“And the light shineth in the darkness and the darkness comprehended [katelaven] it not” (KJV John 1:5)
This short phrase of simple words describes the battle continued on earth through history between good and evil, Christ and Satan, cosmos and chaos. KJV is the familiar and now somewhat obsolete King James Version, the English translation of the Bible many Protestants consider the only true text. The RSV [Revised Standard] offers this rendering: “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”
We know too well what darkness means. We live with it daily. It’s a constant attack against all that is good, holy, decent and precious. Jesus said: “I am the Light of the world” (John 9:5). Now we know a bit more of the God who told Moses: “I am,” leaving Who He is a mystery. Now we learn that the “I am” enters the world as Light. That Light shines in the darkness. Even in us, baptized into Christ, having the Son of God in us—we also know darkness. Not just outside in the world we live in, but when we give in to that darkness, we take in sinister thoughts into our souls. Baptized into Christ and wrapped in a garment of white, in time we spot that precious garment with sinfulness. The struggle between Christ and Satan goes on even in us. The darkness is obsessive compulsive. It never gives in. It has no plan other than to frustrate, humiliate and obliterate the only true plan for us, which is to follow Jesus Christ through this world and into the next. Darkness and evil hate what is good, and especially the One who is goodness personified. We find agents of darkness in all forms of human nature. They have in common a basic characteristic: They all hate the light. Everything dark, everyone preferring darkness, hates the source of light, Christ. They live without Jesus, and they would like to obliterate Him from the world and from us.
Out of the word above translated from the Greek, we discover several understandings:
A. Comprehend. Those in darkness never grasped the meaning of Christ. They don’t get it. Their peace comes with a victory after war. “Red of tooth and claw.” So many have tried to appropriate Christ for their own plans in His time and through the ages. To them Christianity is ridiculous. Nobody is able to understand Christ without unconditional surrender to Him.
B. “darkness has not overcome it.” Katalamvanein can also mean chasing the light until it catches up to it and passes it by. In that sense darkness has done all that is in its power to transcend the light, envelop it in bleakness and destroy all the warmth and sunshine that comes from the One Who said in the beginning, “Let there be light.” Recall the last day of Christ on earth as He hung suspended on the cross: “When the sixth hour had come there was darkness over the whole world until the ninth hour” (Mark 15:33), the moment when the agents of death felt they had a temporary victory over the Light.
C. The word can mean to extinguish a flame. Those who were intent on getting rid of Jesus once for all and forever felt they had snuffed Him out like a candle; but they were wrong. The battle between light and darkness has been going on ever since, and each must choose whom to serve. Christianity is not a faith for bystanders. As the monks say, every heart is an arena. We are called to go on through life affirming the light within and around us, and to “wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of human hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.” (I Corinthians 4:5).