John 9
9
Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind
1As Jesus went along, he saw a man who was blind. He had been blind since he was born. 2Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned? Was this man born blind because he sinned? Or did his parents sin?”
3“It isn’t because this man sinned,” said Jesus. “It isn’t because his parents sinned. He was born blind so that God’s power could be shown by what’s going to happen. 4While it is still day, we must do the works of the one who sent me. Night is coming. Then no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6After he said this, he spit on the ground. He made some mud with the spit. Then he put the mud on the man’s eyes. 7“Go,” he told him. “Wash in the Pool of Siloam.” Siloam means Sent. So the man went and washed. And he came home able to see.
8His neighbors and people who had seen him earlier begging asked questions. “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” they asked. 9Some claimed that he was.
Others said, “No. He only looks like him.”
But the man who had been blind kept saying, “I am the man.”
10“Then how were your eyes opened?” they asked.
11He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed. Then I could see.”
12“Where is this man?” they asked him.
“I don’t know,” he said.
The Pharisees Want to Know How the Blind Man Was Healed
13They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14The day Jesus made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath day. 15So the Pharisees also asked him how he was able to see. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied. “Then I washed. And now I can see.”
16Some of the Pharisees said, “Jesus has not come from God. He does not keep the Sabbath day.”
But others asked, “How can a sinner do such signs?” So the Pharisees did not agree with one another.
17Then they turned again to the blind man. “What do you have to say about him?” they asked. “It was your eyes he opened.”
The man replied, “He is a prophet.”
18They still did not believe that the man had been blind and now could see. So they sent for his parents. 19“Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”
20“We know he is our son,” the parents answered. “And we know he was born blind. 21But we don’t know how he can now see. And we don’t know who opened his eyes. Ask him. He is an adult. He can speak for himself.” 22His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. The leaders had already made this decision about Jesus. Anyone who said Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23That was why the man’s parents said, “He is an adult. Ask him.”
24Again the Pharisees called the man who had been blind to come to them. “Give glory to God by telling the truth!” they said. “We know that the man who healed you is a sinner.”
25He replied, “I don’t know if he is a sinner or not. I do know one thing. I was blind, but now I can see!”
26Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
27He answered, “I have already told you. But you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”
28Then they began to attack him with their words. “You are this fellow’s disciple!” they said. “We are disciples of Moses! 29We know that God spoke to Moses. But we don’t even know where this fellow comes from.”
30The man answered, “That is really surprising! You don’t know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does what he wants them to do. 32Nobody has ever heard of anyone opening the eyes of a person born blind. 33If this man had not come from God, he could do nothing.”
34Then the Pharisees replied, “When you were born, you were already deep in sin. How dare you talk like that to us!” And they threw him out of the synagogue.
People Who Can’t See the Truth
35Jesus heard that the Pharisees had thrown the man out of the synagogue. When Jesus found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me, so I can believe in him.”
37Jesus said, “You have now seen him. In fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
38Then the man said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him.
39Jesus said, “I have come into this world to judge it. I have come so that people who are blind will see. I have come so that people who can see will become blind.”
40Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this. They asked, “What? Are we blind too?”
41Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin. But since you claim you can see, you remain guilty.
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John 9: NIrV
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John 9
9
Jesus Healed a Man Born Blind
1Afterward, as Jesus walked down the street, he noticed a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Teacher, whose sin caused this guy’s blindness, his own, or the sin of his parents?”
3Jesus answered, “Neither. It happened to him so that you could watch him experience God’s miracle. 4While I am with you, it is daytime and we must do the works of God who sent me while the light shines. # 9:4 A possible translation of vv. 4–5 can be, “Jesus answered, ‘This man didn’t sin, nor did his parents; but, that the works of God might be revealed in him. I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming, when no man can work’ ” (WEB translation). For there is coming a dark night when no one will be able to work. # 9:4 The Aramaic can be translated “The One who sent me is the day, and we must do his works. But the night (of mankind) will follow when no work can be accomplished.” 5As long as I am with you my life is the light that pierces the world’s darkness.”
6Then Jesus spat on the ground and made some clay with his saliva. # 9:6 John has left us a book of pictures. The picture here is the mingling of spit and clay, a picture of the Christ who is God and man. The saliva comes from the mouth, the spoken Word, God incarnate. The clay is always a picture of man, for our human vessel is a jar of clay. No doubt, the blind man had heard people spit as they walked by him, as a sign of disgust, for in that day they believed blindness was caused by a curse (Deut. 28:28). But this day, as he heard Jesus spit on the ground, it was for his healing. Then he anointed the blind man’s eyes with the clay. 7And he said to the blind man, “Now go and wash the clay from your eyes in the ritual pool of Siloam.” # 9:7 Or “the pool of apostleship.” Siloam is a Hebrew word that means “to be sent” or “to be commissioned”—the Greek word for “apostle” or “apostleship” is the closest meaning. The apostle of our faith is the Lord Jesus Christ who was sent from the Father. To wash in the Pool of Apostleship is to recognize the healing that flows from the One who was sent from heaven. So he went and washed his face and as he came back, he could see for the first time in his life! # 9:7 In the context of Jesus’ teaching on the light of the world and mankind being in the dark, this miracle of giving sight to the blind man is a powerful proof of Jesus’ words. Christ, in his birth, became a man of clay. When he applies this clay over our eyes and we wash in the water of his Word, our spiritual sight is restored.
