John 1:4

ὃ γέγονεν (v4) ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων

That which came to be in him was life, and the life was the light of men


 * There is a major punctuation ambiguity here. Most of the Greek texts put a period before ὃ γέγονεν, making it part of v4.
 * However most English translations regard the phrase as part of v3. The NET Bible footnote to this verse summarises the positions on both sides although it comes down on putting it with v3.
 * Historically, critical Greek texts e.g. Nestle-Aland put the phrase with v3 until the 26th edition when it moved it to be part of v4. It notes that the earliest manuscripts did not have punctuation. The move to v3 was done in the 4th century by the Greek church and unknown in the west. It was probably done as a safeguard against Arianism. The NET Bible footnote says it is probably correct that the phrase was attached to v4 by the Eastern church by the time of the 4th Century but that does not rule out the possibility that it was originally with v3 and moving it to v3 could be restoring the original reading.
 * Note that if the phrase is left with v4, all the lines in the various verses are nicely balanced with roughly the same length.
 * Moving it to v3 creates a construction that appears clumsy and redundant: "πάντα δἰ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. ὃ γέγονεν" = "All things through him came to be, and without him nothing came to be which came to be."
 * On the other hand, putting the phrase with v4 also makes for a somewhat clumsy sentence = "That which came to be in him was life".
 * According to some text critics, both constructions are clumsy. But they also note that John likes to start sentences with "ἐν αὐτῷ".


 * ὃ γέγονεν - note the article can function as a determiner or pronoun
 * τῶν ἀνθρώπων - of men. Just rubbing it in--genitive plural of every gender always ends with -ων
 * χωρὶς αὐτοῦ - without him. Note χωρὶς goes with genitive. Think, without being of him.