John 1:9-11 9The true light, which gives light to all people, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. 11He came to his own things, and his own people did not receive him.
Verse 9 serves as a summary statement and declaration about the identity of the light to which John bore witness. The light is described as true as compared to the inferior lights shining in the world today. John the Baptist was a light and witness to God’s revelation and will for people but not the true light. There is only one true light because only one person can provide what is needed for all people. This verse prepares for the significant statement in 3:16 that God loves “the whole world.” No on is beyond God’s love and redemption. The light from God has the potential for saving all people. As Jesus will indicate in 3:16-21, this salvation is available only to those who believe in him. The hope of the world came at a specific point in time. The Incarnation was crucial for the salvation of the world. Jesus needed to come in the flesh and live among people as the Light (9:5) in order for the world to be saved.
Verse 10 indicates that the light was a person. The reader still does not know the name of the person being referenced thus far in the Gospel. The identity of the Word, Life, and Light will not be given until verse 29, after other key identifiers of Jesus are stated. Verse 10 also introduces the problem that is one of the primary underlying themes of this book: the world that was created by the Word did not know its creator. The word know (egnō) has the nuance of recognizing or acknowledging.
The world in John’s Gospel has different nuances but has the particular focus of the humans of the world. Verse 11 shows this nuance. The Word came to his own things (ta idia), which is a nueter word likely referring to all that exists. The Word entered into the world that he created. This idea will be restated more clearly in verse 14. A particular part of this creation did not receive () him. For this part, John switches to a masculine form of the same word, translated as his own people (hoi idioi), which could refer to humanity as a whole or the Jewish people in particular. The Jews rejected their Messiah. The crucial choice the reader of this Gospel must make is whether to know and believe in Jesus.
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