8This caused quite a stir among the people of the neighborhood, for they noticed the blind beggar was now seeing! They began to say to one another, “Isn’t this the blind man who once sat and begged?” 9Some said, “No, it can’t be him!” Others said, “But it looks just like him—it has to be him!” All the while the man kept insisting, “I’m the man who was blind!”
10Finally, they asked him, “What has happened to you?”
11He replied, “I met the man named Jesus! He rubbed clay on my eyes and said, ‘Go to the pool named Siloam and wash.’ So I went and while I was washing the clay from my eyes I began to see for the very first time ever!” # 9:11 See also vv. 7, 16.
12So the people of the neighborhood inquired, “Where is this man?”
“I have no idea.” the man replied.
13So the people marched him over to the Pharisees to speak with them. 14They were concerned because the miracle Jesus performed by making clay with his saliva and anointing the man’s eyes happened on a Sabbath day, a day that no one was allowed to “work.”
15Then the Pharisees asked the man, “How did you have your sight restored?”
He replied, “A man anointed my eyes with clay, then I washed, and now I can see for the first time in my life!”
16Then an argument broke out among the Pharisees over the healing of the blind man on the Sabbath. Some said, “This man who performed this healing is clearly not from God! He doesn’t even observe the Sabbath!” Others said, “If Jesus is just an ordinary sinner, # 9:16 Or “a sinning man.” how could he perform a miracle like that?”
17This prompted them to turn on the man healed of blindness, putting him on the spot in front of them all, demanding an answer. They asked, “Who do you say he is—this man who opened your blind eyes?”
“He’s a prophet of God!” the man replied.
18Still refusing to believe that the man had been healed and was truly blind from birth, the Jewish leaders called for the man’s parents to be brought to them.
19-20So they asked his parents, “Is this your son?”
“Yes,” they answered.
“Was he really born blind?”
“Yes, he was,” they replied.
So they pressed his parents to answer, “Then how is it that he’s now seeing?”
21“We have no idea,” they answered. “We don’t know what happened to our son. Ask him, he’s a mature adult. He can speak for himself.” 22(Now the parents were obviously intimidated by the Jewish religious leaders, for they had already announced to the people that if anyone publicly confessed Jesus as the Messiah, they would be excommunicated. 23That’s why they told them, “Ask him, he’s a mature adult. He can speak for himself.”)
24So once again they summoned the man who was healed of blindness and said to him, “Swear to God to tell us the truth! # 9:24 Or “Give glory to God.” This has been interpreted by some as an idiomatic saying, which would put the man under oath to testify to the truth. We know the man who healed you is a sinful man! Do you agree?”
25The healed man replied, “I have no idea what kind of man he is. All I know is that I was blind and now I can see for the first time in my life!”
26“But what did he do to you?” they asked. “How did he heal you?”
27The man responded, “I told you once and you didn’t listen to me. Why do you make me repeat it? Are you wanting to be his followers too?”
28This angered the Jewish leaders. They heaped insults on him, “We can tell you are one of his followers—now we know it! We are true followers of Moses, 29for we know that God spoke to Moses directly. But as for this one, we don’t know where he’s coming from!”
30“Well, what a surprise this is!” the man said. “You don’t even know where he comes from, but he healed my eyes and now I can see! 31We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but only to godly people who do his will. 32Yet who has ever heard of a man born blind that was healed and given his eyesight for the very first time? 33I tell you, if this man isn’t from God, he wouldn’t be able to heal me like he has!”
34Some of the Jewish leaders were enraged and said, “Just who do you think you are to lecture us! You were born a blind, filthy sinner!” So they threw the man out in the street.
35When Jesus learned they had thrown him out, he went to find him and said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” # 9:35 This is a common title of the Lord Jesus in the book of John. Although there are many reliable Greek manuscripts that have “the Son of Man,” the Aramaic and a few early Greek manuscripts have “the Son of Elohim [God].”
36The man whose blind eyes were healed answered, “Who is he, Master? Tell me so that I can place all my faith in him.”
37Jesus replied, “You’re looking right at him. He’s speaking with you. It’s me, the one in front of you now.”
38Then the man threw himself at his feet and worshiped Jesus and said, “Lord, I believe in you!” # 9:38 Although this man had never been able to read the Scriptures, he had faith in Jesus. Traditions and superficial knowledge of the Bible can actually blind our hearts if we do not believe in Jesus above all other religious dogmas. Many of those who knew the Scriptures refused to believe. The miracle of blind eyes opening is proof that God had come to us. See Isa. 35:4–5.
39And Jesus said, “I have come to judge those who think they see and make them blind. And for those who are blind, I have come to make them see.”
40Some of the Pharisees were standing nearby and overheard these words. They interrupted Jesus and said, “You mean to tell us that we are blind?”
41Jesus told them, “If you would acknowledge your blindness, then your sin would be removed. But now that you claim to see, your sin remains with you!” # 9:41 Or “your sin stands” (rises up).
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