9:8 Then the neighbors and the people who had seen him previously 1 as a beggar began saying, 2 “Is this not the man 3 who used to sit and beg?”
2:23 Now while Jesus 4 was in Jerusalem 5 at the feast of the Passover, many people believed in his name because they saw the miraculous signs he was doing. 6
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.”
4 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
6 sn Because they saw the miraculous signs he was doing. The issue here is not whether their faith was genuine or not, but what its object was. These individuals, after seeing the miracles, believed Jesus to be the Messiah. They most likely saw in him a political-eschatological figure of some sort. That does not, however, mean that their concept of “Messiah” was the same as Jesus’ own, or the author’s.