The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.
Parallel translations
- KJV And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
- BSB The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
- NKJV And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
- NASB And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it.
- NLT The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The light keeps shining in a dark world, and the darkness cannot extinguish or comprehend it. Christ's truth and life triumph over sin and opposition.
Overview
Darkness here pictures sin, ignorance, and hostility to God. The Greek verb can mean both 'overcome' and 'comprehend,' and both senses fit: the darkness neither understood the light nor could defeat it. This anticipates the cross and resurrection, where evil's best effort to extinguish Christ instead became His victory, assuring believers that the light cannot be put out.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- John 3:19–20This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.
- John 12:36–40While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become children of light.” Jesus said these things, and he departed and hid himself from them.
- 1 Cor 2:14Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
- Job 24:13–17“These are of those who rebel against the light. They don’t know its ways, nor stay in its paths.
- John 1:10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him.
- Rom 1:28Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
- Prov 1:29–30because they hated knowledge, and didn’t choose the fear of Yahweh.
- Prov 1:22“How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, and fools hate knowledge?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Pastoral
Henry on the prologue — rich on the Word and the incarnation.
Seminary
- ★ Start hereCommentaryThe Gospel According to John (Pillar NT Commentary)D. A. Carson · ~720 pp · Paid · reformed
The go-to mid-level exegetical commentary on John — rigorous and readable.
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.
How John 1:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.