He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments. It is difficult to see on what principles of criticism Alford retains the reading of the Textus Receptus, οὗτος, instead of that rightly accepted by the Revisers, οὕτως. The latter has a very decided balance of external evidence in its favour; the former is a corruption very likely to occur either accidentally or in order to introduce a construction very frequent in St. John (John 3:26; John 6:46; John 7:18; John 15:5; 2 John 1:9). The change from "clothed" (Authorized Version) to "arrayed" (Revised Version) here and elsewhere is no doubt made in order to mark the difference between περιβελημένος and ἐνδεδυμένος. But neither the Authorized Version (John 17:4; John 19:8) nor the Revised Version (John 11:3; John 15:6) is consistent. The Authorized Version generally renders both words "clothed." The Revised Version generally has "arrayed" for περιβελημένος, and "clothed" for ἐνδεδυμένος. The Authorized Version is singularly capricious in having "garments" for ἱμάτια in verse 4, and "raiment" for the same word in verse 5. The construction, περιβάλλεσθαι ἔν τινι, occurs again in Revelation 4:4, and once or twice in the LXX. (Deuteronomy 22:12); the usual construction is with the accusative. The promise in this verse is again threefold, the last of the three promises in Revelation 4:4 being repeated here as the first in this triplet. Repetitions of a similar kind are very frequent in the Fourth Gospel (John 1:1, John 1:5; John 10:11; John 13:20; John 15:19; John 17:9, John 17:16, etc.). I will in no wise blot out his name. The negative, as in Revelation 4:3 and 12, is in the strongest form. Here we seem to have a figure borrowed from the custom of striking the names of the dead out of the list of citizens. But the figure is a very ancient one, as is seen from parallels in the Old Testament. The present passage, ἐξαλείψω … ἐκ τῆς βίβλου τῆς ζωῆς is singularly close to the LXX. of Psalms 69:29, εξαλειφθήτωσαν ἐκ βιβλίου ζώντων; and to Exodus 32:33, ' εξαλείψω αὐτὸν ἐκ τῆς βίβλου μου; comp. Psalms 109:13; Daniel 12:1; and for the exact expression, "the book of life," see Revelation 13:8; Revelation 17:8; Revelation 20:15; Revelation 21:27; and (without articles) Philippians 4:3, where Bishop Lightfoot comments as follows: "The 'book of life' in the figurative language of the Old Testament is the register of the covenant people (comp. Isaiah 4:3; Ezekiel 13:9). Hence 'to be blotted out of the book of the living' means 'to forfeit the privileges of the theocracy, to be shut out from God's favour.' But the expression, though perhaps confined originally to temporal blessings, was in itself a witness to higher hopes; and in the Book of Daniel first it distinctly refers to a blessed immortality (comp. Hermas, 'Vis.,' 1.3; see also Luke 10:20; Hebrews 12:23)? And I will confess his name. Without the smallest manuscript authority or any encouragement from previous versions, Latin, German, or English, the Genevan and Authorized Versions here render καί "but"! The simple connexion with "and" is thoroughly in St. John's style: "He shall be … and I will … and I will" (comp. verses 12, 17; Revelation 2:26-28, etc.; John 1:4, John 1:5, John 1:10, John 1:11, John 1:14, etc.). This is the third of the promises:
This third point is a combination of Matthew 10:32 ("before my Father") with Luke 12:8 ("before the angels of God"). "We may observe of this epistle that in great part it is woven together of sayings which the Lord had already uttered in the days during which he pitched his tent among men; he is now setting his seal from heaven upon his words uttered on earth" (Trench).