Yesaya 50:10

50:10 Who among you fears the Lord?

Who obeys ¹  his servant?

Whoever walks in deep darkness, ² 

without light,

should trust in the name of the Lord

and rely on his God.

Yesaya 60:1-3

Zion’s Future Splendor

60:1 “Arise! Shine! For your light arrives!

The splendor ³  of the Lord shines on you!

60:2 For, look, darkness covers the earth

and deep darkness covers ⁴  the nations,

but the Lord shines on you;

his splendor ⁵  appears over you.

60:3 Nations come to your light,

kings to your bright light.

Yesaya 60:19

60:19 The sun will no longer supply light for you by day,

nor will the moon’s brightness shine on you;

the Lord will be your permanent source of light –

the splendor of your God will shine upon you. ⁶ 

Mikha 7:8-9

Jerusalem Will Be Vindicated

7:8 My enemies, ⁷  do not gloat ⁸  over me!

Though I have fallen, I will get up.

Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. ⁹ 

7:9 I must endure ¹⁰  the Lord’s anger,

for I have sinned against him.

But then ¹¹  he will defend my cause, ¹² 

and accomplish justice on my behalf.

He will lead me out into the light;

I will experience firsthand ¹³  his deliverance. ¹⁴ 

Matius 4:16

4:16 the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light,

and on those who sit in the region and shadow of death a light has dawned.” ¹⁵ 

Lukas 1:78-79

1:78 Because of ¹⁶  our God’s tender mercy ¹⁷ 

the dawn ¹⁸  will break ¹⁹  upon us from on high

1:79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, ²⁰ 

to guide our feet into the way ²¹  of peace.”

Lukas 2:32

2:32 a light, ²² 

for revelation to the Gentiles,

and for glory ²³  to your people Israel.”

Yohanes 8:12

Jesus as the Light of the World

8:12 Then Jesus spoke out again, ²⁴  “I am the light of the world. ²⁵  The one who follows me will never ²⁶  walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Yohanes 12:35

12:35 Jesus replied, ²⁷  “The light is with you for a little while longer. ²⁸  Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. ²⁹  The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.

Yohanes 12:46

12:46 I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in darkness.

Efesus 5:8

5:8 for you were at one time darkness, but now you are ³⁰  light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light –

Efesus 5:13-14

5:13 But all things being exposed by the light are made evident. 5:14 For everything made evident is light, and for this reason it says: ³¹ 

“Awake, ³²  O sleeper! ³³ 

Rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you!” ³⁴ 

Efesus 5:1

Live in Love

5:1 Therefore, be ³⁵  imitators of God as dearly loved children

Pengkhotbah 2:9

2:9 So ³⁶  I was far wealthier ³⁷  than all my predecessors in Jerusalem,

yet I maintained my objectivity: ³⁸ 

Pengkhotbah 2:1

Futility of Self-Indulgent Pleasure

I thought to myself, ³⁹ 

2:1 “Come now, ⁴⁰  I will try ⁴¹  self-indulgent pleasure ⁴²  to see ⁴³  if it is worthwhile.” ⁴⁴ 

But I found ⁴⁵  that it also is futile. ⁴⁶ 

Yohanes 1:5-7

1:5 And the light shines on ⁴⁷  in the darkness, ⁴⁸  but ⁴⁹  the darkness has not mastered it. ⁵⁰ 

1:6 A man came, sent from God, whose name was John. ⁵¹  1:7 He came as a witness ⁵²  to testify ⁵³  about the light, so that everyone ⁵⁴  might believe through him.

[50:10]  ¹ tn Heb “[who] listens to the voice of his servant?” The interrogative is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[50:10]  ² tn The plural indicates degree. Darkness may refer to exile and/or moral evil.

[60:1]  ³ tn Or “glory” (so most English versions).

[60:2]  ⁴ tn The verb “covers” is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[60:2]  ⁵ tn Or “glory” (so most English versions); TEV “the brightness of his presence.”

[60:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “and your God for your splendor.”

[7:8]  ⁷ tn The singular form is understood as collective.

[7:8]  ⁸ tn Or “rejoice” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NCV “don’t laugh at me.”

[7:8]  ⁹ sn Darkness represents judgment; light (also in v. 9) symbolizes deliverance. The Lord is the source of the latter.

[7:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “lift, bear.”

[7:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “until.”

