Text -- John 9:1-22 (NET)

Healing a Man Born Blind

9:1 Now as Jesus was passing by, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. 9:2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who committed the sin that caused him to be born blind, this man or his parents?” 9:3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but he was born blind so that the acts of God may be revealed through what happens to him. 9:4 We must perform the deeds of the one who sent me as long as it is daytime. Night is coming when no one can work. 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 9:6 Having said this, he spat on the ground and made some mud with the saliva. He smeared the mud on the blind man’s eyes 9:7 and said to him, “Go wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated “sent”). So the blind man went away and washed, and came back seeing. 9:8 Then the neighbors and the people who had seen him previously as a beggar began saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9:9 Some people said, “This is the man!” while others said, “No, but he looks like him.” The man himself kept insisting, “I am the one!” 9:10 So they asked him, “How then were you made to see?” 9:11 He replied, “The man called Jesus made mud, smeared it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and was able to see.” 9:12 They said to him, “Where is that man?” He replied, “I don’t know.”

The Pharisees’ Reaction to the Healing

9:13 They brought the man who used to be blind to the Pharisees. 9:14 (Now the day on which Jesus made the mud and caused him to see was a Sabbath.) 9:15 So the Pharisees asked him again how he had gained his sight. He replied, “He put mud on my eyes and I washed, and now I am able to see.” 9:16 Then some of the Pharisees began to say, “This man is not from God, because he does not observe the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such miraculous signs?” Thus there was a division among them. 9:17 So again they asked the man who used to be blind, “What do you say about him, since he caused you to see?” “He is a prophet,” the man replied. 9:18 Now the Jewish religious leaders refused to believe that he had really been blind and had gained his sight until at last they summoned the parents of the man who had become able to see. 9:19 They asked the parents, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?” 9:20 So his parents replied, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 9:21 But we do not know how he is now able to see, nor do we know who caused him to see. Ask him, he is a mature adult. He will speak for himself.” 9:22 (His parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jewish religious leaders. For the Jewish leaders had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Joh 9:1

¹ tn Or “going along.” The opening words of chap. 9, καὶ παράγων (kai paragwn), convey only the vaguest indication of the circumstances.

sn Since there is no break with chap. 8, Jesus is presumably still in Jerusalem, and presumably not still in the temple area. The events of chap. 9 fall somewhere between the feast of Tabernacles (John 7:2) and the feast of the Dedication (John 10:22). But in the author’s narrative the connection exists – the incident recorded in chap. 9 (along with the ensuing debates with the Pharisees) serves as a real-life illustration of the claim Jesus made in 8:12, I am the light of the world. This is in fact the probable theological motivation behind the juxtaposition of these two incidents in the narrative. The second serves as an illustration of the first, and as a concrete example of the victory of light over darkness. One other thing which should be pointed out about the miracle recorded in chap. 9 is its messianic significance. In the OT it is God himself who is associated with the giving of sight to the blind (Exod 4:11, Ps 146:8). In a number of passages in Isa (29:18, 35:5, 42:7) it is considered to be a messianic activity.

NET Notes: Joh 9:2

¹ tn Grk “asked him, saying.”

² tn Grk “this one.”

³ tn Grk “in order that he should be born blind.”

sn The disciples assumed that sin (regardless of who committed it) was the cause of the man’s blindness. This was a common belief in Judaism; the rabbis used Ezek 18:20 to prove there was no death without sin, and Ps 89:33 to prove there was no punishment without guilt (the Babylonian Talmud, b. Shabbat 55a, although later than the NT, illustrates this). Thus in this case the sin must have been on the part of the man’s parents, or during his own prenatal existence. Song Rabbah 1:41 (another later rabbinic work) stated that when a pregnant woman worshiped in a heathen temple the unborn child also committed idolatry. This is only one example of how, in rabbinic Jewish thought, an unborn child was capable of sinning.

NET Notes: Joh 9:3

¹ tn Grk “this one.”

² tn Grk “but so that.” There is an ellipsis that must be supplied: “but [he was born blind] so that” or “but [it happened to him] so that.”

³ tn Or “deeds”; Grk “works.”

⁴ tn Or “manifested,” “brought to light.”

⁵ tn Grk “in him.”

NET Notes: Joh 9:4

¹ tn Grk “We must work the works.”

² tn Or “of him who sent me” (God).

³ tn Or “while.”

NET Notes: Joh 9:5

¹ sn Jesus’ statement I am the light of the world connects the present account with 8:12. Here (seen more clearly than at 8:12) it is obvious what the author sees as the significance of Jesus’ statement. “Light” is not a metaphysical definition of the person of Jesus but a description of his effect on the world, forcing everyone in the world to ‘choose up sides’ for or against him (cf. 3:19-21).

NET Notes: Joh 9:6

¹ tn Grk “said these things.”

² tn Or “clay” (moistened earth of a clay-like consistency). The textual variant preserved in the Syriac text of Ephraem’s commentary on the Diatessaron (“he made eyes from his clay”) probably arose from the interpretation given by Irenaeus in Against Heresies: “that which the Artificer, the Word, had omitted to form in the womb, he then supplied in public.” This involves taking the clay as an allusion to Gen 2:7, which is very unlikely.

³ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the conjunction καί (kai) was replaced by a third person pronoun and a new sentence started here in the translation.

⁴ tn Grk “on his.”

NET Notes: Joh 9:7

¹ tn The pool’s name in Hebrew is shiloah from the Hebrew verb “to send.” In Gen 49:10 the somewhat obscure shiloh was interpreted messianically by later Jewish tradition, and some have seen a lexical connection between the two names (although this is somewhat dubious). It is known, however, that it was from the pool of Siloam that the water which was poured out at the altar during the feast of Tabernacles was drawn.

² sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. Why does he comment on the meaning of the name of the pool? Here, the significance is that the Father sent the Son, and the Son sent the man born blind. The name of the pool is applicable to the man, but also to Jesus himself, who was sent from heaven.

³ tn Grk “So he”; the referent (the blind man) is specified in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: Joh 9:8

¹ tn Or “formerly.”

² tn An ingressive force (“began saying”) is present here because the change in status of the blind person provokes this new response from those who knew him.

³ tn Grk “the one.”

NET Notes: Joh 9:9

¹ tn Grk “Others were saying.”

² tn Grk “This is the one.”

³ tn Grk “No, but he is like him.”

⁴ tn Grk “That one”; the referent (the man himself) is specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn Grk “I am he.”

NET Notes: Joh 9:10

¹ tn Grk “So they were saying to him.”

² tn Grk “How then were your eyes opened” (an idiom referring to restoration of sight).

NET Notes: Joh 9:11

¹ tn Grk “That one answered.”

² tn Or “clay” (moistened earth of a clay-like consistency).

³ tn Grk “and smeared.” Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when obvious from the context.

⁴ tn Grk “said to me.”

⁵ tn Or “and I gained my sight.”

NET Notes: Joh 9:12

¹ tn Grk “And they said.”

² tn Grk “that one.” “Man” is more normal English style for the referent.

³ tn Grk “He said.”

NET Notes: Joh 9:13

¹ tn Grk “who was formerly blind.”

² sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.

NET Notes: Joh 9:14

¹ tn Or “clay” (moistened earth of a clay-like consistency).

² tn Grk “and opened his eyes” (an idiom referring to restoration of sight).

³ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

NET Notes: Joh 9:15

¹ tn Or “how he had become able to see.”

sn So the Pharisees asked him. Note the subtlety here: On the surface, the man is being judged. But through him, Jesus is being judged. Yet in reality (as the discerning reader will realize) it is ironically the Pharisees themselves who are being judged by their response to Jesus who is the light of the world (cf. 3:17-21).

² tn Grk “And he said to them.”

³ tn Or “clay” (moistened earth of a clay-like consistency).

⁴ tn The word “now” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied to indicate the contrast between the man’s former state (blind) and his present state (able to see).

NET Notes: Joh 9:16

¹ tn As a response to the answers of the man who used to be blind, the use of the imperfect tense in the reply of the Pharisees is best translated as an ingressive imperfect (“began to say” or “started saying”).

² tn Grk “he does not keep.”

³ sn The Jewish religious leaders considered the work involved in making the mud to be a violation of the Sabbath.

⁴ tn Grk “do.”

⁵ tn Or “So there was discord.”

NET Notes: Joh 9:17

¹ tn Grk “the blind man.”

² tn Grk “since he opened your eyes” (an idiom referring to restoration of sight).

³ tn Grk “And he said, ‘He is a prophet.’”

sn At this point the man, pressed by the Pharisees, admitted there was something special about Jesus. But here, since prophet is anarthrous (is not accompanied by the Greek article) and since in his initial reply in 9:11-12 the man showed no particular insight into the true identity of Jesus, this probably does not refer to the prophet of Deut 18:15, but merely to an unusual person who is capable of working miracles. The Pharisees had put this man on the spot, and he felt compelled to say something about Jesus, but he still didn’t have a clear conception of who Jesus was, so he labeled him a “prophet.”

NET Notes: Joh 9:18

¹ tn Or “the Jewish religious authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory, the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus. (For further information see R. G. Bratcher, “‘The Jews’ in the Gospel of John,” BT 26 [1975]: 401-9.) Here the phrase refers mainly to the Pharisees, mentioned by name in John 9:13, 15, 16. References in this context to Pharisees and to the synagogue (v. 22) suggest an emphasis on the religious nature of the debate which is brought out by the translation “the Jewish religious leaders.”

² tn The Greek text contains the words “about him” at this point: “the Jewish authorities did not believe about him…”

³ tn Grk “they called.”

⁴ tn Or “the man who had gained his sight.”

NET Notes: Joh 9:19

¹ tn Grk “and they asked them, saying”; the referent (the parents) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn The Greek pronoun and verb are both plural (both parents are addressed).

NET Notes: Joh 9:20

¹ tn Grk “So his parents answered and said.”

NET Notes: Joh 9:21

¹ tn Grk “who opened his eyes” (an idiom referring to restoration of sight).

² tn Or “he is of age.”

NET Notes: Joh 9:22

¹ tn Or “the Jewish religious authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” Twice in this verse the phrase refers to the Pharisees, mentioned by name in John 9:13, 15, 16. The second occurrence is shortened to “the Jewish leaders” for stylistic reasons. See the note on the phrase “the Jewish religious leaders” in v. 18.

² tn Grk “confessed him.”

³ tn Or “the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).

sn See the note on Christ in 1:20.

⁴ tn Or “would be expelled from.”

⁵ sn This reference to excommunication from the Jewish synagogue for those who had made some sort of confession about Jesus being the Messiah is dismissed as anachronistic by some (e.g., Barrett) and nonhistorical by others. In later Jewish practice there were at least two forms of excommunication: a temporary ban for thirty days, and a permanent ban. But whether these applied in NT times is far from certain. There is no substantial evidence for a formal ban on Christians until later than this Gospel could possibly have been written. This may be a reference to some form of excommunication adopted as a contingency to deal with those who were proclaiming Jesus to be the Messiah. If so, there is no other record of the procedure than here. It was probably local, limited to the area around Jerusalem. See also the note on synagogue in 6:59.