At church last Sunday, I learned something about the Greek of John
1:11. Some of my readers may already know what I am about to share, but
it was new to me, since I have not read the Gospel of John in Greek
since I took New Testament Greek in college.
John 1:11 states regarding the Word who became Jesus Christ: “He came
unto his own (neuter plural), and his own (masculine plural) received
him not” (KJV).
As you can see, the first “his own” is in the neuter plural. The
pastor translated this as “his own things.” The second “his own,”
however, is in the masculine plural, which refers to people. The pastor
translated this verse as: “He came unto his own things, and his own
people received him not.”
What is the significance of this grammatical point to the meaning of
John 1:11? The pastor made a point that is similar to a Muslim concept
that I have heard: that creation is naturally submissive to God, but
human beings are not necessarily, since they have free will. The Word
who became Jesus Christ came to his own things, but his own people did
not submit to him.
I checked a variety of commentaries: George Beasley-Murray’s Word Biblical Commentary on the Gospel of John, David Rensberger’s comments in the HarperCollins Study Bible,
John Calvin’s commentary, John MacArthur’s study Bible, and the E-Sword
commentaries (Albert Barnes, Cambridge, Adam Clarke, John Gill,
Jamieson-Faussett-Brown, etc.). Essentially, they said that the verse
means that God came to his own property, and his own people received him
not. And what is God’s property? Some say the world, whereas others
say Israel, which was God’s own possession (Exodus 19:5).
The “world” interpretation may have the preceding verse going for
it. John 1:10 states: “He was in the world, and the world was made by
him, and the world knew him not” (KJV). In this interpretation, the
world belonged to the Word because the Word created it: the Word came to
the world, his own property, and his own people there did not receive
him.
On BibleWorks, I looked up the Greek word “idios” (own) in the Gospel
of John, specifically when the word is in the neuter and lacks an
accompanying noun (as in John 1:11). A few times, it means one’s own
home (John 16:32; 19:27). Interestingly, a footnote to John 1:11 in the
HarperCollins Study Bible translates “ta idia” as “to his own
home.” The Word came to his own home. I thought of such passages as
Sirach 24 and I Enoch 42. In Sirach 24, wisdom searches for a home and
settles in Israel, especially Zion. In I Enoch 42, wisdom searches in
vain for a home on earth and then returns to heaven.
Many commentators have interpreted the Word (Logos) in John 1 in
reference to Wisdom in Proverbs 8:22-31 and other wisdom literature.
Could the author of John 1 have had passages such as Sirach 24 and I
Enoch 42 in mind? If so, perhaps we see irony in John 1. Jesus, as
Wisdom, came to what was supposed to be his home, Israel and Zion, and
many in his home did not receive him. Or, in reference to I Enoch 42,
Jesus sought a home on earth but was not successful; he went back to
heaven (John 8:21; 13:36), yet he has not turned his back on the earth
(John 12:32).
John 15:19 is noteworthy from a grammatical perspective: “If you
belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you
do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world–
therefore the world hates you” (KJV). “Its own” there is in the neuter,
yet it is applied to people, the disciples if they were to belong to
the world. That being the case, “ta idia” in John 1:11 could refer to
people, regarding them as God’s property. The different forms of
“idios” in John 1:11 do seem to go together: he came to his own, and his
own received him not. “His own” in both cases appears to have the same
reference point: he came to his own, and you would expect his own to
receive him, but his own do not.
I do not like to rain on people’s attempts to go more deeply into the
Bible, in search of features that are not immediately obvious. Maybe
there is significance in John 1:11’s usage of different forms of
“idios.” That “his own home” interpretation may have potential.