John 1:4
New International Version
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

New Living Translation
The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.

English Standard Version
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Berean Standard Bible
In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.

Berean Literal Bible
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

King James Bible
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

New King James Version
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

New American Standard Bible
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind.

NASB 1995
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

NASB 1977
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Legacy Standard Bible
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

Amplified Bible
In Him was life [and the power to bestow life], and the life was the Light of men.

Christian Standard Bible
In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Life was in Him, and that life was the light of men.

American Standard Version
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
In him was The Life and The Life is The Light of men.

Contemporary English Version
received its life from him, and his life gave light to everyone.

Douay-Rheims Bible
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

English Revised Version
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
He was the source of life, and that life was the light for humanity.

Good News Translation
The Word was the source of life, and this life brought light to people.

International Standard Version
In him was life, and that life brought light to humanity.

Literal Standard Version
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men,

Majority Standard Bible
In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.

New American Bible
through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race;

NET Bible
In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.

New Revised Standard Version
in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

New Heart English Bible
In him was life, and the life was the light of humanity.

Webster's Bible Translation
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Weymouth New Testament
In Him was Life, and that Life was the Light of men.

World English Bible
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Young's Literal Translation
In him was life, and the life was the light of men,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Beginning
3Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made. 4In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.…

Cross References
John 3:19
And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.

John 5:26
For as the Father has life in Himself, so also He has granted the Son to have life in Himself.

John 8:12
Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life."

John 9:5
While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

John 11:25
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.

John 12:46
I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in Me should remain in darkness.

John 14:6
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.


Treasury of Scripture

In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

him.

John 5:21,26
For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will…

John 11:25
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

John 14:6
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

the life.

John 1:8,9
He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light…

John 8:12
Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

John 9:5
As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

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Existence Life
John 1
1. The divinity, humanity, office, and incarnation of Jesus Christ.
15. The testimony of John.
39. The calling of Simon and Andrew, Philip and Nathanael














(4) In him was life.--The creation, the calling into existence life in its varied forms, leads up to the source of this life. It is in the Word by original being, while of the highest creature made "in the image of God" we are told that God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7).

"Life" has here no limitation, and is to be understood in its widest sense; the life of the body, even of organisms which we commonly think of as inanimate, the life of the soul, the life of the spirit; life in the present, so far as there is communion with the eternal source of life; life in the future, when the idea shall be realised and the communion be complete.

Was.--This is in the Greek the same verb of existence that we have had in John 1:1-2, and is different from the word in John 1:3. Comp. Notes on John 1:6, and John 8:58. It places us, then, at the same starting point of time. The Word was ever life, and from the first existence of any creature became a source of life to others. But the "was" of the first clause of this verse should not be pressed, for we are not quite certain that the original text contained it. Two of our oldest MSS. have "is," which is supported by other evidence, and is not in itself an improbable reading. The meaning in this case would be "in the Word there ever is life." Creation is not merely a definite act. There is a constant development of the germs implanted in all the varied forms of being, and these find their sustaining power in the one central source of life. The thought will meet us again in John 1:17; but see especially the expression, "upholding all things by the word of his power" (Hebrews 1:3, Note). . . .

Verse 4. -

(a) The Life, and therefore inclusive of the fact that the Logos always has been and now is