[7:9]  ¹² tn Or “plead my case” (NASB and NIV both similar); NRSV “until he takes my side.”

[7:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “see.”

[7:9]  ¹⁴ tn Or “justice, vindication.”

[4:16]  ¹⁵ sn A quotation from Isa 9:1.

[1:78]  ¹⁶ tn For reasons of style, a new sentence has been started in the translation at this point. God’s mercy is ultimately seen in the deliverance John points to, so v. 78a is placed with the reference to Jesus as the light of dawning day.

[1:78]  ¹⁷ sn God’s loyal love (steadfast love) is again the topic, reflected in the phrase tender mercy; see Luke 1:72.

[1:78]  ¹⁸ sn The Greek term translated dawn (ἀνατολή, anatolh) can be a reference to the morning star or to the sun. The Messiah is pictured as a saving light that shows the way. The Greek term was also used to translate the Hebrew word for “branch” or “sprout,” so some see a double entendre here with messianic overtones (see Isa 11:1-10; Jer 23:5; 33:15; Zech 3:8; 6:12).

[1:78]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “shall visit us.”

[1:79]  ²⁰ sn On the phrases who sit in darkness…and…death see Isa 9:1-2; 42:7; 49:9-10.

[1:79]  ²¹ tn Or “the path.”

[2:32]  ²² tn The syntax of this verse is disputed. Most read “light” and “glory” in parallelism, so Jesus is a light for revelation to the Gentiles and is glory to the people for Israel. Others see “light” (1:78-79) as a summary, while “revelation” and “glory” are parallel, so Jesus is light for all, but is revelation for the Gentiles and glory for Israel. Both readings make good sense and either could be correct, but Luke 1:78-79 and Acts 26:22-23 slightly favor this second option.

[2:32]  ²³ sn In other words, Jesus is a special cause for praise and honor (“glory”) for the nation.

[8:12]  ²⁴ tn Grk “Then again Jesus spoke to them saying.”

[8:12]  ²⁵ sn The theory proposed by F. J. A. Hort (The New Testament in the Original Greek, vol. 2, Introduction; Appendix, 87-88), that the backdrop of 8:12 is the lighting of the candelabra in the court of women, may offer a plausible setting to the proclamation by Jesus that he is the light of the world. The last time that Jesus spoke in the narrative (assuming 7:53-8:11 is not part of the original text, as the textual evidence suggests) is in 7:38, where he was speaking to a crowd of pilgrims in the temple area. This is where he is found in the present verse, and he may be addressing the crowd again. Jesus’ remark has to be seen in view of both the prologue (John 1:4, 5) and the end of the discourse with Nicodemus (John 3:19-21). The coming of Jesus into the world provokes judgment: A choosing up of sides becomes necessary. The one who comes to the light, that is, who follows Jesus, will not walk in the darkness. The one who refuses to come, will walk in the darkness. In this contrast, there are only two alternatives. So it is with a person’s decision about Jesus. Furthermore, this serves as in implicit indictment of Jesus’ opponents, who still walk in the darkness, because they refuse to come to him. This sets up the contrast in chap. 9 between the man born blind, who receives both physical and spiritual sight, and the Pharisees (John 9:13, 15, 16) who have physical sight but remain in spiritual darkness.

[8:12]  ²⁶ tn The double negative οὐ μή (ou mh) is emphatic in 1st century Hellenistic Greek.

[12:35]  ²⁷ tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them.”

[12:35]  ²⁸ tn Grk “Yet a little while the light is with you.”

[12:35]  ²⁹ sn The warning Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you operates on at least two different levels: (1) To the Jewish people in Jerusalem to whom Jesus spoke, the warning was a reminder that there was only a little time left for them to accept him as their Messiah. (2) To those later individuals to whom the Fourth Gospel was written, and to every person since, the words of Jesus are also a warning: There is a finite, limited time in which each individual has opportunity to respond to the Light of the world (i.e., Jesus); after that comes darkness. One’s response to the Light decisively determines one’s judgment for eternity.

[5:8]  ³⁰ tn The verb “you are” is implied in the Greek text, but is supplied in the English translation to make it clear.

[5:14]  ³¹ sn The following passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[5:14]  ³² tn Grk “Rise up.”

[5:14]  ³³ tn The articular nominative participle ὁ καθεύδων (Jo kaqeudwn) is probably functioning as a nominative for vocative. Thus, it has been translated as “O sleeper.”

