for retaining the Authorized Version rendering.  Webster and

Wilkinson comment is:

`Many of the ancient commentators place the period at hen (one),

thus reading, ho gegonen en hauto zoe en - "Whatever hath come

into being derives its origin and existence from Him"`.

Whatever punctuation we may at length accept, the meaning of the

apostle remains unchanged. Just as Paul could say that `in Him we

live, and move, and have our being', so John reveals, that in Him, Who

was the Word, and Who at the incarnation was made known as the

Only-begotten of the Father, was life. And then, transferring his

thought from the physical realm to the spiritual, he translates `life' into

terms of `light' and says `The life was the light of men'.

Just as God divided the light from the darkness, so we read:

`And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended

it not' (1:5).

The word `comprehend' here is a translation of katalambano, from

kata, an intensive, and lambano, `to take'. In the middle voice, it is

rightly translated `comprehend', as in Ephesians 3:18; but where it

occurs in the active or passive, its meaning is `to grasp', `to seize', `to

overtake'. So, in John 8:3,4: `taken in adultery', or in 12:35: `lest

darkness come upon you'.

And in 1 Thessalonians 5:4: `but ye, brethren, are not in darkness,

that that day should overtake you as a thief'.

Some read John 1:5 as though the thought were that the darkness

did not `overpower' or `hold down' the light. The primary meaning `to

grasp', however, seems to be the most fitting here, `the darkness did

not grasp it'. Physical darkness is dispersed immediately the light

shines, but spiritual and mental darkness is more like a dense fog, that

remains obscure and dark even though the light of the sun be actually

shining. That this is the writer's meaning seems clear from verse 11,

`He came unto His own, and His own received (paralambano) Him

The sudden transition to the ministry of John the Baptist in verse 6

shows that John is not concerned with the question of the physical

realm of life and light, but is using the analogy of creation to enforce