In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
John 1:4-5 NRSV
The opening of John’s gospel is perhaps one of the most memorable passages of Scripture. It is also a beautiful piece of theology and hymnody. Around this time of year, this passage pops up in the lectionary to remind us of new beginnings. The beginning of the new year and the beginning of Christ’s story in the church calendar.
Over the next few blog posts, I would like to examine some of my personal favorite parts of this passage, and I’d like to start with Verses 4-5.
The first few verses draw a connection between The Word, God, and The Light, which are different identites manifest in the person of Jesus Christ.
A shining light is the ideal metaphor for the virtue of hope. Like a lighthouse for a seafaring vessel, a light in the darkness is meant to guide, encourage, and inspire. It is through this connection of hope and light that Christians began to celebrate Christmas by putting candles in the windows, a tradition which has become lost in the mania of Christmas light decor.
What is intriguing about this verse is not that the light of Christ pointed to hope and new life, but the darkness reacted so curiously to the light. In Verse 5 is says “the darkness did not overcome it.” Other translations, such as the King James Version have the word “understood” rather than “overcome.” One might crock this discrepancy up to the antique language of the KJV, but still other versions have a different translation. The Common English Bible and New Living Translation have the word “extinguish.”
These three different translations have very different meanings in English. The NRSV points to a struggle for power. The KJV personifies the darkness and seems to play off the pseudonym “The Word” giving us something like ‘the darkness didn’t understand the Light/Word.’ Finally, the more colloquial translations of CEB and NLT focus on the light-dark metaphor making our Light/Word something like a flame burning in the darkness.
The thing is, all of these translations are somewhat correct.
The word in Greek is katelaben/κατέλαβεν, which means something like ‘to take hold of.’ The two words that make up the Greek dictionary form are kata/κατα which means ‘with’ and λαμβάνω /lambanó which means ‘to take/grasp.’
OK. Now that may all have been a bit confusing, so let me tell you why I love this word so much. It is because the translations “understood” and “overcome” and “extinguish” are all different translation but valid translations nonetheless.
You see, John’s gospel is trying to mesh together several over lapping metaphors, and it is in the word katelaben/κατέλαβε inwhichall three metaphors come crashing together!
These metaphors describe Jesus as
- “The God” which could not be overcome
- “The Word” which could not be understood
- The Light” which could not be extinguished
None of the other three translations preserve the ambiguity of the original meaning because the translator has collapsed the original three names for Jesus into one meaning. I believe the ambiguity of the original text was intentional because katelaben fits with all three of Jesus’ personas: God, Word, Light.
The complexity of John’s Gospel has wonderful hidden gems. It is a beautiful, multifaceted, presentation of the hope and triumph of Jesus Christ. The Grace he offers cannot be overcome, understood, or extinguished by the darkness.
Kena Hawkins Newkirk 