Appositive in John 1:12

Here is a cute grammar joke that has been circulating the internet:

​Personally, I prefer the Oxford Comma, but that’s a debate for another day.  For now, I would like to discuss a certain grammatical relationship that’s common in the Bible. It is called the appositive. Consider this sentence:

My wife, Lena, is an awesome person!

In the above sentence, the word, “Lena,” is a repetition and clarification of the phrase, “my wife.” Who is my wife? Lena. Who is Lena? My wife. The word, “Lena,” is an appositive. It is in apposition with the phrase, “my wife.” Pretty easy, right?

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​Appositives happen all the time in the Bible. Here are some examples:

Eph 2:2b  according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Joel 2:1b-2a for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness!

​Col 1:18  And he is the head of the body1, the church1. He is the beginning2, the firstborn from the dead2, that in everything he might be preeminent.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. We hear appositives in normal speech every day, so this is no big deal. Now, consider this verse:

​John 1:12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

The plain sense here is that those who “receive him,” are those that “believe in his name.” If you “believe in his name,” then you “receive him.” It’s an appositive.

By the way, that jives with the rest of the Book of John – it has “believe” in there about 100 times and not once in John (nor anywhere else in the Bible!) does it say that you must believe and do something else to become a child of God.

Some people get derailed on John 1:12 by saying that receiving and believing are two different things. One famous author writes, “Believe plus receive equals become.” If that’s true, then “receive” is no longer in apposition with “believe;” it is in opposition to “believe!” If “receive” requires anything in addition to “believe,” then John 1:12 contradicts John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47 and many others. Believe plus anything equals nothing!

Appositives are a useful structure to keep in mind as you read your Bible. Inclusios and chiasms are also good to know about. Let’s try to work on how to read the Bible for ourselves, rather than just trusting others to give us the meaning.

Also, don’t be a psychopath; use commas. “Let’s eat, Grandpa!” and “Let’s eat Grandpa!” mean two completely different things.