John 1:5 - The light shines in the darkness

1:5

Gen 1:2 states that “darkness was over the surface of the deep”, and then in Gen 1:3 God says “Let there be light”. John is almost certainly alluding to this, but will then go on to show how Jesus overcomes the darkness of sin. Carson points out that light and dark are not opposites, but darkness is the absence of light. As our society abandons its moral moorings it becomes increasingly dark. After the fall it might seem that darkness has won, that the devil has won in destroying God’s work. But John makes the emphatic statement that “darkness has not overcome it”. So John is using light and dark here in two senses. One is in referring to the creation, and the second is the failure of the darkness of sin to overcome it. God’s work and purposes in creation have not been defeated. A theme running through much of the rest of the book is that light has defeated darkness.

“Darkness has not overcome it” can also be translated “Darkness has not understood it”. You will find one of these as an alternative in your translation. Both are equally valid, and writers played with the ambiguity, and John may well be doing the same thing. Darkness has not overcome God’s plans, they are all fulfilled in Christ. It is also true that darkness has not understood the light. The devil thought the cross was a triumph, as did the Roman authorities, and Jewish leaders. They could not have been more wrong!