John 9:36-41

9:36 The man ¹  replied, ²  “And who is he, sir, that ³  I may believe in him?” 9:37 Jesus told him, “You have seen him; he ⁴  is the one speaking with you.” ⁵  9:38 [He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. ⁶  9:39 Jesus ⁷  said,] ⁸  “For judgment I have come into this world, so that those who do not see may gain their sight, ⁹  and the ones who see may become blind.”

9:40 Some of the Pharisees ¹⁰  who were with him heard this ¹¹  and asked him, ¹²  “We are not blind too, are we?” ¹³  9:41 Jesus replied, ¹⁴  “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, ¹⁵  but now because you claim that you can see, ¹⁶  your guilt ¹⁷  remains.” ¹⁸ 

[9:36]  ¹ tn Grk “That one.”

[9:36]  ² tn Grk answered and said.” This has been simplified in the translation to “replied.”

[9:36]  ³ tn Or “And who is he, sir? Tell me so that…” Some translations supply elliptical words like “Tell me” (NIV, NRSV) following the man’s initial question, but the shorter form given in the translation is clear enough.

[9:37]  ⁴ tn Grk “that one.”

[9:37]  ⁵ tn The καί – καί (kai – kai) construction would normally be translated “both – and”: “You have both seen him, and he is the one speaking with you.” In this instance the English semicolon was used instead because it produces a smoother and more emphatic effect in English.

[9:38]  ⁶ sn Assuming the authenticity of John 9:38-39a (see the tc note following the bracket in v. 39), the man’s response after Jesus’ statement of v. 37 is extremely significant: He worshiped Jesus. In the Johannine context the word would connote its full sense: This was something due God alone. Note also that Jesus did not prevent the man from doing this. The verb προσκυνέω (proskunew) is used in John 4:20-25 of worshiping God, and again with the same sense in 12:20. This would be the only place in John’s Gospel where anyone is said to have worshiped Jesus using this term. As such, it forms the climax of the story of the man born blind, but the uniqueness of the concept of worshiping Jesus at this point in John's narrative (which reaches its ultimate climax in the confession of Thomas in John 20:28) may suggest it is too early for such a response and it represents a later scribal addition.

[9:39]  ⁷ tn Grk “And Jesus.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[9:39]  ⁸ tc ‡ Some early and important witnesses (Ì⁷⁵ א* W b sa^ms ac² mf) lack the words, “He said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him. Jesus said,” (vv. 38-39a). This is weighty evidence for the omission of these words. It is difficult to overstate the value of Ì⁷⁵ here, since it is the only currently available papyrus ms extant for the text of John 9:38-39. Further, א is an important and early Alexandrian witness for the omission. The versional testimony and codex W also give strong support to the omission. Nearly all other mss, however, include these words. The omission may have been occasioned by parablepsis (both vv. 37 and 39 begin with “Jesus said to him”), though it is difficult to account for such an error across such a wide variety of witnesses. On the other hand, the longer reading appears to be motivated by liturgical concerns (so R. E. Brown, John [AB], 1:375), since the verb προσκυνέω (proskunew, “I worship”) is used in John 4:20-25 of worshiping God, and again with the same sense in 12:20. If these words were authentic here, this would be the only place in John’s Gospel where Jesus is the explicit object of προσκυνέω. Even if these words are not authentic, such an omission would nevertheless hardly diminish John’s high Christology (cf. 1:1; 5:18-23; 14:6-10; 20:28), nor the implicit worship of him by Thomas (20:28). Nevertheless, a decision is difficult, and the included words may reflect a very early tradition about the blind man’s response to Jesus.

[9:39]  ⁹ tn Or “that those who do not see may see.”

[9:40]  ¹⁰ sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.

[9:40]  ¹¹ tn Grk “heard these things.”

[9:40]  ¹² tn Grk “and said to him.”

[9:40]  ¹³ tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “are we?”).

[9:41]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

[9:41]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “you would not have sin.”

[9:41]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “now because you say, ‘We see…’”

[9:41]  ¹⁷ tn Or “your sin.”

[9:41]  ¹⁸ sn Because you claim that you can see, your guilt remains. The blind man received sight physically, and this led him to see spiritually as well. But the Pharisees, who claimed to possess spiritual sight, were spiritually blinded. The reader might recall Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in 3:10, “Are you the teacher of Israel and don’t understand these things?” In other words, to receive Jesus was to receive the light of the world, to reject him was to reject the light, close one’s eyes, and become blind. This is the serious sin of which Jesus had warned before (8:21-24). The blindness of such people was incurable since they had rejected the only cure that exists (cf. 12:39-41).