and stir her mind and

belief that she may realize who she is dealing with, someone greater than she is

suspecting. But something interesting is that she clearly and willingly wanted to change

the topic after being challenged concerning the six men she had had (this in reference to

17

the words of the prologue 1:5 which talks about those who are fearful of coming to light

that their actions might not be known).

In turn, she tests Jesus’ tolerance by bringing up the issue which dates for long and

which is among the causes of conflicts between Samaria and Judah. This issue of

theological and national importance as well, whether people should worship in Samaria

(mount Gerizim) or in the Temple (Jerusalem). It should be better to recall that both

Samaritans and Judah are Jews except the fact that the Jews of Samaria were of mixed

blood after they having intermarried pagans; therefore were not considered as not

authentic Jews.

Jesus did not choose between two alternatives given by the woman; he did not lose

focus. True worship will replace both Gerizim and Jerusalem’s Temple. Not only will

Jesus replace the ritual cleansing waters as symbolized in the wedding feast at Cana (2:1-

12), but he will also replace the Temple (2:19-22)8. The Spirit is the one who vivifies and

empower people to do proper worship to God.

Finally Jesus reveals his identity to the woman as the Messiah. And once she has

been enlightened, she goes to the village to enlighten people by giving witness to Jesus.

This will be the focus of our third chapter, showing how we should give light to others

once we have receive it from Jesus himself.

Once the Samaritans were enlightened by the testimony of the woman they came to

believe in Jesus. This belief is more than an intellectual or rational acceptance here.

Belief implies a total commitment of oneself to Jesus and all that he is doing and

teaching at the same time.

8 Carolyn Thomas, Journeys into John: 16 Lessons of Exploration and Discovery (USA, Antony

Messenger Press, 1998), 14.

18

2.4. Triumph of light over darkened

The story of the man born blind (John 9:1-41) is one of the best dramas in Johannine

literature. This story focuses on several themes, and one of them is the triumph of light

over darkness. This can be interpreted as Jesus triumph over evil or even better over sin.

The healing of this physical blindness shows clearly the reality that indeed, Jesus is the

light of the world who came to give sight or even better to give light to our spiritual

blindness.

We therefore see in this simple man one who could not see the light of day, but

something interesting is that he opened himself to see the light of the world. On the other

hand we can see the Pharisees who see the light of the day, but close themselves not to

see and recognize the true light, Jesus Christ, because their hearts are hardened, they

prefer to stay in darkness (blindness) and refuse categorically to come to light. And the

light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it (1:5). To this Barclay9

suggests three things to keep in mind:

1) The hostility of darkness to light: however much darkness tries to oppose light, it can

never extinguish it. Sinners love darkness and crooked ways because light shows up

things clearly. So to say Jesus is the light who came into the world, and the Jews will

seek in whichever way and means to silence him or to end up with him unknowing that

in him (Jesus), there is a power that cannot be defeated. This is why he will tell his

disciples to do not be afraid because he (Jesus) conquered the world.

2) Darkness stands for the natural sphere of all those who hate the good. These are the

people who are evil and don’t want to approach light (3:19-20).

9 Barclay, 34.

19

3) That darkness stands for ignorance: we have already tackled this point above. We

should remember that without Jesus we are like blind people.

We may add to these three that darkness stands for the absence of Jesus (6:17). The

disciples crossed the sea in the evening. Scripture says it was dark and Jesus was not

with them. The same thing with the story of the resurrection (20:1); Mary Magdalene

came to the tomb while it was still dark. Jesus was no longer physically present. This is a

darkness of fear when Jesus is absent. A dark world where God is no longer there. A

world in which human being tries to kill God by all means in order to dominate and to be

the measure of all. We will come to this issue with detail in the last chapter showing how

people are slowly removing the idea of sacredness and the idea of God in their minds.

Jesus came to dissipate the shadows of doubt. Until he came, humanity could only

guess concerning God. For some people who do not believe, either God dwelt in a

shadow that man could penetrate or in a light that no man could approach. But with the

coming of Jesus, humanity could see the way God looks like. Every fear vanished as well

as guessing since light had already dissipated darkness. Jesus’ coming dissipated the

shadows of despair. He came into a desperate world, a fallen world which needs a hand

stretched down to lift up those who are fallen.

John tells us about the night of the last supper, where Judah Iscariot had to betray

Jesus. After having received the morsel, he went out; and it was night (13:30). For John,

life without Christ is purely darkness. Another element to take into consideration

according to Barclay10 is the concept or verb “put out” (katalambanein) in Greek which

can be translated as:

10 Barclay, 34.

20

a) That darkness which never understood light. In this way we can say that in some

circumstances there is a sense in which the worldly man cannot understand Christ’s

demand. He/she may find Christ’s demand as foolishness as long as he/she will not

submit him/herself to Christ.

b) Darkness which never overcome light. “katalambanein” can mean to pursue till

one overtakes so lays hold on and overcome. The darkness of the world tried by all

means to eliminate Jesus, to uproot him but fortunately it did not succeed.

c) It can be understood in the context of extinguishing a fire or flame. In every

generation, the light of Christ has been brought to be extinguished but these efforts have

never been successful.

2.5. Light and God’s glory

In chapter 8 of John, Jesus has to confront the Pharisees. He openly claims to be God

(v. 58), something which will make the Jews find ways to kill him. After having hidden

himself, Jesus goes to the Temple. In chapter 9 now, Jesus is concretizing his speech of

chapter 8.

Bultmann stresses that the concepts of spiritual sight and blindness as presented in

this particular chapter are used in parallel with those of light and darkness. Both of them

he says, indicate the ‘salvation given by God to man who cut himself off from God.’11

On his way, Jesus noticed a man born blind. The gospel does not tell us whether it was

the blind man who asked for assistance nor that he, the blind man, was brought to Jesus

by somebody. All we know is that it was by Christ’s initiative that this man was cured.

11 Rudolf Bultmann, The Gospel of John; A Commentary, trans. George Raymond, Beasley-Murray,

Rupert William Noel Hoare, and John Kenneth Riches, (Oxford: Basil Blackwell,

1971), 340.

21

The disciples were so curious to know who sinned so that this man, a son of

Abraham too, could be born in such a situation. But the response of Jesus is clear about

it. Nobody sinned neither his parents nor himself. But this was so, that the “glory of

God” might be manifested in him (John 9:3). To this question, Jesus’ answer is in the

light of chapter 8:12. The disciples had in mind the law of retribution assuming that

suffering is due to sin. But now in this case of a man born blind how is this suffering

from birth be accounted for? Is it due to the sin of his parents obviously no (Ez 18:20) or

the ante-natal sin? The answer is that nobody sinned; but it was so in order that God’s

glory may be manifested. In other words that the glory of God may come to be seen or

my come to light in the sign that Jesus will do.

So to say, by the fact of giving sight to this man, people will come to see the glory

of God. The man is blind because the world itself is in its fallen state. And this affected

the whole creation including human being. Thus Jesus came to restore creation (this is

actually the meaning of using saliva and mad in reference to Genesis 1 where God used

clay to create human being).

Now, before healing the man, Jesus had made a declaration: “as long as I am in the

world, I am the light of the world” (9:5). This constitute a beautiful connection between

giving sight to this man and being the light of the world (John 18:12; 1:4; 12:46). Since

Jesus is the light, automatically he is also able to give light or sight. And while Jesus tries

to bath his teaching in “light”, the Pharisees persist in opposing him. But now we can see

it that since then the pyramid is now reversed: the blind man sees completely (physical

and spiritual sight) till he confesses his faith while the Pharisees harden their hearts thus

becoming perpetual blind.

