(35) Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you.--It is better, as we have often seen, to read Therefore for "Then." The word connects what follows closely with what has gone before. It was because of their question that Jesus said this. And yet it is not said that "He answered them," because what He said was not a direct answer. They are asking questions in which we may trace the spirit, if not the very words, of the formal, literal objectors who had, with like technicalities, stifled the truth whenever it was springing up in their minds. Such questions cannot be really answered, because they are not really questions. And now the day has gone, and the night is at hand. The old thought comes back to Him (John 9:4; John 11:9). The last rays of light are shining. It is but a little while, and He warns them with all the solemnity of this thought.
Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.--The better reading is, Walk according as ye have the light--i.e., "Walk as men who are conscious that the light is among them, use your opportunities; do not ask questions to raise objections, but ask them in order that you may know the truth." The man who thus used the light would by no means walk in darkness, but would have the light of life (John 8:12). For him that neglected to use the means and faculty he had, both would cease to exist. (Comp. Note on Romans 1:21.)
The words "come upon," or "overtake," is used of some sudden seizure. There are two parallels in Biblical Greek, "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that the day should overtake you as a thief" (1 Thessalonians 5:4), and "Be sure your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:23).
Knoweth not whither he goeth.--The last word means "goeth away," "departeth." The frequent use of the word by St. John to express departure to the other world suggests that meaning here. He was going away. They ask, "Who is this Son of man who is lifted up," "who goes away?" He warns them lest darkness seize them, and they go away into darkness. In the next four chapters the same word is used twelve times of Christ's departure. (Comp. e.g.John 13:3; John 13:33; John 13:36.)
Verse 35. - Christ's reply is introduced with a simple εϊπεν. Jesus therefore said to them, not in answer to their question, but by taking up a title of dignity that he had claimed before, he evidently assumes to be the Light of the world (John 8:12), and now the time is almost over when they could see its luster or discern other things, either themselves, or their sins, or this world, or the next world, by that Light. The time for further instruction, or remonstrance, or declarations is at an end. The evangelist sums up, in vers. 44-50, the general substance of our Lord's teaching with reference to himself and his disciples and the world which would not believe; and thus, then, in a wonderful way, justifies, as it were, the non-answer to the captious question, "Who is this Son of man?" Yet a little while is the Light amongst you. The "little while" of our Lord's day of ministry was often upon his lips (John 7:33; John 13:33; John 14:19; John 16:16). Verily to his consciousness it must have been but as the twinkling of an eye, and now it was a very little while even for his hearers. Based on this solemn fact, he makes a last public appeal to individuals, propounding gracious invitation, Divine promise, solemn warning; and so he terminated his public ministry, and vanished from before them. As far as the memory of his living words and deeds might influence them, the Light, though not among them, might still shine, and the glory of Pentecost would renew the appeal. Walk as ye have the Light; make progress in the understanding of self, of duty, of time, of eternity, and act accordingly. The ὡς is the reading preferred to the ἕως of the T.R. in this and the following verse by Tischendorf, Meyer, Westport and Hort, and the Revisers' text. Meyer here differs from Godet and others who, accepting the reading ὡς, give it, in virtue of certain passages in the classics, the sense of quamdiu, and justly maintains the sense "as," "in the measure that." According to the light that you see, walk, lest (ἵνα μὴ, "in order that not") darkness overtake you: and he that walketh in the darkness knoweth not whither he goeth; lest the possibility of seeing the Divine revelation in me be taken from you, and lest there be taken away from you that which you seem to have (cf. Jeremiah 13:16). Then, in harmony with the great sayings of John 9:4, 5 and John 11:9, "In the night no man can work;" "In the night, when men cannot see the light of this world, they stumble over unseen perils and pitfalls;" so here, he says, in the darkness that will come upon men from making no use of the Light of the world, "they will not know whither they are going," they will find no work, have no perception of imminent danger, but, driven on and on by measureless force, they will drift over the fathomless unknown into infinite and endless suspense. When the Light of the world is spurned, and a godless evolution made to supply its place, humanity and the world have no goal set before them; there is no end at which they aim - no mind or will to guide the progress of mankind.
12:34-36 The people drew false notions from the Scriptures, because they overlooked the prophecies that spoke of Christ's sufferings and death. Our Lord warned them that the light would not long continue with them, and exhorted them to walk in it, before the darkness overtook them. Those who would walk in the light must believe in it, and follow Christ's directions. But those who have not faith, cannot behold what is set forth in Jesus, lifted up on the cross, and must be strangers to its influence as made known by the Holy Spirit; they find a thousand objections to excuse their unbelief.
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, John 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, Acts 13:46;
walk while ye have the light: that is, as it is explained in John 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.
Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.--The better reading is, Walk according as ye have the light--i.e., "Walk as men who are conscious that the light is among them, use your opportunities; do not ask questions to raise objections, but ask them in order that you may know the truth." The man who thus used the light would by no means walk in darkness, but would have the light of life (John 8:12). For him that neglected to use the means and faculty he had, both would cease to exist. (Comp. Note on Romans 1:21.)
The words "come upon," or "overtake," is used of some sudden seizure. There are two parallels in Biblical Greek, "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that the day should overtake you as a thief" (1 Thessalonians 5:4), and "Be sure your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:23).
He that walketh in darkness.--Comp. Notes in John 8:12; John 9:4; John 11:9; and 1 John 2:11.
Knoweth not whither he goeth.--The last word means "goeth away," "departeth." The frequent use of the word by St. John to express departure to the other world suggests that meaning here. He was going away. They ask, "Who is this Son of man who is lifted up," "who goes away?" He warns them lest darkness seize them, and they go away into darkness. In the next four chapters the same word is used twelve times of Christ's departure. (Comp. e.g. John 13:3; John 13:33; John 13:36.)
yet a little while is the light with you: meaning either himself, the light of the world, John 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, Acts 13:46;
walk while ye have the light: that is, as it is explained in John 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.