αὐτοῦ (autou) in John 1:10: Genitive Singular Masculine
αὐτοῦ (autou) in John 1:10
Textual Witness
The witness reads αὐτοῦ in John 1:10, within the clause 'ὁ κόσμος δι᾽ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο'.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form supports a reading of mediated action and personal reference, but it does so as part of the sentence's movement, not as an override of the wider context.
How To Communicate It
In translation and teaching, the form can be rendered with 'through him' or similar language that preserves the relational force without over-specifying beyond the verse.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Masculine gender here is grammatical agreement, not a standalone theological assertion.
- The pronoun does not change the lemma into another word; it only identifies its role in this verse.
What Does The Label Mean?
Pronoun: the word stands in for a referent already in view and helps track who or what is being discussed.
Genitive: the form usually marks relationship, source, possession, or association, depending on the clause.
Singular: the form is grammatically singular in this occurrence and points to one referent in context.
Masculine: the form is masculine in grammatical shape, but that feature only helps with agreement and does not by itself make a theological claim.
What The Form Does In This Verse
δι᾽
The preposition diA takes a genitive here, so the pronoun functions within the phrase 'through him' or 'by means of him' as context allows.
It identifies the referenced agent connected with the world's coming to be, and it also supplies the object of the later verbal failure to know him.
It does not by itself redefine the referent, and it does not force a new theological meaning beyond the relationships stated in the verse.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The pronoun connects the world's coming-to-be and the world's failure to know him in John 1:10.
Genitive singular masculine pronoun. points to the same personal referent in the world's making and failure to know. Attached to the through him phrase and later him reference. Governed by the preposition through and the surrounding clauses. The pronoun preserves continuity of reference across the clauses.
Who is the verse referring to through both clauses? The pronoun points back to the personal referent already in view, the Word/light in the passage context.
Direct: The pronoun directly supports through him and him in the verse's movement.
The antecedent should be supplied from the nearby context, not guessed apart from the passage. Genitive with the preposition through contributes relation but should not be isolated from the clause. Masculine agreement follows the referent and is not an independent gender claim.
Pronoun by itself defines the antecedent: The pronoun recalls its antecedent from the passage context. genitive case alone explains creation agency: The prepositional phrase contributes relation, while the clause states the creation claim.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The witness reads αὐτοῦ in John 1:10, within the clause 'ὁ κόσμος δι᾽ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο'.
The lemma αὐτός is a flexible pronoun that can refer back to an established person or thing, and here the context supplies that reference.
The genitive after διά naturally expresses mediated relation, while the later accusative αὐτόν shows the same referent as the one not known by the world.
In this sentence the pronoun helps say that the world came to be through the same one who was in the world and whom the world did not know.
This fits the chapter's larger presentation of the Logos as the one present with creation and personally related to the world.
For readers, the pronoun keeps the reference compact while linking creation, presence, and rejection in one flow of thought.
Do not derive a separate subject, a different referent, or a doctrinal conclusion from case alone; the context controls the reading.