22

The gesture of Jesus brings division among the Jews. On one hand, some recognize

him as coming from God since nobody could perform such a sign if he is not from God.

On the other hand, Jesus is seen as one who is breaking the law, one who does not

respect Sabbath; consequently, he is not from above (v.16).

Since they could not understand each other, the only person who could respond to

the question of Jesus’ origin and identity is the one Jesus healed. Thus, they went to him

in order to know his opinion. The man did not hesitate to recognize Jesus as a prophet

(9:17). But even with such a response some Jews don’t want to leave their comfort zone

of darkness of ignorance and come to the light of faith and knowledge. They went to

meet the parents of the man to see whether they too have the same idea. They are looking

for support to exclude Jesus. Remember it was decided that whoever will profess Jesus to

be of divine origin should be “aposynagogus genestay” (cast out from the synagogue).

In this chapter 9, Jesus is already preparing the ground for the final revelation

concerning his identity which will occur in chapter 10 in which he and the Father are one

(10:30). This unity is already a sufficient claim of him being divine. This can only be

understood and accepted by those whose minds have been enlightened, as far as it can be

known only through experience of the similar relationship of the believers themselves to

Christ.

There is something strange with what the Pharisees tell the man born blind: ‘you

give glory to God’… in other words ‘glorify God because you are no longer cursed’ but,

we know that this man (Jesus) is a sinner (9:24)! This statement shows clearly how the

Jews were not willing to recognize Jesus’ divinity and yet whatever he is doing shows

the glory of the one (God) who sent him (Jesus Christ).

23

Through this act Jesus fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says: “in that day the deaf

shall hear the words of the book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the

blind shall see (Is 29:18.” From here now things go opposite. The one who was blind is

slowly moving toward light of knowledge and is trying to draw the Jews leaders to this

light. He challenges them in verse 28: Do you want to become his disciples? Since they

cannot contradict themselves, they claim to be Moses’ followers and finally refuse to

recognize the divine origin of Jesus. The healed man continues in verses 31-33: “ we

know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshipper of God and does

his will, God listen to him…. if this man was not from God, he could do nothing”. The

man has received sight now he can enlighten even these ‘blind leaders’ of the Jews

because they keep reading the Torah and the Prophets and yet they cannot understand.

Look at a very interesting improvement the man born blind have made: he has moved

from the fact of recognizing Jesus as:

1) A man (v.11) then

2) A prophet (v.17)

3) Lord and worshiped him (v.38)

He reached true knowledge, the knowledge of faith. Now those who pretend to see

are blind and the blind are the one who sees. As long as the Jews claim to have

knowledge they will stay in darkness of ignorance and will never come to light.

Therefore, it will be difficult for them to see the glory of God.

The prologue in reference to creation (in the beginning), makes a reference to that

light of creation showing that a new creation has been coming through the ‘Logos’.

Baesley goes ahead saying that since light comes from the preexistent logos, it has been

shinning and will continue to shine in the darkness and this darkness will not overcome

24

it.12 He also places the declaration in 8:12 “I am the light of the world” in the context of

the feast of Tabernacles in 7:37-3813 in which Jesus claimed also being the source of

living water. We should take in mind that this claim was made in reference to the

celebration of light festival which recalls Israel the pillar of fire which guided them in the

wilderness.

During the tabernacle festival (known as Sukkot), there was a great ceremony called

‘illumination of the Temple’. This included the lightning ritual of the four golden lamps

in the court of women. These lamps are huge candles (candalabras) also called menorah

about seventy-five feet high. They were lite in the temple at night as to remind Israel of

the pillar of fire which was guiding them on their way in the desert (Is 4:5). These huge

candles shine all the night long, giving light to the entire city.14 From this now Jesus

claims to be that light which enlightened Israel in the desert. He calls people to follow

him as Israel followed the pillar of cloud in the wilderness. Meanwhile, the Pharisees get

Jesus speech as he belongs to the function of light which is to separate by making clear

hidden things and to judge as well.15

For D.A. Carson many of John’s terminologies, including the one of “light” have a

universal religious appeal which help him reach his audience. Carson says that John is a

preacher who tries to reach his audience with a Good News. For this reason, he is trying

to use a simple language adapted to his audience.16 Trying to apply these starting points

12 George Beasley-Murray, John, 11.

13 Ibid, 127.

14 For more information go to https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/hanukkah,consulted on September

6th, 2019 at 5:15pm.

15 Beasley, John, 129.

16 D.A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, the Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids:

W.B. Eerdmans, 1999), 46.

25

to the prologue, Carson discovered that the language seems ambiguous at first. But as

one go through the gospel, the meaning becomes more clear and precise.17 Remember

people like Bultmann and Haenchen took the prologue as ambiguous to mean that it is a

combination of different sources and thus it is in theological contrast with the rest of the

Gospel. To this point of view Carson takes position showing that taking the book as

written demonstrate a remarkable coherence and purposeful intention the beginning till

the end.

In several passages where John makes reference to the Old Testament themes or

people, the allusion is used to show that Jesus is their fulfilment or replacement:18temple,

shepherd, word, light, life, all these find their fulfilment in Christ. In john Gospel except

the prologue, the emphasis of light is more on salvation. Light becomes revelation which

people may receive with active faith and be saved.19 On the other hand, in the prologue

1:4 there is a connection of light to creation. This means that the logos has a self-existing

life in itself.

2.6. Light and life

Light and life are the two major themes upon which John will build his gospel. We

shall be looking at each of these concepts in detail.

The gospel of John mentions the word ‘life’ at the beginning and at the end of it.

According to Barclay commentary20 it is said in the prologue that in Jesus there was

‘life’ and at the end of the same gospel John gives the aim for having written this gospel.

17 Ibid, 62.

18 Ibid, 98.

19 Ibid, 119.

20 William Barclay commentary, 28.

26

This aim is that people may come to believe that Jesus is Christ the Son of God and that

by believing in him one might have life in his name(John 20:31).

In Genesis account, light was given twice. First, the author presents the light shining

without telling us the source (Gen. 1:3), making a separation between light out of

darkness. Again, on the fourth day, all the heavenly bodies are created to give light to the

earth (1:14).

Bauckham21 commenting on John’s thinking (concerning the Logos as source of

light that shone on the first day of creation Gen.1:3), calls it “primordial light” which

inaugurated creation. By the fact of saying “I am the light of the world” this claim recalls

us Jesus’ identification in 1:5 which is the pre-existent Logos who becomes light of

people. This has to be understood in parallel with the claim that he (Jesus) has come

from God and has existed before Abraham came into being 8:58.

Reason why of this prophecy of Isaiah 43:10: “you are my witnesses say the Lord,

and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe and understand that

‘I am He’… (In reference to ‘ego eimi’).” Jesus will emphasize this again in v.24 “unless

you believe that ‘I am’ (ego eimi) …” (which answers the question about his identity).

Finally in v.58 Jesus proclaims his unity with the Father, something that a Jew

cannot digest easily. For the Jews nobody can proclaim himself being equal to God; this

is a blasphemy. But as for the rest of the gospel, Jesus is depicted as the Son from the

Father, having divine origin. His relationship with the Father is so unique and this unity

between them brings light and life to men for their salvation.22 His ‘tenting’ or dwelling

among men as light of the world recalls us the prophecy of Isaiah 49:6 which talks about

21 Bauckham, Gospel of Glory, 126.

22 Baesley-Murray, 139.

27

the servant of God who will be light of to the nations (Gentiles). Jesus claims to be the

summit, the fulfillment of all the rituals that the Jews accomplish during the celebration

of their festivals.

