Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word

John 1:9

That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

KJV

Ἦν τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινόν, ὃ φωτίζει πάντα ἄνθρωπον, ἐρχόμενον εἰς τὸν κόσμον.

Greek NT

Erat lux vera, quæ illuminat omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum.

Vulgate

There was the true light, even the light which lighteth every man, coming into the world.

ASV

That was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.

Douay-Rheims

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In the original Greek

11 distinct Greek words appear in this verse.

εἰμί
eimi
verb · 2461×
εἰς
eis
preposition · 1769×
κόσμος
kosmos
noun · 184×
πᾶς
pas
adjective · 1226×
φωτίζω
photizo
verb · 11×
φῶς
phos
noun · 72×
ἀληθινός
alethinos
adjective · 28×
ἄνθρωπος
anthropos
noun · 549×
ἔρχομαι
erchomai
verb · 627×
ὁ
o
article · 19778×
ὅς
os
relative_pronoun · 1404×

Themes

Historic Christian voices

21 passages from patristic writers, Reformers, and church catechisms citing this verse.

§1216"This bath is called enlightenment, because those who receive this [catechetical] instruction are enlightened in their understanding . . . ."8 Having received in Baptism the Word, "the true light that enlightens every man," the person baptized has been "enlightened," he becomes a "son of light," indeed, he becomes "light" himself:9 Baptism is God's most beautiful and magnificen…
1. Wherefore does He depart? Again instructing us not to go to meet temptations, but to give place and withdraw ourselves. For it is no reproach, the not casting one's self into danger, but the failing to stand manfully when fallen into it. To teach us this accordingly, and to soothe the envy of the Jews, He retires to Capernaum; at once fulfilling the prophecy, and making hast…
1. Moses in the beginning of the history and writings of the Old Testament speaks to us of the objects of sense, and enumerates them to us at length. For, In the beginning, he says, God made the heaven and the earth, and then he adds, that light was created, and a second heaven and the stars, the various kinds of living creatures, and, that we may not delay by going through par…
1. The reason, O children greatly beloved, why we entertain you portion by portion with the thoughts taken from the Scriptures, and do not at once pour all forth to you, is, that the retaining what is successively set before you may be easy. For even in building, one who before the first stones are settled lays on others, constructs a rotten wall altogether, and easily thrown d…
Chapter 9.—What the Scriptures Teach Us to Believe Concerning the Creation of the Angels. At present, since I have undertaken to treat of the origin of the holy city, and first of the holy angels, who constitute a large part of this city, and indeed the more blessed part, since they have never been expatriated, I will give myself to the task of explaining, by God’s help, and as…
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Calvin expounds the eternal divinity of the Word with great care. The Word was not created in time but existed from all eternity with the Father. "The Word was God" — here is a clear declaration of the deity of Christ. The Word was made flesh — this is the mystery of the incarnation, the union of th…
1. How Christians are the Spiritual Israel. That people which was called of old the people of God was divided into twelve tribes, and over and above the other tribes it had the levitical order, which itself again carried on the service of God in various priestly and levitical suborders. In the same manner, it appears to me that the whole people of Christ, when we regard it in t…
1 And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In the preceding section, my revered brother Ambrosius, brother formed according to the Gospel, we have discussed, as far as is at present in our power, what the Gospel is, and what is the beginning in which the Word was, and what the Word is which was in the beginning. We now come to consider the next point in the work before …
43. Behold then what men considered the foolishness of God because of the Cross, has become of all things most honoured. For our resurrection is stored up in it; and no longer Israel alone, but henceforth all the nations, as the Prophet has foretold, leave their idols and acknowledge the true God, the Father of the Christ. And the illusion of demons has come to nought, and He o…
Confessions · 4 passages
Then follows a period of nine years from the nineteenth year of his age, during which having lost a friend, he followed the Manichæans — and wrote books on the fair and fit, and published a work on the liberal arts, and the categories of Aristotle. Chapter 1. Concerning that Most Unhappy Time in Which He, Being Deceived, Deceived Others; And Concerning the Mockers of His Confes…
He recalls the beginning of his youth, i.e. the thirty-first year of his age, in which very grave errors as to the nature of God and the origin of evil being distinguished, and the Sacred Books more accurately known, he at length arrives at a clear knowledge of God, not yet rightly apprehending Jesus Christ. Chapter 1. He Regarded Not God Indeed Under the Form of a Human Body, …
He finally describes the thirty-second year of his age, the most memorable of his whole life, in which, being instructed by Simplicianus concerning the conversion of others, and the manner of acting, he is, after a severe struggle, renewed in his whole mind, and is converted unto God. Chapter 1. He, Now Given to Divine Things, and Yet Entangled by the Lusts of Love, Consults Si…
…and 1 more from this source.
Did Christ have any knowledge besides the Divine? Did He have the knowledge which the blessed or comprehensors have? Did He have an imprinted or infused knowledge? Did He have any acquired knowledge? Article 1. Whether Christ had any knowledge besides the Divine? Objection 1. It would seem that in Christ there was no knowledge except the Divine. For knowledge is necessary that …
From ancient times down to the present, there is found among various peoples a certain perception of that hidden power which hovers over the course of things and over the events of human history. The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, …
Nothing can be more intrinsically excellent than the text, "By grace are ye saved through faith." The whole of religion is comprised in these few words. It includes all that is wrought in the soul by what is frequently termed "preventing grace" — all the drawings of the Father, the desires after God. It includes both justification and sanctification.
We believe the first man created by God to have fallen in Paradise, when he disregarded the commandment of God and yielded to the deceitful counsel of the serpent. And hence hereditary sin flowed to his posterity; so that none is born after the flesh who beareth not this burden, and who experienceth not the fruits thereof in this present world. But by "burden" and "fruits of si…
Just as the Law was a schoolmaster to lead the Jews to Christ, so Greek philosophy was a schoolmaster to lead the Greeks to Christ. Philosophy did not save, but it prepared the Greek mind for the reception of truth. Clement argues that God in His providence scattered seeds of truth among all nations, so that "in Him we live and move and have our being" is not a pagan error but …

Cross-references

  • 1John 1:5 — This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
  • 1John 1:8 — If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
  • 1John 2:8 — Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.
  • 1John 2:8 — Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.
  • 1John 5:20 — And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and
  • 1Thess 5:4 — But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
  • 2Tim 1:10 — But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:
  • Dan 2:22 — He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.
  • Eph 5:8 — For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
  • Ezek 21:27 — I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.
  • Gen 1:3 — And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
  • Isa 8:20 — To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
  • Isa 49:6 — And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou
  • Isa 60:1 — Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.
  • Jas 1:17 — Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
  • Job 25:3 — Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom doth not his light arise?
  • Job 38:19 — Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof,
  • John 1:4 — In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
  • John 1:7 — The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
  • John 1:7 — The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
  • John 6:32 — Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
  • John 6:55 — For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
  • John 12:46 — I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
  • John 12:46 — I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
  • John 14:6 — Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
  • John 15:1 — I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
  • Lev 24:2 — Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually.
  • Luke 1:79 — To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
  • Prov 8:14 — Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength.
  • Ps 27:1 — The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
  • Ps 84:11 — For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
  • Rev 21:23 — And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
  • Rom 1:19 — Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
  • Titus 2:11 — For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,