[5:14]  ³⁴ sn A composite quotation, possibly from Isa 26:19, 51:17, 52:1, and 60:1.

[5:1]  ³⁵ tn Or “become.”

[2:9]  ³⁶ tn The vav prefixed to וְגָדַלְתִּי (vÿgadalti, vav + Qal perfect first common singular from גָּדַל, gadal, “to be great; to increase”) functions in a final summarizing sense, that is, it introduces the concluding summary of 2:4-9.

[2:9]  ³⁷ tn Heb “I became great and I surpassed” (וְהוֹסַפְתִּי וְגָדַלְתִּי, vÿgadalti vÿhosafti). This is a verbal hendiadys in which the second verb functions adverbially, modifying the first: “I became far greater.” Most translations miss the hendiadys and render the line in a woodenly literal sense (KJV, ASV, RSV, NEB, NRSV, NAB, NASB, MLB, Moffatt), while only a few recognize the presence of hendiadys here: “I became greater by far” (NIV) and “I gained more” (NJPS).

[2:9]  ³⁸ tn Heb “yet my wisdom stood for me,” meaning he retained his wise perspective despite his great wealth.

[2:1]  ³⁹ tn Heb “I said, I, in my heart” (אָמַרְתִּי אֲנִי בְּלִבִּי, ’amarti ’ani bÿlibbi). The term “heart” (לֵב, lev) is a synecdoche of part (“heart”) for the whole (the whole person), and thus means “I said to myself” (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 648).

[2:1]  ⁴⁰ tn The Hebrew verb לְכָה (lÿkhah, “Come!”) is a weakened imperative, used merely as an introductory word, e.g., Gen 19:32; 31:44; Judg 19:11; 1 Sam 9:9-10; 11:14; 2 Kgs 3:7; Ps 66:5; Song 7:12; Isa 1:18; 2:3; Mic 4:2 (HALOT 246 s.v. הָלַךְ 2; BDB 234 s.v. הָלַךְ I.5.f.2). Whenever לְכָה introduces an exhortation, it functions as an invitation to the audience to adopt a course of action that will be beneficial to the addressee or mutually beneficial to both the speaker and the addressee. Here, Qoheleth personifies his “heart” (לִבִּי, libbi) and addresses himself. The examination of self-indulgent pleasure is designed to be beneficial to Qoheleth.

[2:1]  ⁴¹ tn Or “test.” The cohortative אֲנַסְּכָה (’anassÿkhah) emphasizes the resolve of the speaker. The term נָסַה (nasah, “to test”) means “to conduct a test,” that is, to conduct an experiment (Judg 6:39; Eccl 2:1; 7:23; Dan 1:12, 14; see HALOT 702 s.v. נסה 3; BDB 650 s.v. נָסָה 1). The verb נָסַה is often used as a synonym with בָּחַן (bakhan, “to examine”; BDB 103 s.v. בָּחַן and 650 s.v. נָסָה 1) and לָדַעַת (lada’at, “to ascertain”; Deut 8:2).

[2:1]  ⁴² tn Heb “I will test you with pleasure.” The term שִׂמְחַה (simkhah, “pleasure”) has a two-fold range of meanings: (1) it can refer to the legitimate enjoyment of life that Qoheleth affirms is good (5:17; 8:15; 9:7; 11:8, 9) and that God gives to those who please him (2:26; 5:19); or (2) it can refer to foolish pleasure, self-indulgent, frivolous merrymaking (2:1, 2; 7:4). The parallelism in 2:2 between שִׂמְחַה and שְׂחוֹק (sÿkhoq, “laughter, frivolous merrymaking”), which always appears in the context of banqueting, drinking, and merrymaking, suggests that the pejorative sense is in view in this context.

[2:1]  sn The statement I will try self-indulgent pleasure is a figurative expression known as metonymy of association. As 2:1-3 makes clear, it is not so much Qoheleth who is put to the test with pleasure, but rather that pleasure is put to the test by Qoheleth.

[2:1]  ⁴³ tn Heb “See what is good!” The volitive sequence of the cohortative (אֲנַסְּכָה, ’anassÿkhah, “I will test you”) followed by vav + imperative (וּרְאֵה, urÿ’eh, “and see!”) denotes purpose/result: “I will test you…in order to see….” The verb רָאָה (ra’ah, “to see”) has a broad range of meanings (e.g., in the Qal stem 16 categories are listed in HALOT 1157–1160 s.v.). In this context it means “to discover; to perceive; to discern; to understand” (HALOT 1159 s.v. ראה 13; BDB 907 s.v. רָאָה 5).