And as their ancestors followed the pillar of fire in the desert, so now they have to

follow him because that pillar of fire foreshadowed him, Jesus who is the true light, a

light connected to his work of redemption and salvation.23

It is said in John 10:10 that Christ came into the world that all may have life in

abundance. And since Jesus is life itself, he is able to give life and nobody is able to

snatch that life from Jesus’ hands (10:28).

The idea behind 1:4 is can be that John is trying to say that the mediation of the

Logos in the act of creation is to give resource out of himself (since in him is life), a

source which will be at the root of life for all just as the light of the sun makes plants

live. The light shines in darkness but darkness did not overcome it. For Baauckham, this

is an ethical dualism in which human being is trying by all means to oppose God in sin.24

It is clear to say that ever since creation, the Logos (which shone on the first day of

creation as light), has been at work giving knowledge of God to men so that these ones

may abide in God and therefore receive life (salvation). Unfortunately, human response

to this has been an opposition to God’s call by refusing to adhere to the truth.

2.7. Connection between light and life

We suggest that the meaning of vv. 4-5 of the prologue lies much closer to v. 3.

From the opening words of the hymn there has been a deliberate parallel to the opening

chapter of Genesis. This flows into v. 3 with its use of “egeneto” (coming into being);

23 Carson, John, 338.

24 Ibid, 131.

28

and now it flows into 4-5 the mention of light and darkness, for light was the first work

of creation of God (Gn. 1:3).

Life is also a theme of creation account. While Genesis speaks of natural life, John

speaks of eternal life. And yet eternal life is also mentioned in the first chapters of

Genesis (2:9; 3:22) speak of the tree of life whose fruit, when eaten, would make man

live forever.

Man was shut off from his life by his sin; but, as we see in Revelation 22:2, the

eternal life of the Garden of Eden prefigured the life that Jesus would give to men. In

John 6 Jesus will speak of the bread of life which a man may eat and live forever, a

bread, therefore, which has the same qualities as the fruit of the tree of life in Paradise.

John 8:44 mentions man’s loss of the opportunity for eternal life in Paradise when it

describes the devil as a murder from the father of lies (that serpent which lied to Eve).

So, we see that in v.4 the prologue is still speaking in the context of creation

narrative of Genesis. That which had especially come to be in God’s creative word was

the gift of eternal life. This life was the light of men because the true of life was closely

associated with the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If man could survive the

temptation, he could have possessed eternal life and enlightenment25.

V.5 may be interpreted against this background. There was an attempt by darkness

to overcome the light (namely the fall of man). But even though man sinned the light

shines on, that is a ray of hope that was given to him. Genesis 3:15 says that God put

enmity between the serpent and the woman and that the serpent was not destined to

overcome her offspring. In particular, the seed of the woman which in the New

25 R. Brown, The Anchor Bible: The Gospel According to John I-XX, A New Translation with

Introduction and commentary, Vol 29, (New York, Doubleday, 1966), 27.

29

Testament was Jesus, would be victorious over Satan. This will be seen in Revelation 12,

where the victory of Jesus over the devil is pictured in terms of victory of the woman’s

child over the serpent.

It is something disappointing to see that people are not willing to come to Jesus in

order to have life (5:40). In this gospel of John, Barclay26 realized that the word “Zoë”

occurs more than thirty-five times and the verb “zēn” (to live or to have life) occurs more

than fifteen times. So what does John meant by life?

First he meant life is the opposite of destruction, condemnation and death. God his

only Son that whoever believes may have eternal life (3:16); that s/he may not be judged

(5:25) and finally that those to whom life have been given to Christ may never perish

(10:28).

Second he means that even if Jesus is the one who brings life, God is the giver of

that life. It is God (the Father) who gives life through Christ. Jesus gives life because the

Father has set his seal upon him (6:27) and because it is the will of the Father that Christ

may do so (6:40).

Third reason is that we may question what this life is all about. Here we deal with

something more than a duration when we speak of eternal life. We think more about a

certain ‘quality’ of life not a period. The Greek word “Aiȏnios” which means ‘eternal’ is

only applied to God himself. Only God is ‘Aiȏnios’, therefore, eternal life is that life

which God lives27. To mean we can only enter into that life eternal by believing in Jesus

Christ (3:36; 5:24; 6:47).

26 Barclay, 30.

27 Barclay, 31.

30

In him was life and life was the light of men (1:4). Jesus is the light (itself) of men.

And the work of the Baptist was to show men or to direct people to that light. This light

must be within us, it must constitute a part of us (11:10) so that we may be called

children of light (12:36).

Barclay has drawn out three characteristics of light:

a) The light brought by Jesus is the one that ‘terminates the chaos’ that was there before

the work of creation. We should recall that in Genesis 1:3 God said: “Let there be light”.

Jesus is the light which shone and vanished the previous chaocity and brought everything

to life. For this reason Barclay will say: “Jesus is the one person who can save life from

becoming chaos. He continues saying that left to ourselves we are at the mercy of our

passions and fears. When Jesus dawns upon life, light comes28”.

b) This light brought by Jesus is a revealing light: this is actually the condemnation of

men by the fact that they preferred to live in darkness rather than coming to light they

fear to come to light because they are evil and if they come, their evil deeds will be

enlightened and known (3:19-20). This is light of Jesus is the one that is clear as clean

water. It shows things exactly the way they are, in their character and values29. For this

reason, Barclay will say: “we never see ourselves until we see ourselves through the eyes

of Jesus. We never see what our lives look like until we see them in the light of Jesus.

Jesus often drives us to God by revealing us to ourselves.

c) This light brought by Jesus is a guiding light: whoever does not have light, walks in

darkness and obviously does not know where he/she is going (12:36). But whoever

receives light and walk in light is no more in darkness (12:46). Once we are walking in

28 Barclay, 32.

29 Barclay, 32.

31

light we can no longer keep guessing where to step, since we can see clearly the ground.

We know where the whole is or where the snare may be. There is no doubt nor

uncertainty because everything is clear.

2.8. Light and truthfulness

He was the True light, who, in his coming into the World, gives light to every man

(1:9). In this particular passage, John uses a very significant concept to describe Jesus.

The verse say he (Jesus) was the True light. In Greek there are two concepts which look

alike: the Standard Version uses the word “true” to translate both of these words; but

they have different meaning actually. The first one is the word “alēthēs” which means

“true” as opposed to false. This one has to be used when it comes to the description of a

sentence which is true. Another one quite similar to the first is the word “alēthinos”

which means “real” or “genuine” as opposed to unreal.

Now here, following the steps of Barclay’s commentary30, what John is trying to say

is that Jesus is the “real” light, the genuine one that comes to illumine men. So as to say

before the coming of Jesus, there were other light which men could follow. But among

those lights, some were flickers of truth and others were faints and also many others

were wisp that led into a dark pit and left so many people therein.

And even till now, there are partial lights (or sparks of light). There are also false

lights which may cheat our sight to the point of garnishing a bad thing or adorn a way

that leads to perdition; and people still follow them. But Jesus remains the genuine light,

the true light which leads people to salvation (John 3:1-21).

