Hello, this is Pastor Steven Anderson from Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona.
Today we're going to be going over John chapter 1 verse 9 from the Greek New Testament.
In English, this verse says, that was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh
into the world.
Let's go ahead and look at it in Greek here.
Intophos toalithinon ophotisi panda anthropon erhomenon eston cosmon.
Let's look at it word by word here.
Een of course means was, we know that from John 1-1, een tophos, was the light, toalithinon,
the true.
And if you remember back on the lesson on adjectives, we really learned all about aleithinon.
We learned about that word true and we drew a big chart about it and everything like that.
Now let me point out that there's a word in italics in the King James Version with this
verse because in English this verse starts out, that was the true light.
Here it just says, was the true light.
Well, that's not grammatically correct in English to just say, was the true light.
You have to say, that was the true light.
So because the word that has been added for translation purposes, the word that is in
italics in the King James.
So intophos toalithinon, was the light the true.
And remember, this is often how adjectives are stated in Greek.
Instead of, as we would say, you know, the true light, sometimes that is the word order
used in Greek.
But often in Greek you'll see this construction of the light, the true, etc.
Intophos toalithinon, ophotisi.
Now the word o here, notice it has that accent mark on it.
When the o does not have the accent mark on it, then it is the word the, right?
Because oe and to are the three main words for the, you know, nominative singular.
So when we see the accent mark on the o, then it means that or which.
So it's, that was the true light, which lighteth, ophotisi.
Now we already know that tophos is the light.
And in the genitive it becomes to photos.
So it's easy to see the similarity between the word photos or tophos and photosi.
So this is the verb lighteth.
The dictionary form is going to be of course, photoso in the first person singular form
as you always find the dictionary, photoso.
So it goes photoso, photosis, photosi.
So here it is, which lighteth, that was the true light.
Which lighteth, panda anthropon, okay, all men, panda anthropon, panda of course coming
from pasa, pana, meaning all, anthropon means man, erhomenon.
If you remember a few lessons ago we talked about this very common verb, erhome, which
means I come or I go, erhome.
And so this is obviously a form of that.
The other form we looked at was the simple past, ilthen, a few verses ago.
But erhomenon is a participle form of erhome.
This is a present participle.
So in English the present participle that we would often use is coming.
The past participle would be, you know, I have come.
That word come there would be the past participle.
The present participle could be coming.
So this would say like, that lighteth all men coming, iston kosmon, into the world.
But it sounds better the way the King James has it of course, that lighteth every man
that cometh into the world, that comes into the world.
Same meaning, still a present tense meaning there.
But this form right here, this participle form is used a lot more often in Greek than
it is in English.
Case in point, because in this verse the English does not use a participle, it just uses the
simple verb cometh.
But be very familiar with this form erhomenon, which means, you know, that comes or coming
into the world, iston kosmon.
And we talked about the word is a few verses ago when the Bible used it as for, when it
said the same came for a witness.
But at that time I told you that is usually means into, unto, toward, etc.
And it always takes an accusative object.
So here the word the is an accusative tone and the word world is also accusative, kosmon.
So the word kosmos means world, here it's an accusative so it becomes kosmon.
And an easy way to remember this is that a person who is very cosmopolitan is someone
who is worldly, okay, or worldly wise.
And so that's where the word cosmopolitan comes from, also the word cosmology.
So kosmos means world.
Intophos to alithinon, that, which is not in the Greek but we need it in English, that
was the light, the true, or that was the true light, which lighteth, o fotizi, panda
anthropon erikomenon, every man that cometh or coming, iston kosmon, into the world.
This is an important verse doctrinally because a lot of people believe that only a selected
few are chosen for salvation and that salvation is not available unto all men.
Even though the Bible says that Jesus Christ is the savior of all men, especially of those
that believe, therefore he is also the savior of those who do not believe.
Now we know that those who do not believe will not be saved, they will be damned.
Yet he is their savior, ready to save them, waiting to save them, but he said, you will
not come unto me that you might have life.
Salvation is offered freely unto all, the Bible says, whosoever will, let him take the
water of life freely.
And so the Bible is really clear that Jesus Christ gave himself a ransom for all to be
testified in due time.
He's the savior of all men, especially of those that believe.
He's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
The Bible tells us over and over again that salvation is available to all and to whosoever
will etc. etc.
And so this is a great verse because it says that was the true light which lighteth every
man that cometh into the world.
It lights every man that cometh into the world, just showing that salvation is available to
all, illumination is available to all.
And so this is a great verse to prove that point.
And the key word here would be panda, all.
Next lesson we're going to go over John chapter 1 verse 10.