Scriptural Mormonism: Martinus C. De Boer on John 1:3

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Martinus C. De Boer on John 1:3

Martinus C. De Boer renders John 1 :3-4 thusly:

³ All things through him happened, and without him not one thing happened. What has happened ⁴ in him was life, and the life was the light of human beings. (Martinus C. De Boer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to John: Introduction and Commentary on John 1-6 [The International Critical Commentary; London” T&T Clark, 2025], 230)

Commenting on “What has happened”:

ο γεγονεν, “what has happened” . . . In the text of Nestle-Aland, the relative clause ο γεγονεν is taken with the sense that follows in v. 4, as in NRSV and NAB. Many English translations (KJV, RSV, REB, NIV, NASB, NJB) assume another punctuation, that of TR, representing the majority text, including f¹ f¹³ 33, in which a period is placed after v. 3. Verse 4 then begins a new sentence. The earliest and best witnesses, P⁶⁶ P⁷⁵ א* and A, contain no punctuation (MTC 167). The punctuation adopted by the Nestle-Aland, which is attested by P75c and D (also C and W^s), is more ancient than the punctuation found in the manuscripts forming the basis of TR (see McHugh 104-107) and has better support. Before the fourth century CE, the correctness of this punctuation was uncontested by both “orthodox” and “heretics.” Bernard (1:3) notes that with the alternative punctuation the phrase ο γεγονεν “is redundant and adds nothing to the sense.” (Martinus C. De Boer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to John: Introduction and Commentary on John 1-6 [The International Critical Commentary; London” T&T Clark, 2025], 239-31 n. f)

It is probably significant that the verb ποειω (“to make”), used in Gen 1.1 (εποιησεν ο θεος τον ουρανον και την γην), as in Wis. 9:1 (where God is described as ο ποιησας τα παντα), with the meaning “to create,” is avoided in v. 3a, as in vv. 3b and 3c. As the varied usage of the middle verb γινομαι in both Genesis 1 and John 1 bears out, this latter verb does not intrinsically mean “to be created” or “to be made,” but “to happen,” “to take place,” “to come into being” and the like. God’s command in LXX Gen 1:3 γενηθητω φως simply means “let light happen,” as it is only because of Gen 1:1 with its use of εποιησεν that the reader realizes that this command involves the coming into existence (the creation) of something that had not existed before. The context is lacking in v. 3. McHugh (13) observes that “the verb γινεσθαι occurs three times in this verse, each time with an indeterminate and neuter subject . . . Whenever this construction is found elsewhere in John, γινεσθαι always applies to a historical event, which either happened, took place (1.28; 3.9; 13.19 bis; 14:22, 29 bis; 19:36) or which will come to pass (15.7).” The same may then also be the case in v. 3.

The use of παντα in v. 3a also supports the soteriological interpretation. Elsewhere the GJohn the term is used to refer to what has come to be through Christ (cf. 3:35-36; 5:20; 13:3; 16:5; 17:7, 10; 19:28) and never to be the physical universe (McHugh 13). If the latter were in view, one would normally expect το παντα used in Wis. 9:1 (cf. Wis. 1:14; 11:24; 1 Cor. 8:6; Eph. 3:9; 4:10; Col. 1:16; Heb. 2:10; Rev. 4:11), but this formulation never occurs in the Johannine writings. It is always simply παντα without the definite article and this term is always brought into connection with the saving work of Christ. That is then also probably the case in v. 3a. The following verses indicate that “all things” include φως and ζωη, two central symbols in GJohn for salvation (σεε ψομμενταρυ ον ωω. 4β-5 βελος).

Further supporting the soteriological interpretation in the use of the preposition δια with the genitive. “Everywhere else in John δια with the genitive, when used of Christ [as in 1:3a], refers to his mediatory role in the work of salvation (see especially 3.17; 10.9; 14.6; 1 Jn 4.9 . . .)” (McHugh 13). Here this prepositional construction occurs in conjunction with the verb γινομαι, as in the case in 1:17b. In both verses, the subject is followed directly by δια with the genitive referring to Christ (δια αυτου/δια ‘Ιησου Χριστου) and then the aorist verb εγενετο:

παντα δι’ αυτου εγενετο.
η χαρις και η αληθεια δια ‘Ιησου Χριστου εγενετο.

All things through him happened
Grace and truth through Jesus Christ happened.

The parallelism indicates not only that παντα is to be understood stereologically, but also that it includes “grace and truth.” In sum, as in vv. 4b-6, the language of Gen. 1:1-5 is being used in v. 3a to present the salvific work of Christ as tantamount to a new creation. (Martinus C. De Boer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to John: Introduction and Commentary on John 1-6 [The International Critical Commentary; London” T&T Clark, 2025], 238-39)

1:3b. This verse, “and without him not one thing happened” (και χωρις αυτου εγενετο ουδε εν), emphasizes that “every single event in the story of salvation which is about to unfold takes place only through the Logos, and that not one thing happens independently of him” (McHugh 13). It would not be necessary to make such an emphatic claim if the creation of the physical universe were in view. The verse reflects the exclusivity of Johannine christology and soteriology, as evident throughout much of GJohn, most particularly in 14:6, where Jesus says to Thomas, “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me” (‘Εγω ειμι η οδος και η αληθεια και η ζωη ουδεις ερχεται προς τον πατερα ει μη δι’ εμου).(Martinus C. De Boer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to John: Introduction and Commentary on John 1-6 [The International Critical Commentary; London” T&T Clark, 2025], 240)