The determining fact of John’s gospel is that the archetypal light was manifested in

the person of Jesus Christ. He is the light in which we see light itself; that is the true

30 Barclay, 33.

32

reality revealed. To mean he mediates the knowledge of God by which we come to

believe in him and so obtain eternal life. This becomes clear that when in chapter 3:19

and 12:46 John speaks of the light coming into the world, he means the incarnation of

Jesus; that is his coming into history.

2.9. The “tenting” of the light

In fact when we speak of the “tenting”, we mean the fact that the logos (which is

also light of the world) has come to dwell, to pitch its tent among us (1:14). The purpose

of this logos (which is light at the same time) to “tent” among us is to bring the presence

of God in our midst. Let us remind you that a tent is a symbol of temporary dwelling not

a permanent. This means the Logos (the light) came first to dwell for a while among us

before returning to the Father.

It is this Logos that became ‘flesh’. The manner in which the Word came into the

world is sarx (flesh). In this perspective we should take into consideration what Saint

Paul understands whenever he speaks about Sarx (the flesh). Sarx has a negative

connotation for Paul. It is linked to immorality, therefore it becomes scandalous for both

Jews and Greeks as well. Therefore, sarx symbolizes human weakness, mortality, etc.

Now as we are talking about the Logos coming into the flesh, its purpose was to defeat

the power of darkness which is evil. In this sense, the purpose of the logos becomes

primarily salvific.

The tent refers in this context to God’s presence. We can recall also the tent in which

Moses used to go and chat with God. Whenever he came out of it, Moses could shine on

his face.

33

2.10. Controversy over light

John 8 contains the first instance of the Jesus’ claim to be the light of the world. His

claim leads to an intense controversy with Pharisees and crowds in the temple courts.

V.12. Again Jesus spoke to them saying: “I am the light of the world; he who follows me

will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

This verse starts with “Again Jesus spoke to them”. This in reference to the previous

conversation which is not in connection with 7:35-8:11. Some scholars have argued that

the story of the woman caught in adultery is most probably insertion text in this Gospel.

The connection can be found only from 7:35 to 8:11.31 If we withdraw this insertion we

will realize that 8:12 is a continuation of the speech of Jesus from 7:37-38 and there will

be a logical succession: here I present to you how the text will sound:

35. On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed: “if

anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. 38 He who believes in me as the scripture

has said, ‘out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water’… 8:12 Again Jesus spoke to

them saying: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness,

but will have the light of life.”

The context in this passage is the feast of tabernacle. This festival is a celebration of

God’s protection in the desert. But also how he gave them water from the rock is the

reference to Jesus claiming to be the living water. Lastly Jesus’ claim to be the light of

the world brings us to that ceremony of lighting the menorah, pointing to that pillar of

fire which lead Israel during their exodus from Egypt.

In all these speeches John is trying to show that Jesus is the fulfillment of all Jewish

festivals. By referring to himself as living water and light of the world at that particular

31 Cf. discussion in Beasley-Morray, John, 127. See also Carson, John, 337.

34

time when the Jews were celebrating the feast of tabernacle, Jesus is presenting himself

as the fulfillment of Zechariah 14:7-8 which stresses:

And there shall be continuous days (it is known to the Lord), not day and not night,

for at evening time there shall be light. On that day, living waters shall flow out from

Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea; it shall

continue in summer as in winter.”

The festival’s burning torches that symbolize the continuous day of God’s glorious

presence point in fact to Jesus who is the true light…coming into the world.32

In brief, by the fact of saying “I am the light of the world”, this recalls us

automatically of his identification in 1:5 that is the pre-existent Word which is the light

of people. It has to be understood in parallel with the claim that he (Jesus) has come from

God and that he has existed before Abraham came into being (8:58).

Conclusion

In this particular section. We have been looking at to what extend the concept of

light reveals Jesus Christ in the gospel of John. We have seen that from the prologue, the

tune of Jesus’ claim concerning his identity and origin has been increasing as far as one

goes deeper into the text. At the same time, it is becoming more precise and clear. He is

claims to be the living water, the light of the world, of divine origin, etc.

We have realized that the fact of proclaiming publically during the Jewish festivals

unveiled him and brought some people to recognize him as the Messiah sent by God, a

Messiah who came to fulfill all the prophecies and rituals of the Old Testament. In a

special way we focused on the claim that Jesus made during the water and light

32 Richard B. Hays, Echoes of scripture in the Gospels (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2016),314.

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ceremonies. This claim brought forth commotions and oppositions among the Jews as for

those coming to light vs those who rejected light.

In the prologue as well as in chapters 3 and 8, there are illustrations of a strong

pattern where Jesus as ‘light’ is set alongside a number of themes:

a. Jesus as light and life (1:4; 3:16; 8:12). This is an expression that shows that God

is the source of light and the origin of salvation for those who believe in his son

Jesus Christ.

b. Revelation and testimony of light (1:6-8; 3:11-13; 8:13-18) as an expression of

enlightenment of our mind and souls which has to come also from God through

Jesus Christ who was sent to reveal the Father by enlightening humankind.

c. Unfortunately this light is encountering an obstacle/opposition and one might

decide (1:5, 10-11; 3:19-20; 8:23-24)

d. Acceptance means coming to light and abide in it while rejection entails to flee

from light and stay in darkness. And this is sin and it constitute already

judgement.

So, light becomes a revelatory mean of the Logos in order to bring life (salvation) to

humankind through faith, therefore redemption (1:4) and that people should respond to it

since this response constitute judgement.

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Chapter Three

Relevance of “light” in our world todays

3.1. Introduction

After having assessed the concept of ‘light’ in the first part of our work, we have

come to the conclusion that light cannot be talked about without taking into

consideration its opposite, which is ‘darkness’. We have seen that from the very

beginning, darkness was a symbol of chaos, that total disorder or total confusion which

was there before the work of creation. Afterwards, we saw how God intervened through

his Word (Logos) and put everything in order.33 And the first thing God did is to separate

light from darkness.

The same idea appeared in our second part whereby, we have shown with John the

pre-existence of the ‘Logos’ through which everything was made. This ‘Logos’ was with

God the Father through all eternity and it is the ‘light and life’ of the world. It shone in

darkness to enlighten the human race so that those who may see it may come to it in

order to gain salvation.

Thus, light appeared to us to reveal God himself so that those who will see it may

come to it and by coming, may obtain knowledge, a knowledge which leads to true faith.

This faith will serve as a visa to salvation.

Now in this chapter, we are going to find out the relevance of light in today's

secularistic world. We will see how the full recognition or knowledge of Christ’s love in

one’s life or in community life can be as meaningful as a candle shining in a dark place.

33 When we say God put everything in order, we do not mean that He did not create as somebody may

understand it; but rather we mean that out of this total disorder or chaos, God was able to bring out

something. And that thing is every creature.

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We will journey with John in his three epistles exploring what can be today what he calls

“false teaching” as far as ideologies such as rationalism and technology are dragging the

world into a kind of atheism.

3.2. Our identity

We live in a pretty casual society in which thinking about appropriate behavior is

like limiting people from enjoying their freedom. 1Tim 3:14-16instructs Christians on

how they should behave in God’s household.

This is very important as far as we are the temple of the living God. As people who

belong to the Church and have fellowship with Christ, we are not an aggregate nor an

organization; we are not a mutuality of people with similar interests, nor an association

or a club. We are people of God, we have our identity.

