And the light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness did not comprehend it. - John 1.5
There are not two more opposite extremes than light and
darkness. They are totally incompatible. The reason is that light always wins
out. Even the slightest bit of light dispels darkness. Darkness is not total
where there is any light.
In the beginning was the Word and with Word was with God. He
was in the beginning with God. In the Word was life, and the life was the Light
of men. The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not comprehend
it.
The first thing that happened at the beginning was speaking
of the words ‘Let there be light.’ Long before the incarnation the light of
Jesus was shining in the world. That light kept shining.
But the darkness did not comprehend the light. If we limit
ourselves to the usual modern use of the word ‘comprehend’ we miss something here. We
think of the word as a synonym for ‘understand.’ This means we might paraphrase
this as ‘the darkness did not understand the light.’
There are two schools of thought about this verse and I don’t
really know which way I go with it. One group of scholars thinks that the
better translation is ‘the darkness did not seize the light, like an enemy is
seized and overcome.’ That makes sense and it may very well be the right
explanation.
I lean the other way. I tend to think that the concept of
not understanding may be closer to the truth. The other idea of the word ‘comprehend’
is that though the Light was always there the darkness could not seize it
completely. It did not really truly hold on to it. The result of that is that
more revelation was required. That would lead up to ‘the Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us.’
Praise God that He sent the full Light to the world so that
the world could indeed grasp the fullness of the truth.
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