6 There was a man [anthropos] sent from God [Theos], whose name was John [Ioannes].
7 The same came for a witness [martyria: testify, martyr, עד od], to bear witness [martyria: testify, martyr, עד od] for the Light [phos, אור aur], that all men through him might believe [pistis: powerful or persuasive comprehension, faith upon experience].
8 He was not that Light [phos, אור aur], but was sent to bear witness [martyria: testify, martyr, עד od] of that Light [phos, אור aur].
9 That was the true Light [phos, אור aur], which lighteth every man that cometh into the world [kosmos].
“There was a man sent from God whose name was John.”
So right away, we can understand all this in a superior level. When it says there was a man, the actual word in Greek is anthropos (ἄνθρωπος). This is interesting because anthropos means mankind, it means the man, or human being. The word for male is not anthropos, but aner (ανηρ). But it says there was an anthropos.
This anthropos, is again pointing towards something. Not the common everyday man or woman but the True Man which is the Man which is at that level of John. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John (Ioannes).
To be a true Hu-Man, it means you have erected that inner spiritual temple and you have eliminated your ego. This is actually a very advanced accomplishment. But once again, we can also understand John from a generic, basic aspect as any particular Soul striving for the spiritual light.
The verse continues, “The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.”
Let us unpack this vers: the same came for a witness. The word here is martyria, which is where we get the word Martyr: to testify, to martyr. When we give witness, what are we martyring? Why are these two things connected? From a gnostic standpoint, to give witness, it is necessary to martyr yourself, your desires. Your egotistical will must be martyred, must be killed, because the truth is not our desires or our ego. To see the truth, you must martyr your ego, then you can bear witness, which is the light, which is the truth, that spiritual principle within yourself that can now unfold.
When you are stuffed full of your egotistical desires, your fears, your anxieties, your puffed up pride, all of your rationalities, beliefs and theories, the light cannot go inside of you. You have to bear witness, you have to martyr your ego in order to bear witness of the Light. That Light is Phos in Greek and Aur in Aramaic or Hebrew as we have said before. The Light is Aur.
In Hebrew, the word martyr or to testify or to witness, is “OD”. That is something we are going to connect with a little bit later. The witness “OD”, and all men through him might believe. Believe in Greek, this goes back to the root word, Pistis. Pistis is not a vain belief.
There is a tremendous misunderstanding and abuse of this word, Faith, today. It is being used to indicate a religious belief. And many people rail against religion for having blind believers. Many of those who are religious, think that this blind belief is Faith.
Faith is not the same thing as belief. Actual faith indicates that you have trust, to have confidence. There are those who state that all you need to do is to say the name of the Lord, raise your hand and say you believe in him and everything else will be done for you. That’s all you need to do, is just believe. Well we can only state that let the fruits of our work be made known. You shall know everything by their fruits. To simply raise your hand and say you believe, and five minutes later to be an unconscious mechanical being, who has resentments, and hatred, and enmity, and vitriol, and bellicose posturing against others: this is a contradiction.
You cannot have this faith if you have hatred inside of you. Does your hatred trust in Jesus Christ? Does your trust believe in Jesus Christ? Does your jealousy? There is no way to put zest, this Pistis, this Faith with all of these elements within ourselves which betray the Lord.
Our inner Judas which needs to be slain, is very actively working against the Lord. We must not translate pistis as a vain superstitious belief. You must understand that it is a knowledge, an experience within ourselves. We gain such Faith little by little. We have it in completion, when we reach perfection.
We make this statement: Faith is not the belief in something that has no evidence. Faith or Pistis is powerful comprehension based upon the critical reflection upon one’s conscious experience.
If you reflect within yourself very seriously and sincerely, you will come into contact with your inner spiritual principles, and you will have direct experience, and then you will have Faith.
By, “coming into the world” many assume that we are talking about a physical world, but the inner understanding is the inner world, which in Greek the word here is “kosmos.” Kosmos means order, to put something in order. The inner Anthropos, the inner John, comes into the ordered world, when there is order in our psychology. But all the other elements, the darkness within ourselves, do not understand.
When we walk on this path, we have inner battles, inner tempests which tempt us to behave otherwise. We have to work with that, to transform that.
10 He was in the world [kosmos], and the world [kosmos] was made by him, and the world [kosmos] knew [ginosko] him not.
11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12 But as many as received [lambano, קבל kabal] him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God [Theos], even to them that believe [pistis] on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will [thelema] of the flesh, nor of the will [thelema] of man, but of God [Theos].