As Christians we are identified with God, this means everything we do must be

connected to Him. We are God’s ambassadors here on earth, we are small candles which

shine in a dark place. So our behavior has to be in synchrony with our identity. Being

small candles, we are the pillar and defender or supporter of the truth. And as members

of the Church in which Jesus is the capstone or better the foundation, we as body of

Christ, are the one holding the truth. It is by means of this that we may be light of the

world, when we may come to know our identity and when we may realize how big our

task is.

3.3. Crisis of knowledge

In the midst of our world where globalization and technology have taken the Centre

stage, we are experiencing a dramatic crisis in values, belief and ideas. In the religious

field, believers are facing challenges regarding both cultural and religious values by

relativizing them, something which slowly like HIV is killing them without being aware

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and is leading them to a kind of ‘scientific atheism.’34 We are no longer different from

the crowd or the Jews even more the Pharisees of John’s Gospel who thought that by

virtue of having eyes they could see properly and yet they are blind.

When we speak about the crisis in our today's world, we mean a change that can be

seen in difference two way of ‘knowledge’ and through existential experience. The world

is experiencing rapid progress in development with most of its inhabitants hence being

left behind in need of assistance.

In this perspective Beattie35 says that as the shadows grow deeper in the twilight of

modernity, we need to abandon aggressive forms of intellectual and political

confrontation governed by sterile concepts of rationality and necessity, in order to

discover new modes of dialogue and engagement capable of respecting the common

humanity which we share.

Grayling36 for example, an atheist, has recently become more militant in his anti-

religious writings qualifying religion as ‘one of the worst toxics poisoning human

affairs.” Such ideas are now pumped in our minds and are corrupting us day after day

leading us to relativism of the notion of sacredness. Those who are learned are the one

(like the Pharisees and chief priests of the time of Jesus) leading people in darkness

instead of bringing them to light.

34 What I call ‘scientific atheism’ here is not far from ‘excessive rationalism’ in which people have more

put their trust in science than in God himself. In our century people are more concerned with

demonstrations or proofs even for spiritual issues. Something striking is that they do believe that human

being is a composition of Body and soul. But if you say God is a Spirit they will ask you to prove it and yet

they cannot tangibly with their science prove that man has a second element in him which is called spirit.

35 Tina Beattie, The New Atheists: the Twilights Of Reason and the War on Religion, (London, Great

Britain, Darton, Longman and Todd, 2007), 14.

36 Cf. A.C. Grayling, “through the Looking Glass”, in The New Humanist, vol. 122, issue 5

(July/August 2007) at https://newhumanist.org.uk/1423 , consulted on January

27th, 2020 at 11:49 am.

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No one with an awareness of this 20th political situation (in a special way here in

Africa) can support ideologies such as tribalism or one that promotes conflict. A Recall

of what happened in Rwanda in 1992-94 where one tribe could consider another as

‘cockroaches’. How can we be so blind to the point of reducing our fellow to the range

of insects only because of political fanaticism? Look at what is happening in South

Africa with the issue of xenophobia and in so many other countries throughout the world.

People are lost, they don’t know who they should trust, what is good or bad since

what was anti-values have now been promoted as values. Our world needs light. People

have become blind as the one we saw in the Gospel, and therefore we need Jesus Christ

to open once again our eyes as he did for the man born blind. We should not allow the

very challenges we face to blind is to the point of not recognizing God’s work of

salvation in our lives.

3.4. The Antichrist

These are those people (at the time of John) who were spreading the doctrine of

Docetism among the believers. They taught that Jesus was a man whom God used. God

clothed him with divinity to make him a Messiah. He has never been fully God.

Such a doctrine entered the Johannine community and rudely without love nor

humbleness the perpetrator of it permitted themselves to teach their erroneous views,

causing division and confusion as well as doubt among believers. In 1 John 2:22-24 John

is attacking them. Whoever affirms the Son embraces the Father and the fact of rejecting

Jesus divinity implies the rejection of the Father automatically.

Today also, those ones who may destroy God’s people so that they may not come to

know the truth will appear in so many facets. Some will bring half-truth decorated as if it

was the whole truth while frankly speaking they are misleading people (sophists). These

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teachers do know what people want to hear. They know the needs of people and

therefore take advantage of their weaknesses. We are called to be aware of this in order

to protect the precious truth of the gospel from any misinterpretation.

Dianne Tidball gives us two meanings of the Antichrist: the first meaning is that the

antichrist is one who opposes God, who comes openly and clearly as an adversary of the

truth and of God himself. Second meaning is that it is the one who comes as an imitator

of Christ, who has a pretense of godliness, an appearance of holiness, but whose

motivation is to destroy the truth. Presently, there are those who sugar coat falsehood

adorning it that it appears to be true. Another virus is what we call “Relativism” which

has become the biggest threat among Christians. A considerable number of people have

come to believe that there is no absolute, there is no right nor wrong. Such concepts have

become subjective. What is right for you may not necessarily be right for me. Truth is no

longer objective and this has left implications on the faith of some to the extent that they

are now so hesitant to affirm that Jesus is the only way leading to God.

Even in some churches the cross is no longer an object of preaching. Blessings,

wealth etc. are the topics on which they focus on during their message while pain,

sacrifice, suffering are ignored. To this, Dianne added that in other churches, with the

spirit of ecumenism or liberal thought reinterpret the Lordship of Christ in order that it

becomes a global force of moral good without any spiritual truth or absolute as its basis.

3.5. Being witnesses to the light.

3.5.1. Through proclamation

We have seen in the prologues the way John the Baptist was giving testimony to the

light. And now this is what we are supposed to do. Giving testimony to the light. In

1John 1:1 the author is moving again the same way he did in the Prologue while making

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reference to Genesis 1. In the three first verses our attention is focused on the verb

“apangellomen” (we proclaim). This is about the proclamation which the Apostles did; a

proclamation of that which was from the beginning, which they heard, saw and

witnessed which they touched or in one word which they experienced with their senses.

What is it? “The Word of life” (it recalls us of the link which we made in the second

chapter concerning the “Logos” which is the “light” and “life” of the world).

What is being proclaimed is done so, that the one to whom it is proclaimed may

have fellowship (koinonia) with the Apostles, from there it moves straight to God the

Father through Jesus and at the very end that the joy may reach its completeness. In other

words, the proclamation is all about a mystery of “Eternity” squeezing itself in order to

be contained in “history”. This is purely impossible as for the dream of Saint Augustine

of Hippo who saw a little young boy digging a hole and trying to pour the waters of the

ocean into the hole.

As far as hearing was not enough because God’s voice could be heard through the

Law and the prophets, it was necessary for people to see with their eyes especially to

touch like a blind person or someone walking in a dark area. He or she uses the sense of

touch in order to know what is in front of him or her. So also, humanity wanted to

experience, or to touch God in order to expel the doubt that God has truly dwelt among

us.

John uses two verbs here: the first is “apangellomen” (we proclaim) and the second

is “martyroumen” (we testify)37. It means that our ministry consists of living a life of

testimony as a way of proclamation or enlightenment to those who are still living in

37 John R.W. Stott, Tyndale: New Testament Commentaries, Revised Ed., The Letters of John,

(Leicester, Inter-Varsity Press 1989), 67.

