1 John 2:8

8. For σκοτία ([478][479] and Versions) [480] has σκία.

[478] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
[479] 5th century. A palimpsest: the original writing has been partially rubbed out and the works of Ephraem the Syrian have been written over it. In the National Library at Paris. Part of the First and Third Epistles; 1 John 1:1 to 1 John 4:2; 3 John 1:3-14. Of the whole N.T. the only Books entirely missing are 2 John and 2 Thessalonians.

[480] 5th century. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. All three Epistles.

8. πάλιν ἐντ. καινὴν γρ. ὑμ., ὅ ἐστιν�. Either, Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true: Or, Again, as a new commandment I write unto you a thing which is true: Or, Again, a new commandment write I unto you, namely that which is true. It is difficult to decide between these three renderings; but the third is simpler than the first. Both Tyndale and the Genevan Version have ‘a thing that is true’: Beza; id quod verum est in ipso: Luther; das da wahrhaftig ist. If we adopt the rendering of A.V. and R.V., the meaning seems to be, that the newness of the commandment is true, both in the case of Christ, who promulgated it afresh, and in the case of you, who received it afresh. If we prefer the simpler rendering, the meaning will be, that what has already been shewn to be true by the pattern life of Christ and by the efforts of Christians to imitate it, is now given by S. John as a new commandment. The πάλιν introduces a new view: that which from one point of view was an old commandment, from another was a new one. It was old, but not obsolete, ancient, but not antiquated: it had been renewed in a fuller sense; it had received a fresh sanction. Thus both those who feared innovations and those who disliked what was stale might feel satisfied.

ἐν αὐτῷ καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν. Note the double preposition, implying that it is true in the case of Christ in a different sense from that in which it is true in the case of Christians. He reissued the commandment and was the living embodiment and example of it; they accepted it and endeavoured to follow it: both illustrated its truth and soundness. See on 1 John 1:3, where μετά is repeated, and on John 20:2, where πρός is repeated. The reading ἐν ἡμῖν is certainly to be rejected.

ὅτι ἡ σκ. παράγεται. Because the darkness is passing away: present tense of a process still going on (1 John 2:17). All earlier English Versions are wrong here, from Wiclif onwards, misled by transierunt tenebrae in the Vulgate. So also Luther: denn die Finsterniss ist vergangen. On σκοτία see on 1 John 1:5. The ὅτι introduces the reason why he writes as a new commandment what has been proved true by the example of Christ and their own experience. The ideal state of things, to which the perfect fulfilment of this commandment belongs, has already begun: ‘The darkness is on the wane, the true light is shewing its power; therefore I bid you to walk as children of light.’ Comp. 1 Corinthians 7:31, where παράγει used intransitively is rightly rendered ‘passeth away,’ praeterit, vergehet. Παράγεται here is middle rather than passive, of a cloud withdrawing rather than of a veil being withdrawn. Comp. Romans 13:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:5.

The difference between the Vulgate (Cod. Am.) and Jerome (Adv. Jovin. I. 40) is here remarkable. In his own treatise he has Mandatum novum scripsi vobis, quod est verissimum, et in Christo, et in nobis: quia tenebrae praeterierunt et lux jam lucet. In the Vulgate he has Iterum mandatum novum scribo vobis, quod est verum et in ipso et in vobis; quoniam tenebrae transierunt et lumen verum jam lucet.

τὸ φῶς τὸ�. ἤδη φαίνει. The light, the true light, is already shining. For the repetition of the article comp. 1 John 2:7; 1 John 1:2. ‘Is shining’ rather than ‘shineth,’ to correspond with ‘is passing away.’ It is the nature of light not merely to appear (φαίνεσθαι) but to lighten (φαίνειν): comp. John 1:5. We might render here, as in Genesis 1:17, ‘is already giving light.’ Ἀληθινόν is ‘true’ as opposed to ‘spurious,’ while ἀληθές in the previous clause is ‘true’ as opposed to ‘lying’: the one is verum, the other verax. Ἀληθινός is ‘genuine,’ and hence ‘perfect,’ as realising the idea formed of it. It is represented by the old English ‘very,’ the word which both Wiclif and Purvey here employ, although they translate verum in the first part of the verse by ‘true.’ ‘Very God of Very God’ in the Nicene Creed is Θεὸν�. Christ and the Gospel are ‘the perfect Light’ in opposition to the imperfect light of the Law and the Prophets. They are realities; the others were types and figures. They are ‘the genuine Light’ in opposition to the false light of Gnostic philosophy. Ἀληθινός is almost peculiar to S. John; four times in this Epistle, nine times in the Gospel, ten times in Revelation: elsewhere in N.T. only five times. Christ is ὁ ἄρτος ὁ� (John 6:32) and ἡ ἄμπελος ἡ� (John 15:1) as well as τὸ φῶς τὸ� (John 1:9). This last passage combined with John 1:5 renders it probable that Christ is intended here, rather than the light of the truth or the kingdom of heaven: although the difference between the three interpretations is not important. The contrast with the impersonal darkness does not disprove this here any more than in John 1:5. Darkness is never personal; it is not an effluence from Satan as light is from God or from Christ. It is the result, not of the presence of the evil one, but of the absence of God. Comp. ‘Ye were once darkness, but now light in the Lord: walk as children of light’ (Ephesians 5:8).