Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageThe true light, who gives light to every human being, was entering the world.
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GThe true light, which illuminates every person, was coming into the world.
KJV
King James VersionThat was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleThe true Light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
Footnotes
The participial ἐρχόμενον ("coming") is syntactically ambiguous: it may modify τὸ φῶς ("the true light coming into the world") or πάντα ἄνθρωπον ("every person coming into the world"). The latter phrase echoes a well-attested rabbinic idiom—כָּל אָדָם הַבָּא לָעוֹלָם (kol adam ha-ba la-olam, "every person coming into the world")—a circumlocution for "every human being," which John, writing to Jewish readers, may have evoked deliberately. Both translations adopt the former reading since John uses "coming into the world" elsewhere as a Christological description (6:14; 11:27), and vv.10–11 continue tracing the Light's arrival; but the rabbinic echo suggests the illumination is both cosmic in scope and intimately personal.
