John 9
9
Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind
1As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2And his disciples asked him, #See ch. 1:38 “Rabbi, #[Luke 13:2, 4] who sinned, #[ver. 34] this man or #Ex. 20:5his parents, that he was born blind?” 3Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but #[ch. 11:4]that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4We must #See ch. 4:34 work the works of him who sent me #ch. 11:9; 12:35; [Rom. 13:12; Gal. 6:10]while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5As long as I am in the world, #See ch. 1:4, 5, 9; 8:12I am the light of the world.” 6Having said these things, #Mark 7:33; 8:23 he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. #See Matt. 9:29Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7and said to him, “Go, wash in #Luke 13:4 the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and #ch. 11:37came back seeing.
8The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, #[Acts 3:2, 10]“Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11He answered, #ver. 6, 7“The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” 12They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”
13They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14#ch. 5:9Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15#ver. 10So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not #See ch. 7:29 from God, #See Matt. 12:2 for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, #ver. 33 “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And #ch. 7:43; 10:19there was a division among them. 17So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, #See ch. 4:19; 6:14“He is a prophet.”
18 # ver. 22; [ver. 13] The Jews#9:18 Greek Ioudaioi probably refers here to Jewish religious leaders, and others under their influence, in that time; also verse 22 did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22(His parents said these things #See ch. 7:13 because they feared the Jews, for #[ch. 7:45-52] the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should #[Rom. 10:9] confess Jesus#9:22 Greek him to be Christ, #ch. 12:42; 16:2he was to be put out of the synagogue.) 23Therefore his parents said, #ver. 21“He is of age; ask him.”
24So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, #Josh. 7:19; Jer. 13:16; [1 Sam. 6:5; Isa. 42:12; Acts 12:23] “Give glory to God. We know that #ver. 16this man is a sinner.” 25He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I #ver. 18, 24was blind, now I see.” 26They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27He answered them, #ver. 15“I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 28And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but #[ch. 5:45]we are disciples of Moses. 29We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, #See ch. 8:14we do not know where he comes from.” 30The man answered, “Why, this is #[ch. 12:37] an amazing thing! #[ch. 3:10]You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31We know that #Job 27:9; Ps. 66:18; Prov. 28:9 God does not listen to sinners, but #Ps. 34:15, 16; 145:19; Prov. 15:20; [James 5:16]if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33#ver. 16; [ch. 1:21; 3:2]If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34They answered him, #[ver. 2] “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they #[ver. 22]cast him out.
35Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in #ch. 10:36the Son of Man?”#9:35 Some manuscripts the Son of God 36He answered, #[Rom. 10:14]“And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and #ch. 4:26it is he who is speaking to you.” 38He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39Jesus said, #See ch. 5:22 “For judgment I came into this world, #[Matt. 11:25; Luke 4:18] that those who do not see may see, and #[Matt. 9:13; 13:13; Mark 4:12; 2 Cor. 2:16]those who see may become blind.” 40Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, #Rom. 2:19“Are we also blind?” 41Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, #ch. 15:22, 24; [ch. 19:11; 1 John 1:8]you would have no guilt;#9:41 Greek you would not have sin but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.
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The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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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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