29:3 when 1 he caused 2 his lamp 3
to shine upon my head,
and by his light
I walked 4 through darkness; 5
By David.
27:1 The Lord delivers and vindicates me! 7
I fear no one! 8
The Lord protects my life!
I am afraid of no one! 9
84:11 For the Lord God is our sovereign protector. 10
The Lord bestows favor 11 and honor;
he withholds no good thing from those who have integrity. 12
8:12 Then Jesus spoke out again, 13 “I am the light of the world. 14 The one who follows me will never 15 walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
1 tn This clause is in apposition to the preceding (see GKC 426 §131.o). It offers a clarification.
2 tn The form בְּהִלּוֹ (bÿhillo) is unusual; it should be parsed as a Hiphil infinitive construct with the elision of the ה (he). The proper spelling would have been with a ַ (patakh) under the preposition, reflecting הַהִלּוֹ (hahillo). If it were Qal, it would just mean “when his light shone.”
3 sn Lamp and light are symbols of God’s blessings of life and all the prosperous and good things it includes.
4 tn Here too the imperfect verb is customary – it describes action that was continuous, but in a past time.
5 tn The accusative (“darkness”) is here an adverbial accusative of place, namely, “in the darkness,” or because he was successfully led by God’s light, “through the darkness” (see GKC 374 §118.h).
6 sn Psalm 27. The author is confident of the Lord’s protection and asks the Lord to vindicate him.
7 tn Heb “the
8 tn Heb “Whom shall I fear?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”
9 tn Heb “Of whom shall I be afraid?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”
10 tn Heb “[is] a sun and a shield.” The epithet “sun,” though rarely used of Israel’s God in the OT, was a well-attested royal title in the ancient Near East. For several examples from Ugaritic texts, the Amarna letters, and Assyrian royal inscriptions, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 131, n. 2.
11 tn Or “grace.”
12 tn Heb “he does not withhold good to those walking in integrity.”
13 tn Grk “Then again Jesus spoke to them saying.”
14 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.
15 tn The double negative οὐ μή (ou mh) is emphatic in 1st century Hellenistic Greek.