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darkness of ignorance and unbelief. Testimony requires an eyewitness. Reason why in

Lk 24:48 Jesus will tell his disciples: “you are witnesses of these things” and the same in

Acts 1:8 “but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you

shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the

earth.” For this reason Stott will say that true witnesses speak not of what they have

gathered second-hand from others, but of what they have themselves personally seen and

heard.38

3.5.2. Through fellowship (koinõnia)

God is not a monad; he always works in synchrony with other persons of the

mystery of the Holy Trinity as well as the rest of creation. The fact that Light came into

the World and pitched its tent among us was for the purpose that creation may be

restored that fellowship which was there from the very beginning.

In our church today, one may observe with me that the catholic faithful are going

away from the church in order to join protestant or sects or cults by the fact that the lack

fellowship within the parish where they were living. Once they go to the Protestants or

elsewhere, their presence is recognized, they are warmly welcomed into protestant

communities, they feel they are at home.

Within our parishes the notion of fellowship has been neglected. For this reason,

people has come to understand that we go for Mass only to hear the word of God and to

receive the Holy Eucharist. Unfortunately you may hear from the mouths of some

pastors (priests) concerning this issue of fellowship, telling you that we, Catholics don’t

need people; we have Jesus and that’s all; Protestants are the one in need of people.

38 Ibid. 68.

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It is true that we have Jesus. But is it also true that we don’t need people? What

about our mission of proclaiming the Gospel? Can we talk about the Church without

community? As Christian, fellowship plays a considerable importance. It is true that we

go for Mass to receive Christ in the Eucharist and to hear his word. But it does not mean

that our experience of Church should be limited only to that moment we receive the body

and blood of our Lord.

The purpose of John’s proclamation here in his first letter is not for salvation, but

fellowship (v.3). This fellowship entails reconciliation with the Holy Trinity39 and the

Church (fellowship with one another). But this fellowship should not be taken as a social

camaraderie but rather it is a spiritual one which is at the same time Trinitarian,

Christological, Pneumatological, and Ecclesial fellowship.

Once these aspects are taken into account, fellowship becomes complete and as

consequence, “Joy” (v.4), a joy of being united as one body in order to fulfill what Jesus

Prayed for before departing from this world (John 17:21). This joy can be raised to the

eschatological view where God will be all in all. That heavenly beatific vision, that

perfect felicity when we shall see God as He is; where there will no more be need for

lamp or sun because the Lamb shall be enlightening the city (Rev. 21:23-24).

But we have to understand that we cannot claim to be in fellowship with God while

living in a sinful condition. Living in darkness consists of not being in a close

relationship with God as far as God is light and both light and darkness cannot coexist at

the same time. In other words where there is darkness there isn’t also fellowship with

39 Stott says that John is not mentioning fellowship with the Holy Spirit as it is clearly noted in Pauline

writings (2Cor. 13:14; Phil. 2:1) only because the false teaching against which he is fighting makes him

focused on the Son to whom their heresy dishonored. See Stott, Tyndale: New Testament Commentaries,

The Letters of John, Revised Edition, 69.

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God. Sin and darkness destroy fellowship while love and light draw people together like

a magnet.

3.5.3. Through right conduct

The effects of light is not only to make people see as it was the case of the man born

blind, but also to facilitate people to ‘walk’. Light confers right conduct, pure mind, and

clear vision. This takes us back to the Gospel of John 3:19-21 through which we find the

relation between light and spotlessness, darkness and evil. There is a distinction between

a good or virtuous person and an evil one. It is not enough to know the truth, but to

practice it as it is not enough to see light (like the Pharisees and chief priests in John’s

gospel), but to come and walk in it.

3.6. Overcome the world

We are all aware that the “world” in Johannine writings has a negative connotation.

The world in which Christians live is an antagonistic, a cruel, and a world without God.

It hates Christians only because it did prior hate Jesus (1Jn 3:13). The world is ignorant

of Christ therefore it does not know Christians also (1Jn 3:1). It only welcomes whoever

speaks its language (4:4-5).

The only way we can overcome the world is through “faith” (1Jn 5:4). When we

believe in Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God, this becomes the only means and

possible way to have life. Another element apart from faith is “love”, especially fraternal

love.

This is the summary of God’s commandment in John: “that we should believe in the

name of Jesus, the Son of God and then love one another (1Jn 3:23). Faith implies a

determined renunciation of the “world” and the rejection of all the works of darkness.40

40 Michael J. Taylor, A Companion to John, 195.

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We have to make a shift from the dark realm of death and move toward the brightness of

divine life (Jn 5:24). Even though believers are living in a hostile world, there is no

reason for them to wonder because Christ has overcome the world. And John 12:36

stresses that ‘”while you have the light, believe in the light, that you may be children of

light”. Faith here binds the believer to adhere to Christ.

3.7. Active love as a sign of brotherhood

One of the characteristic features of Johannine moral teaching is love of brethren.

John is not merely thinking about the willingness of human beings to love, but rather he

is far most convinced that it is God himself who takes initiative of kindling the fire of

love in us. To mean if it is God himself who takes initiative, then we have to respond to

him in both attitude of mind and action.

This is how God’s love is perfected in Christian life (1Jn 4:18). Once god’s love is

perfected in us (1Jn 4:12) then we have perfect charity. So our charity is the fruit of

God’s gift (1Jn 3:1; 4:10). For John, there is a contrast between loving God and loving

the world. One cannot love God while loving the world. “Whoever loves the world

God’s love is not in him/her for all that is in the world is concupiscence of the flesh and

the concupiscence that comes from our sight and pride of life. These are not from the

Father but of the world” (1Jn 2:15ff).

In the Gospel according to John we are told that even when Jesus is speaking about

the great commandment (14:15, 21), his prior aim was to call on his disciples to love one

another (13:34; 15:12, 17). Obedience to Jesus entails to keep his words and to love one

another. In 1Jn 2:3-5 the commandments of God are explicitly understood as related to

the new commandment of love of brothers (1Jn 2: 7-11).

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To the question why does Jesus call this commandment a “New Commandment”,

Schnackenburg responds saying that what makes it new is the fact that Jesus added the

words “as I have loved you” (13:34; 15:12) and so provided the key to understand that if

He, Jesus died on the cross, it is because he loved his own to the utmost (13:1), in order

to give them an example (13:15).41 Jesus is our model and teacher, therefore as his

disciples, we ought to imitate him. Jesus’ love was that voluntary loving sacrifice upon

the cross (10:11, 15, 17f; 15:13). It means the sacrifice of ourselves for our brethren in

serving them without pride as Jesus did when he washed the feet of his disciples, this is

the newness of this great commandment.

1 John 3:16 calls us to lay down our life for our brethren. Jesus did it the first, some

saints like Maximillian Kolbe (a Poland priest) did the same by accepting to die for

another during the Nazi war; and so many other people have reached this level. This is

love. Divine love should be expressed through actions as Jesus did. Thus, the new

commandment has become a reality in Jesus and in us because the darkness has passed

and the new light brought by Jesus is now shining (1Jn 2:8).

In the person of Jesus, God’s love has been perceived. All of us have crossed from

death to life because we love our brethren (1Jn 3:14). If we pretend to love God while

hating our brethren we are purely liars since brotherly love is the proof of the interior

love of God which cannot be proven.

3.8. Abiding in Christ

In the sermon on the mountain (Mt 5:13-16), Jesus tells his disciples that they are the

salt and the light of the world. Whoever follows Jesus is blessed indeed because he lives

41 Rudolf Schnackenburg, Christian Morality According to John, in A Companion to John: Readings in

Johannine Theology (John’s Gospel and Epistles) edited by M.J. Taylor (New

York, Alba House, 1977), 199.

