Teks -- John 12:35 (NET)

12:35 Jesus replied, “The light is with you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.

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Robertson: Joh 12:35 - Yet a little while is the light among you

Yet a little while is the light among you ( eti mikron chronon to phōs en humin estin ).

Chronon is the accusative of extent of time. Jesus does not argue the point of theology with the crowd who would not understand. He turns to the metaphor used before when he claimed to be the light of the world (Joh 8:12) and urges that they take advantage of their privilege "while ye have the light"(hōs to phōs echete ).

Robertson: Joh 12:35 - That darkness overtake you not

That darkness overtake you not ( hina mē skotia humas katalabēi ).

Purpose (negative) with hina mē and second aorist active subjunctive of katalambanō . See this verb in Joh 1:5. In 1Th 5:4 this verb occurs with hēmera (day) overtaking one like a thief.

Robertson: Joh 12:35 - Knoweth not whither he goeth

Knoweth not whither he goeth ( ouk oiden pou hupagei ).

See Joh 11:10 for this idea and the same language in 1Jo 2:11. The ancients did not have our electric street lights. The dark streets were a terror to travellers.

Vincent: Joh 12:35 - With you

With you ( μεθ ' ὑμῶν )

The best texts read πάντα , among you .

Vincent: Joh 12:35 - While ye have

While ye have ( ἕως )

The best texts read ὡς , as: walk in conformity with the fact that you have the Light among you.

Vincent: Joh 12:35 - Lest darkness come upon you

Lest darkness come upon you ( ἵνα μὴ σξοτία ὑμᾶς καταλάβῃ )

Rev., better, that darkness overtake you not . On overtake see on taketh , Mar 9:18; and see on perceived , Act 4:13.

Wesley: Joh 12:35 - Then Jesus said to them

Not answering them directly, but exhorting them to improve what they had heard already.

Wesley: Joh 12:35 - The light

I and my doctrine.

JFB: Joh 12:35-36 - Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, &c.

Instead of answering their question, He warns them, with mingled majesty and tenderness, against trifling with their last brief opportunity, and entreats them to let in the Light while they have it in the midst of them, that they themselves might be "light in the Lord." In this case, all the clouds which hung around His Person and Mission would speedily be dispelled, while if they continued to hate the light, bootless were all His answers to their merely speculative or captious questions. (See on Luk 13:23).

Clarke: Joh 12:35 - Yet a little while is the light with you

Yet a little while is the light with you - In answer to their objection, our Lord compares himself to a light, which was about to disappear for a short time, and afterwards to shine forth with more abundant lustre; but not to their comfort, if they continued to reject its present beamings. He exhorts them to follow this light while it was among them. The Christ shall abide for ever, it is true; but he will not always be visible. When he shall depart from you, ye shall be left in the thickest darkness; in impenitence and hardness of heart. Then shall ye wish to see one of the days of the Son of man, and shall not see it, Luk 17:22. Then shall ye seek me, but shall not find me, Joh 7:34. For the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to the Gentiles, Mat 21:43. If ye believe not in me now, ye shall then wish ye had done it, when wishing shall be for ever fruitless

Instead of μεθ ’ ὑμων, with you, εν ὑμιν, among you, is the reading of BDL, seventeen others; Coptic, Gothic, Slavonic, Vulgate, Itala; Cyril, Nonnus, and Victorinus. Griesbach has received it into the text. The meaning of both is nearly the same

Clarke: Joh 12:35 - Lest darkness come upon you

Lest darkness come upon you - Ye have a good part of your journey yet to go: ye cannot travel safely but in the daylight - that light is almost gone - run, that the darkness overtake you not, or in it ye shall stumble, fall, and perish

Reader, is thy journey near an end? There may be but a very little time remaining to thee. O, run, fly to Christ, lest the darkness of death overtake thee, before thy soul have found redemption in his blood!

Calvin: Joh 12:35 - Yet a little while the light is with you // Walk while you have the light lest darkness overtake you // And he who walketh in darkness knoweth not where he goeth

35.Yet a little while the light is with you Though in this reply the Lord gently admonishes them, yet at the same time he reproves them sharply; for he charges them with shutting their eyes against the light, and at the same time threatens that ere long the light will be taken away from them. When he says that yet a little while there is some remaining light, he confirms what he had already said about his death; for though by the light he does not mean his bodily presence, but his Gospel, yet he alludes to his departure; as if he had said, When I shall have gone away, I will not cease to be the light, and thus my glory will not be diminished through your darkness. When he says that the light is with them, he indirectly reproves them for closing their eyes and shutting out the light; and thus he declares that they do not deserve an answer to their objection, because of their own accord they seek an opportunity of falling into error.

Walk while you have the light lest darkness overtake you This statement, that the light does not continue to shine on them but for a little while, Applies equally to all unbelievers; for Scripture promises that to the children of God the Sun of righteousness (Mal 4:2) will rise, and will never go down.

The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor the moon by night, but the Lord shall be your everlasting light,
(Isa 60:19.)

But all ought to walk cautiously, because contempt of the light is followed by darkness. This, too, is the reason why night so thick and dark sat down on the world for many centuries. It was because there were few who deigned to walk in the brightness of heavenly wisdom; for Christ enlightens us by his Gospel, in order that we may follow the way of salvation, which he points out to us. For this reason, they who do not avail themselves of the grace of God extinguish, as far as lies in their power, the light which is offered to them.

