John 1:17
New International Version
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

New Living Translation
For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.

English Standard Version
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Berean Standard Bible
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Berean Literal Bible
For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

King James Bible
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

New King James Version
For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

New American Standard Bible
For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

NASB 1995
For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

NASB 1977
For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

Legacy Standard Bible
For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Amplified Bible
For the Law was given through Moses, but grace [the unearned, undeserved favor of God] and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Christian Standard Bible
for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
for the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

American Standard Version
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
For The Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Yeshua The Messiah.

Contemporary English Version
The Law was given by Moses, but Jesus Christ brought us undeserved kindness and truth.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For the law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

English Revised Version
For the law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
The Teachings were given through Moses, but kindness and truth came into existence through Jesus Christ.

Good News Translation
God gave the Law through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

International Standard Version
because while the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus the Messiah.

Literal Standard Version
for the Law was given through Moses, the grace and the truth came through Jesus Christ.

Majority Standard Bible
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

New American Bible
because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

NET Bible
For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ.

New Revised Standard Version
The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

New Heart English Bible
For the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Webster's Bible Translation
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

Weymouth New Testament
For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

World English Bible
For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

Young's Literal Translation
for the law through Moses was given, the grace and the truth through Jesus Christ did come;

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Word Became Flesh
16From His fullness we have all received grace upon grace. 17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.…

Cross References
John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 7:19
Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps it. Why are you trying to kill Me?"

John 8:32
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

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

John 18:37
"Then You are a king!" Pilate said. "You say that I am a king," Jesus answered. "For this reason I was born and have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice."

Romans 5:21
so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6:14
For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.


Treasury of Scripture

For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

the law.

John 5:45
Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.

John 9:29
We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.

Exodus 20:1-17
And God spake all these words, saying, …

grace.

John 8:32
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

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.

Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

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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














(17) The word "for" connects this verse by way of explanation with what has gone before. The Old Testament thought of grace and truth has been already present in John 1:14. The fulness of these divine attributes has been beheld in the glory of the Word. The revelation of them, that is, the removing of the veil which hides the knowable, has been made dependent on the use of the already known. But this is the essence of Christianity as distinct from Judaism; of a spiritual religion developed from within as distinct from a formal religion imposed from without; of a religion of principles, and therefore true for all time and for all men, as distinct from a religion of works, based, indeed, on an eternal truth (the oneness and the righteousness of God) but still specially designed for a chosen people and for a period of preparation. The law was given (from without) by the human agency of Moses. The true grace and truth came into being by means of Jesus Christ. Therefore it is that we receive grace for grace, there being in Him an ever constant fulness of grace, and for the man who uses the grace thus given an ever constant realisation of deeper truth. Note that here, when the divinity and humanity have both been dwelt upon, and in contrast to the historic Moses, the name Jesus Christ first appears. Is there, too, in this union of the human and divine names a reference to the union in Him of the faculty to receive and the truth to fulfil? St. Luke speaks of Him as "increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favour (grace) with God and man" (Luke 2:52; see Note there).

Verse 17. - The χάριν ἀντὶ χάριτος is sustained by calling attention to the contrast between the two methods of Divine communication. Because the Law was given through Moses; "Law," which in Paul's writings had been even looked at by itself as an "antithesis to grace" (Romans 4:15; Romans 6:14; Romans 7:3; Romans 10:4; Galatians 3:10; Galatians 4:4). The Law principle of approach to God fails through the weakness of the flesh. The will is too far enslaved for it to yield spontaneously to the majesty of the Lawgiver, or to feel the attractions of obedience. The Law condemns, - it is incapable of justifying the ungodly: the Law terrifies, - it never reconciles. The Law even provokes to sin and excites the passions which it punishes. Law was given through Moses, pointing to the historic fact of the pomp and splendour of its first delivery, associated therefore with the greatest human name in all past history. Law was a "gift," a Divine bestowment of entirely unspeakable value to those who were ignorant of the mind and will of God. Even the ministration of death was glorious. The knowledge of an ideal perfection is a great advance, even though no power should accompany the ideal to draw the soul towards it. To know what is right, even without help to do it, save in the form of sanction, or penalty appealing to the lower nature, is better and nobler than to sin in utter ignorance. The Law was given "through" the mind, voice, conscience, and will of Moses. And alongside of him may be supposed to be ranged all the mighty sages and legislators of the human race - all who have thus been the mouthpiece of the Divine idea, all who have impressed the "ought" and "ought not," the "shall" and "shall not," upon mankind. Moses is not the author of the Law, the "giving" of the Law was not by Moses, but through his instrumentality. Grace and truth, however, came - became, passed into activity in human nature - through Jesus Christ. For "grace and truth" (see notes, ver. 14), the highest manifestation and self-communication of Divine love and Divine thought, came into human experience through Jesus Christ. A vast and wonderful contrast is here made between all earlier or other dispensations and that of which the apostle proceeds to speak. Divine favour and help, the life of God himself in the soul of man, awakening love in response to the Divine love; and Divine thought so made known as to bring all the higher faculties of man into direct contact with reality, are an enormous advance upon Lawgiving. The appropriate human response to Law is obedience; the appropriate human response to love is of the same nature with itself - nothing less than love; so the only adequate response to Divine truth is faith; to Divine thought may follow human thought. All this forth streaming of grace and truth originated in the person of Jesus Christ, and became possible through him. This great Name, this blending of the human and Divine, of saving grace and Messianic dignity, of ancient expectations and recent realization, is only twice more used in the Gospel (John 17:3 and John 20:31); but it pervades it throughout, and, though not actually said to be equivalent to the Word made flesh, yet no shadow of doubt is left that this was the apostle's meaning. Here the full significance of the prologue really bursts into view to one who reads it for the first time (cf. 1 John 1:1-3). Difficulty may be felt by some as to the actual Capacity of Jesus Christ to reveal the Divine thought, or the truth, and so the closing verse of the prologue vindicates the claim of the Saviour of the world to be the truth (cf. John 14:6).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
For
ὅτι (hoti)
Conjunction
Strong's 3754: Neuter of hostis as conjunction; demonstrative, that; causative, because.

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

Law
νόμος (nomos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3551: From a primary nemo; law, genitive case, specially, (including the volume); also of the Gospel), or figuratively.

was given
ἐδόθη (edothē)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Passive - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1325: To offer, give; I put, place. A prolonged form of a primary verb; to give.

through
διὰ (dia)
Preposition
Strong's 1223: A primary preposition denoting the channel of an act; through.

Moses;
Μωϋσέως (Mōuseōs)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 3475: Or Moses, or Mouses of Hebrew origin; Moseus, Moses, or Mouses, the Hebrew lawgiver.

grace
χάρις (charis)
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 5485: From chairo; graciousness, of manner or act.

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

truth
ἀλήθεια (alētheia)
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 225: From alethes; truth.

came
ἐγένετο (egeneto)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Middle - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1096: A prolongation and middle voice form of a primary verb; to cause to be, i.e. to become, used with great latitude.

through
διὰ (dia)
Preposition
Strong's 1223: A primary preposition denoting the channel of an act; through.

Jesus
Ἰησοῦ (Iēsou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 2424: Of Hebrew origin; Jesus, the name of our Lord and two other Israelites.

Christ.
Χριστοῦ (Christou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 5547: Anointed One; the Messiah, the Christ. From chrio; Anointed One, i.e. The Messiah, an epithet of Jesus.


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NT Gospels: John 1:17 For the law was given through Moses (Jhn Jo Jn)
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