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the beatitudes. Therefore, Jesus’ follower plays an important role in the world as far as

he is what salt is for food. One of the roles of salt is to preserve; hence, Jesus’ follower

ought to preserve whatever is of value in culture, doctrine etc.

For salt to be effective, it has to be in touch with food. Similarly for us believers, to

be effective we must be connected or associated with/to where we are engaged. For this

reason Jesus said: "if anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall

my servant be also; if anyone serves me, the Father will honor him” (Jn 12:26). In other

words, whoever serves Jesus will not be tasteless like the salt which loses its taste and

becomes useless).

But before being engaged, we must first of all be connected to the source. John used

the verb “to abide” (15:4-7). To abide means to adhere, to be united, to be connected or

attached to Jesus as for a branch to a tree. Once this connection is no longer there, the

branch dries up and is only destined to be put on fire. To abide means also being of the

same mind as Jesus. We become shaped by Jesus teaching. Whoever abides in Jesus

ultimately abides in God (15:8-11), and since God is light, abide in means abide in light

and once we abide in light we become light.

In Matthew 5:15 Jesus says that a lamp can never be lit and put under the bushel. As

Christian we are not only there to maintain personal holiness. We must let others benefit

from the light coming from us. We should touch or influence or stir the lives of those

who surround us. Our light has to shine so brightly before men that by seeing our good

works they may magnify God.

Our light is not to be seen only through the witness of words, but more especially

through our deeds (good works) because as it is always said actions speak louder than

words. Our presence in this world is not by mistake; we were brought into the world to

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shine. Each one of us is a candle to his or her neighbor. It is only when we will light

many candles (of justice, peace, love, patience, meekness, humbleness etc.) that the

world can be enlightened and the glory of God be manifested wherever darkness (of

confusion, idolatry, greed, injustice, war, hatred, pride, individualism, materialism etc.)

seemed to prevail.

3.9. Living in hope for the future

In John’s view, eternal life means the life has both present and future dimension. In

the gospel we can see how Jesus drew the conception of eternal life from the future and

shifted it in the present. Reference for example is made to “the last hour” (1Jn 2:18), this

brings him to the discussion of the question of “life” with a future dimension. We read

again that whoever hears and believes in Jesus’ words “has” eternal life not “will have”

eternal life.

In his discussion with Nicodemus, Jesus described the experience of divine life as a

recompense of “being born a new” (Jn 3:3-10). And 1Jn 2:29 and 3:9 speak about “being

born of God”, something which incorporates us to be “children of God” (3:1-2, 10).

Therefore, the “last hour” for us who are called children of God should not frustrate

us nor appear to be “last” as such since we are convinced that at that particular moment,

we are going to meet him, to see him face to face. Thus we have to face the future with

confidence since we have the assurance of our current relationship with the Father

(3:2).42

Even if in so many passages of the gospels and Pauline letters the Parousia has to be

preceded with troubles and persecutions of the believers, 1John speaks of schism (2:19),

appearance of the Antichrist (2:18) etc.. These things are happening today and we are

42 Cf. J. Ramsey Michaels, Reflection on the Three Epistles of John, in A Companion to John, 264.

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witnessing them within our Christian communities. But they should not hinder us nor

make us lose hope. John tells us that these schismatic have been guilty of lying. They

have sinned against the Truth (God) while denying Jesus to be Christ (1Jn 2:21-22).

Apostasy and hatred are mortal sins for which there is no forgiveness (1Jn 5:16).

Whoever wants to be called child of God should avoid such sins and whoever

commits one of these sins is not of light nor a child of God but belongs to darkness or the

devil (3:7-10). Christians should not think that they are to be without sin. This is to be

liars since Christ alone was spotless (3:5). Sin can affect us but once we are affected we

must confess them (1:9). The assurance is that “if our hearts condemn us, God is greater

than our heart and He knows everything” (3:20). This is how we should live while

awaiting for our Lord. And it is by doing so that we become candles or lights in this

world. Brief, in this crisis addressed by John, everything is either light or darkness, truth

or error, life or death, good or evil.

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General conclusion

We have seen how much important light is as far as it helps us to see so that we may

not walk while guessing which direction to take or where to step. Light helps us perceive

obstacles, it helps plants to grow, and also in a philosophical perspective our mind needs

to be enlightened so that we may be able to search and discover the truth. Our world is

vacillating in darkness of confusion, error, sin and idolatry because of lack of

knowledge. People don’t know who is to be trusted, in what should we believe, who is

saying the truth.

We need light, since by our own effort we cannot make a right choice. We are blind

and therefore cannot go anywhere without being enlighten or guided. We have struggled

for years in our quest for the truth walking without knowledge of the destination. Reason

why, in his great love for us, God the Father sent his only begotten Son Jesus Christ to be

the source of life and light of the world. He came to replace our darkness with light so

that we may see.

Light has to be understood in parallel with its opposite darkness. Darkness appears

from the very beginning of creation. It symbolizes chaos or the disorder which was there

before the work of creation. In John’s gospel as it has been shown darkness is a sign of

ignorance, confusion, misunderstanding, error and can even be associated with sin and

unbelief.

Like Nicodemus, our world is seeking to meet Jesus. There are a lot of things that

we need to know and understand. Secularism and individualism have completely

changed the face of this world. People are behaving in a disorderly way, moral and

cultural values are being abolished and replaced by anti-values in the name of freedom.

Our night of ignorance and carelessness have made the man of today to be selfish. We

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have become like that blind man of the gospel to the point of not being able to look

around us and see people who are dying in starvation, poverty and yet some of us are

wasting money and food carelessly. Human exploitation on the side of the wealthier and

those who have power is far to be abolished, the conditions of the workers are not

improved, no care for our environment, etc. We need to be enlightened, we need

somebody to open our eyes; and this person is Jesus Christ alone.

Jesus is the true light who reveals the Father (Jn 1:18). In Jesus, the light of

“revelation” and “salvation” has come to the world. The same light continues its mission

in the Church today through the guidance of the Holy Spirit who descended upon the

disciples in the form of fire. This mission will continue till the end of time when those

who believe will enjoy the beatific vision in the kingdom where there will be no more

need for the sun or the Lamb to shine over God’s city since the “Lamb” shall be the lamp

which will enlighten the city and where all the nations will walk in his light (Rev 21:23).

Now as Jesus is the full revelation of the Father, it is upon each one of us to make a

free choice. Either one sees light and come to it, abide and walk in it or one decide to

stay in darkness. John says “And this is judgement, that the light has come into the

world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (Jn

3:19).

Light as we have seen through all over of this work, is a complex theme rooted in

both the Old and New Testament. God is light and there is no darkness in Him at all.

Reason why Jesus Christ being the agent of salvation and being the only begotten Son of

the Father, is the light from light who came to shine in our darkness of ignorance, error

and unbelief. He has power to bring people out of darkness and restore them to light and

life.

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All that we can understand in John writings especially in the prologue is that Christ

is the eternal Logos, the Wisdom of God, who gives light and life to the world. And it is

by believing in him that the life-giving light from God can shine in our hearts and make

us children of God (1:12). So, faith becomes a condition sine qua none to gain sonship

and life that is salvation (20:31).