(b) the Light of men. In him was life. "Life" in all its fulness of meaning - that grand addition to things which confers upon them all their significance for men. There is one impassable chasm which neither history, nor science, nor philosophy can span, viz. that between nothing and something. The evangelist has found the only possible method of facing it - by the conception of One who from eternity has within himself the potency of the transition. There is another impassable chasm in thought - that between non-living atoms and living energies and individualities. The assertion now is that life, ζωή, with all its manifestations and in all its regions; that the life of plant, tree, and animal, the life of man, of society, and of worlds as such; that the life of the body, soul, and spirit, the life transitory and the life eternal (ζωὴ αἰώνιος), was in the Logos, "who was God and in the beginning with God." Elsewhere in the Gospel Jesus said that "as the Father had life in himself, so he gave to the Son to have life in himself" (John 5:26); i.e. he communicated to the Son his own Divine self-dependence. The Gospel, however, lays the greatest emphasis on the life-giving powers of the Christ as incarnate Logos. The healing of the impotent man (ch. 5.), the raising of the dead Lazarus (ch. 11.), are chosen proofs of his life-giving energy. His claim (ch. 10.) to retake the life that he would voluntarily relinquish, and the august majesty with which, in his resurrection life (ch. 20, 21.), he proclaimed his absolute and final victory over death, constitute the reasons which induced the evangelist to lay down at the very outset that in the Logos was life. Life, in all its energies, past, present, and future, is an outcome, an effluence, of the Eternal Word. And the life was (and is) the light of men. Observe, it is not said here that physical life is a consequence or issue of the solar beam, or of the Word which in the beginning called light out of darkness. All the religious systems of the East and all modern sciences agree to extol and all but worship the light force, with all that seems so inseparably associated with it. The evangelist was reaching after something far more momentous even than that dogma of ancient faith and modern science. He is not speaking of "the light of the sun," but of "the light of men." Whatever this illumination may include, John does not refer it directly to the Logos, but to the life which is "in him." "The light of men" has been differently conceived by expositors. Calvin supposed that the "understanding" was intended - "that the life of men was not of an ordinary description, but was united to the light of understanding," and is that by which man is differentiated from animals. Hengstenberg regards it, in consequence of numerous associations of "light" with "salvation" in Holy Scripture, as equivalent to salvation; Luthardt with "holiness;" and many with the "eternal life," which would introduce great tautology. The context is our best guide. This light is said to be the veritable light which lighteth every man, and to be shining into darkness. Consequently, to make it the complex of all the gracious processes which beautify the renewed soul is to hurry on faster than the apostle, and to anticipate the evolution of his thought. "The light of men" seems to be the faculty or condition, the inward and outward means, by which men know God. "The light of men" is the conscience and reason, the eye of the soul by which the human race comes into contact with truth and right and beauty. The perfections of God answering to these functions of the soul are not, and were never, manifested in mere matter or force. Until we survey the operations of God in life we have no hint of either. The lower forms of life in plant or animal may reveal the wisdom and beneficence and 'beauty of the Logos, and so far some light shines upon man; but even these have never been adequately appreciated until the life of man himself comes into view, then the Divine perfections of righteousness and moral loveliness break upon the eye of the soul. In the life of conscience and reason a higher and more revealing light is made to shine upon man, upon his origin, upon his Divine image, upon his destiny. In the spiritual life which has been superinduced upon the life of the conscience and of the flesh, there is the highest light, the brightest and warmest and most potent rays of the whole spectrum of Divine illumination. "The life" which was in the Logos "was," has always been, is now, will ever be, "the light of men." The plural, "of men" (τῶν ἀνθρώπων), justifies this larger and sweeping generalization. The two "imperfects" (η΅ν) placing the process in the past do not compel us to limit the operation to the past or ideal sphere. They assert what was "in the beginning," and which can never cease to be; but they partly imply further consequences, which the actual condition of man has introduced.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
In
ἐν (en)
Preposition
Strong's 1722: In, on, among. A primary preposition denoting position, and instrumentality, i.e. A relation of rest; 'in, ' at, on, by, etc.

Him
αὐτῷ (autō)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Dative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.

was
ἦν (ēn)
Verb - Imperfect Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

life,
ζωὴ (zōē)
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 2222: Life, both of physical (present) and of spiritual (particularly future) existence. From zao; life.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

[that]
(hē)
Article - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

life
ζωὴ (zōē)
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 2222: Life, both of physical (present) and of spiritual (particularly future) existence. From zao; life.

was
ἦν (ēn)
Verb - Imperfect Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

the
τὸ (to)
Article - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

light
φῶς (phōs)
Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 5457: Light, a source of light, radiance. From an obsolete phao; luminousness.

of men.
ἀνθρώπων (anthrōpōn)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Plural
Strong's 444: A man, one of the human race. From aner and ops; man-faced, i.e. A human being.


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NT Gospels: John 1:4 In him was life and the life (Jhn Jo Jn)
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