Joh 11:9-10 | RWP | e4.org | In the day ( της ημερας ). Genitive of time, within the day, the twelve-hour day in contrast with night. The words of Jesus here illustrate what he had said in . It is not blind fatalism that Jesus proclaims, but the opposite of cowardice. He has full confidence in the Father s purpose about his "hour" which has not yet come. Jesus has courage to face his enemies again to do the Father's will about Lazarus. If a man walk in the day ( εαν τις περιπατη εν τη ημερα ). Condition of the third class, a conceived case and it applies to Jesus who walks in the full glare of noonday. See for the contrast between walking in the light and in the dark. He stumbleth not ( ου προσκοπτε ). He does not cut (or bump) against this or that obstacle, for he can see. Κοπτω is to cut and pros, against.

‏ John 11:9-10

In the day ( της ημερας ). Genitive of time, within the day, the twelve-hour day in contrast with night. The words of Jesus here illustrate what he had said in 9:4. It is not blind fatalism that Jesus proclaims, but the opposite of cowardice. He has full confidence in the Father s purpose about his "hour" which has not yet come. Jesus has courage to face his enemies again to do the Father's will about Lazarus.

If a man walk in the day ( εαν τις περιπατη εν τη ημερα ). Condition of the third class, a conceived case and it applies to Jesus who walks in the full glare of noonday. See 8:12 for the contrast between walking in the light and in the dark.

He stumbleth not ( ου προσκοπτε ). He does not cut (or bump) against this or that obstacle, for he can see. Κοπτω is to cut and pros, against.

But if a man walk in the night ( εαν δε τις περιπατη εν τη νυκτ ). Third condition again. It is spiritual darkness that Jesus here pictures, but the result is the same. See the same figure in 12:35 (1Jo 2:11). The ancients had poor illumination at night as indeed we did before Edison gave us electric lights. Pedestrians actually used to have little lamps fastened on the feet to light the path.

In him ( εν αυτω ). Spiritual darkness, the worst of all (cf. Mt 6:23; Joh 8:12). Man has the capacity for light, but is not the source of light. "By the application of this principle Christianity is distinguished from Neo-Platonism" (Westcott).