Nevertheless, if it is by means of believing in Christ that we become sons of light,

therefore our obligations of performing good works should be manifest. We are now

expected to walk as sons of light conducting ourselves virtuously. And one of the virtues

stressed by John is charity. He says: “whoever claims to be in light while hating his

brother is in darkness. And whoever loves his brother abides in light and this one will

never fall (or stumble)” (1Jn 2:9-10). So, light becomes instrument of revelation of

God’s children. 1Jn 1:7 stresses: “But if we walk in the light as he also is in the light then

we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ purifies us from all

sins”.

In one word we discovered that John was trying to underline what we called

“dualism of opposition” (this is the perpetual friction between good and evil; above and

below; truth and falsehood; right and error light and darkness etc). These oppositions are

in perpetual conflict in history. But at the end the forces of light will triumph over the

forces darkness. Light is already conquering darkness. And those people who still

abiding in darkness have obstinately decided to turn away from light.

If John discovered that ‘light’ is an ideal term to reveal Jesus as the Messiah, he

seems also to have discovered in the ‘Spirit of truth” a qualification for the Holy Spirit

being the true witness of Christ. Jesus said: “but when the Paraclete will come, whom I

will send you from the Father, he will bear witness concerning me” (Jn 15:26). And at

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the end he continues: “But when he (the Spirit of Truth) will come, he will teach you all

truth” (16:13). To mean the knowledge of truth will draw us to light. John 3:21 says:

“But he who practices the truth comes to light that his deeds may be manifested, for they

have been formed in God”. The same idea appear in 1Jn 1:6 “if we say that we have

fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and the truth is not in us”.

Jesus is that light which shone on creation in the beginning. He is that pillar of fire

which led Israel in the wilderness. He is the Logos through which all things were made,

the Word made flesh in order to give light and life to men. Being God, Jesus’ word is life

and source of life; the life which dwells in each one of us as light in order to enlighten

our conscience so that we may be able to distinguish between good and evil. This is what

Paul calls “innate knowledge of God” (Rom 1:18-25).

This light which is God (1Jn 1:5) may be ignored even suppressed, but it will never

fade. As believers we ought to serve as light in the world not to be overcome by darkness

of sin, unbelief and ignorance. Saint Paul said: “do not be overcome by evil but

overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21). In this way we will participate in the triumph of

light over darkness. It doesn’t matter how thick darkness could be, once there is only a

spark of light, it must be seen. Our effort however much it is has a positive impact in this

dark world. We should not be afraid nor be discouraged to be witnesses to the light.

Jesus the True light conquered the world.

54

Bibliography

A. Books

Baesley- Murray George, John, Edited by Bruce M. Metzger, John D.W. Watts,

James W. Watts, Ralph P. Martin and Lynn Allan Lossie,

Vol. 36, 2nd ed., Word Biblical Commentary, Nashville:

Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1999.

Beattie Tina, the New Atheists: The Twilight of Reason and the War on Religion,

London, Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd, 2007.

Brown E. Raymond, The Anchor Bible: the Gospel According to John (i-xii), New

York, Doubledayꝸ Company, 1966.

Brown E. Raymond, the Epistles of John: A New Translation with Introduction and

Commentary, London, Geoffrey Chapman, 1983.

Bultmann Rudolf, The Gospel of John: A Commentary, Translated by George

Raymond Beasley-Murray, Rupert William Noel Hoare and John

Kenneth Riches, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1971.

Calvin, John. Intitutes of the Christian Religion, Translated by Henry Beveridge

Edinburgh: The Calvin Translation Society, 1845.

Carolyn Thomas, Journeys into John: 16 lessonsof exploration and discovery, USA,

Antony Messenger Press, 1998.

Carson D.A, The Gospel According to John. The Pillar New Testament Commentary,

55

Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991.

Dodd C.H, the Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, Cambridge, University Press,

1988.

Crane E. Thomas, the Message of Saint John: the Scriptural Teaching of the Beloved

Disciple, New York, Alba House, 1980.

Crosby H. Michael, Do You Love Me? Jesus Questions the Church, New York,

Maryknoll, 2000.

Moloney J. Francis, Glory not Dishonor: Reading John 13-21, Minneapolis, Fortress

Press, 1998.

Neal M. Flanagan, the Gospel According to John and the Johannine Epistles,

Collegeville, Minnesota, 1983.

Stott R.W. John, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, the Letters of John, Revised

Edition, Leicester, Inter-Varsity Press, 1989.

Tidball Dianne, Discovering John’s Letters, Leicester, Crossway Books, 2002.

Yee A. Gale, Jewish Feasts and the Gospel of John, Wilmington, Delaware, 1989.

B. Commentaries

……………, The International Bible Commentary, edited by William R. Farmer et

Alii, Bangalore, Theological Publications in India, 1998.

……………, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, edited by Raymond E. Brown

et Alii, London, Bloomsbury, 1990.

56

Barnabas Lindars, the New Century Bible Commentary: the Gospel of John, edited by

Nald E. Clements and Matthew Black, London, Marshall, Morgan

ꝸ Scott Publ. LTD, 1987.

Barclay William, the Gospel of John, vol. 2, Revised Edition, Edinburgh, The Saint

Andrew Press, 1981.

J. Moloney Francis, Sacra Pagina Series: The Gospel of John, vol. 4, edited by

Daniel J. Harrington, Collegeville, Minnesota, The Liturgical

Press, 1989.

M. Gray D.D, The concise Bible Commentary, Ages Software Albany or USA

Version 1.0 © 1999.

C. Internet sources

https://newhumanist.org.uk/1423

https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/hanukkah

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Table of content

DEDICATION .................................................................................................................... i

EPIGRAPH ........................................................................................................................ ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. iii

STUDENT’S DECLARATION ....................................................................................... iv

ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................ v

Chapter I.............................................................................................................................. 1

The Concept of Light in the Old Testament ....................................................................... 1

1.0. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1

1.1. Background to the study ....................................................................................... 1

1.2. Statement of the problem ..................................................................................... 9

1.3. Significance of the study ...................................................................................... 9

1.4. Objectives of the study ....................................................................................... 10

1.5. Framework of the study...................................................................................... 10

1.6. Ethical consideration .......................................................................................... 11

Chapter II .......................................................................................................................... 13

Light as Revelatory mean of Jesus’ Identity in John’s gospel .......................................... 13

2.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 13

2.2. Background of John’s gospel ................................................................................. 13

2.3. Symbolism of darkness .......................................................................................... 15

2.4. Triumph of light over darkened ............................................................................. 18

2.5. Light and God’s glory ............................................................................................ 20

2.6. Light and life .......................................................................................................... 25

2.7. Connection between light and life .......................................................................... 27

2.8. Light and truthfulness............................................................................................. 31

2.9. The “tenting” of the light ....................................................................................... 32

2.10. Controversy over light .......................................................................................... 33

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 34

Chapter Three.................................................................................................................... 36

Relevance of “light” in our world todays ......................................................................... 36

3.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 36

3.2. Our identity ............................................................................................................ 37

3.3. Crisis of knowledge ................................................................................................ 37

3.4. The Antichrist ......................................................................................................... 39

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3.5. Being witnesses to the light. ................................................................................... 40

3.5.1. Through proclamation ..................................................................................... 40

3.5.2. Through fellowship (koinõnia) ........................................................................ 42

3.5.3. Through right conduct ..................................................................................... 44

3.6. Overcome the world ............................................................................................... 44

3.7. Active love as a sign of brotherhood ...................................................................... 45

3.8. Abiding in Christ .................................................................................................... 46

3.9. Living in hope for the future .................................................................................. 48

General conclusion............................................................................................................ 50

Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 54

Table of content ................................................................................................................ 57