And he who walketh in darkness knoweth not where he goeth To strike them with still deeper alarm, he reminds them how wretched is the condition of those who, being destitute of light, do nothing but wander throughout the whole course of, their life. For they cannot move a step without the risk of falling or even of destruction. But now Christ declares that we are in darkness, unless he shine upon us. Hence infer what is the value of the sagacity of the human mind, when it is the sole guide and instructor, apart from Christ.

TSK: Joh 12:35 - Yet // Walk // lest // for

Yet : Joh 7:33, Joh 9:4, Joh 16:16; Heb 3:7, Heb 3:8

Walk : Joh 12:36, Joh 12:46, Joh 1:5-9, Joh 8:12, Joh 9:5; Isa 2:5, Isa 42:6, Isa 42:7; Rom 13:12-14; Eph 5:8, Eph 5:14, Eph 5:15; 1Th 5:5-8; 1Jo 1:6, 1Jo 1:7

lest : Joh 12:39, Joh 12:40; Psa 69:22-28; Jer 13:16, Jer 13:17; Rom 11:7-10; 2Co 3:14

for : Joh 11:10; Pro 4:19; 1Jo 2:8-11

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Poole: Joh 12:35

Our Saviour thinketh not fit further to open himself as to that point concerning the Messiah, and his Divine nature; into a direct assertion of which he must have entered, had he given a direct answer to their questions; otherwise what they had objected might easily have been answered by our Saviour, by distinguishing between the two natures in his own person: according to his Divine nature he was not to die, though he died according to his human nature; and after his suffering and resurrection, his whole person, in which both the Divine and human nature were united, were to endure for ever: but he thinks not fit to discourse this point, but returns to what John had told them, Joh 1:9 , and what he himself had said, Joh 9:5 , that he was the light of the world, though possibly by light he here understandeth those beams of gospel doctrine which issued out from him as the fountain of light. Yet a little while, I, who am the great Light, and the true Light of the world, am with you: or, Yet a little while, the gospel, which is light, and directs you in the way to heaven, is with you, for within a few years (under forty) after this, their city was destroyed, and their nation ruined; and before that time the apostles were turned away from the generality of that nation to the Gentiles, Act 13:46 19:9 . He in the next verse expounds himself as to what he meant by walking, viz. believing: Make use of the light, both to guide your understandings and judgments, and also to direct your feet: for look on men in the world, while they have the guidance of the light of the sun, they know how to order their steps, and to direct their feet; but if once it be dark, they know not how to direct their feet in their way, but err, and stumble, and fall. So it will be with you, when I shall be gone, who am the great Light of the world while I am in the world (as he spake Joh 9:5 ); and not only I gone, but the gospel, which is that light which I shall leave behind me, be gone, by my apostles turning to the Gentiles, through your perverse refusal of the salvation of it, as Act 13:46 19:9 : when you shall be utterly ruined, (as it will be at the destruction of your city), then you will walk in darkness, having no means of salvation left you.

Haydock: Joh 12:35 - Yet a little while

Yet a little while, [2] that is, for a very few days, I, who am the light of the world, am with you. (Witham) ---

How much do the Jews now do, and yet they know not what they do: but like men that are walking in the dark, they think they are in the right way, when alas! they are quite the contrary. (St. John Chrysostom, hom. lxvi. in Joan.)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Adhuc modicum lumen in vobis est, Greek: eti mikron chronon, to phos meth umon esti. They mistake, who take modicum for an adjective, that agrees with lumen.

Gill: Joh 12:35 - Then Jesus said unto them // yet a little while is the light with you // walk while ye have the light // lest darkness come upon you // For he that walketh in darkness, knoweth not whither he goeth

Then Jesus said unto them,.... Not directly answering to their questions, but suggests to them their ignorance and stupidity, amidst so much light, that was about them:

yet a little while is the light with you: meaning either himself, the light of the world, Joh 8:12, who was to be but a very little while longer with them, a few days more, and he was to go away from them by death, and be seen and heard no more by them: or the Gospel, which, though that was to continue somewhat longer, it being, after Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension, to be preached to the Jews, both in Judea, and in other parts of the world; yet that would be but for a little while, as the event has shown; for the Jews rejecting the Gospel, and putting it away from them, the apostles, as they were ordered, turned to the Gentiles, Act 13:46;

walk while ye have the light: that is, as it is explained in Joh 12:36, "believe ye in the light": which the Persic version adds here, and leaves out there: and the sense is, believe in the Messiah, and in his Gospel; embrace him and that, and walk on in him, and worthy of him and of his Gospel, as children of the light:

lest darkness come upon you; suddenly, at an unawares; either a greater degree of the darkness of ignorance and unbelief; even a judicial blindness and stupidity, which did seize on that people, and continues upon them to this day; or the darkness of afflictions, calamities, and distress, and which have come upon them to the uttermost, to the destruction of their temple, city, and nation; or else a worse darkness, even blackness of darkness, outer darkness in hell, where are weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

For he that walketh in darkness, knoweth not whither he goeth; he cannot see his way, nor the stumbling blocks that lie in it, and the dangers he is exposed unto; nor does he know where it leads, and what is the end of it; and just so it is with a man in a state of unregeneracy, and more especially under judicial blindness: he is not aware of the pits and snares that lie in his way, or of the dark mountains on which he stumbles; and though destruction and misery are in his ways, he knows not that he is going thereunto.