9:1 Now as Jesus was passing by, 1 he saw a man who had been blind from birth. 9:2 His disciples asked him, 2 “Rabbi, who committed the sin that caused him to be born blind, this man 3 or his parents?” 4 9:3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man 5 nor his parents sinned, but he was born blind so that 6 the acts 7 of God may be revealed 8 through what happens to him. 9 9:4 We must perform the deeds 10 of the one who sent me 11 as long as 12 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.” 13 9:6 Having said this, 14 he spat on the ground and made some mud 15 with the saliva. He 16 smeared the mud on the blind man’s 17 eyes
1 tn Or “going along.” The opening words of chap. 9, καὶ παράγων (kai paragwn), convey only the vaguest indication of the circumstances.
2 tn Grk “asked him, saying.”
3 tn Grk “this one.”
4 tn Grk “in order that he should be born blind.”
5 tn Grk “this one.”
6 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.”
7 tn Or “deeds”; Grk “works.”
8 tn Or “manifested,” “brought to light.”
9 tn Grk “in him.”
10 tn Grk “We must work the works.”
11 tn Or “of him who sent me” (God).
12 tn Or “while.”
13 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).
14 tn Grk “said these things.”
15 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.
16 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.
17 tn Grk “on his.”