[2:1]  ⁴⁴ sn The phrase “to see what is good” (רָאָה, ra’ah, “to see” + טוֹב, tov, “good”) is repeated twice in 2:1-3. This is the key phrase in this section of Ecclesiastes. Qoheleth sought to discover (רָאָה) whether merry-making offered any value (טוֹב) to mankind.

[2:1]  ⁴⁵ tn The particle וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh, literally “Behold!”) occurs after verbs of perception to introduce what was seen, understood or discovered (HALOT 252 s.v. הִנֵּה 8). It is used to make the narrative graphic and vivid, enabling the reader to enter into the surprise of the speaker (BDB 244 s.v. הִנֵּה c). This is an example of the heterosis of the deictic particle (“Behold!”) for a verb of perception (“I found”). See E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 510-34.

[2:1]  ⁴⁶ tn This use of הֶבֶל (hevel) denotes “futile, worthless, fruitless, pointless” (HALOT 237 s.v. I הֶבֶל 2; BDB 210–11 s.v. I הֶבֶל 2). It is a synonym to מְהוֹלָל (mÿholal, “folly”) in 2:2a and an antonym to טוֹב (tov, “worthwhile, beneficial”) in 2:1b and 2:3c.

[1:5]  ⁴⁷ tn To this point the author has used past tenses (imperfects, aorists); now he switches to a present. The light continually shines (thus the translation, “shines on”). Even as the author writes, it is shining. The present here most likely has gnomic force (though it is possible to take it as a historical present); it expresses the timeless truth that the light of the world (cf. 8:12, 9:5, 12:46) never ceases to shine.

[1:5]  sn The light shines on. The question of whether John has in mind here the preincarnate Christ or the incarnate Christ is probably too specific. The incarnation is not really introduced until v. 9, but here the point is more general: It is of the very nature of light, that it shines.

[1:5]  ⁴⁸ sn The author now introduces what will become a major theme of John’s Gospel: the opposition of light and darkness. The antithesis is a natural one, widespread in antiquity. Gen 1 gives considerable emphasis to it in the account of the creation, and so do the writings of Qumran. It is the major theme of one of the most important extra-biblical documents found at Qumran, the so-called War Scroll, properly titled The War of the Sons of Light with the Sons of Darkness. Connections between John and Qumran are still an area of scholarly debate and a consensus has not yet emerged. See T. A. Hoffman, “1 John and the Qumran Scrolls,” BTB 8 (1978): 117-25.

[1:5]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “and,” but the context clearly indicates a contrast, so this has been translated as an adversative use of καί (kai).

[1:5]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “comprehended it,” or “overcome it.” The verb κατέλαβεν (katelaben) is not easy to translate. “To seize” or “to grasp” is possible, but this also permits “to grasp with the mind” in the sense of “to comprehend” (esp. in the middle voice). This is probably another Johannine double meaning – one does not usually think of darkness as trying to “understand” light. For it to mean this, “darkness” must be understood as meaning “certain people,” or perhaps “humanity” at large, darkened in understanding. But in John’s usage, darkness is not normally used of people or a group of people. Rather it usually signifies the evil environment or ‘sphere’ in which people find themselves: “They loved darkness rather than light” (John 3:19). Those who follow Jesus do not walk in darkness (8:12). They are to walk while they have light, lest the darkness “overtake/overcome” them (12:35, same verb as here). For John, with his set of symbols and imagery, darkness is not something which seeks to “understand (comprehend)” the light, but represents the forces of evil which seek to “overcome (conquer)” it. The English verb “to master” may be used in both sorts of contexts, as “he mastered his lesson” and “he mastered his opponent.”

[1:6]  ⁵¹ sn John refers to John the Baptist.

[1:7]  ⁵² tn Grk “came for a testimony.”

[1:7]  sn Witness is also one of the major themes of John’s Gospel. The Greek verb μαρτυρέω (marturew) occurs 33 times (compare to once in Matthew, once in Luke, 0 in Mark) and the noun μαρτυρία (marturia) 14 times (0 in Matthew, once in Luke, 3 times in Mark).

[1:7]  ⁵³ tn Or “to bear witness.”

[1:7]  ⁵⁴ tn Grk “all.”