John 9:6-11

9:6 Having said this, ¹  he spat on the ground and made some mud ²  with the saliva. He ³  smeared the mud on the blind man’s ⁴  eyes 9:7 and said to him, “Go wash in the pool of Siloam” ⁵  (which is translated “sent”). ⁶  So the blind man ⁷  went away and washed, and came back seeing.

9:8 Then the neighbors and the people who had seen him previously ⁸  as a beggar began saying, ⁹  “Is this not the man ¹⁰  who used to sit and beg?” 9:9 Some people said, ¹¹  “This is the man!” ¹²  while others said, “No, but he looks like him.” ¹³  The man himself ¹⁴  kept insisting, “I am the one!” ¹⁵  9:10 So they asked him, ¹⁶  “How then were you made to see?” ¹⁷  9:11 He replied, ¹⁸  “The man called Jesus made mud, ¹⁹  smeared it ²⁰  on my eyes and told me, ²¹  ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and was able to see.” ²² 

John 9:1

Healing a Man Born Blind

9:1 Now as Jesus was passing by, ²³  he saw a man who had been blind from birth.

John 2:20

2:20 Then the Jewish leaders ²⁴  said to him, “This temple has been under construction ²⁵  for forty-six years, ²⁶  and are you going to raise it up in three days?”

[9:6]  ¹ tn Grk “said these things.”

[9:6]  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.

[9:6]  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.

[9:6]  ⁴ tn Grk “on his.”

[9:7]  ⁵ 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.

[9:7]  ⁶ 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.

[9:7]  ⁷ tn Grk “So he”; the referent (the blind man) is specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:8]  ⁸ tn Or “formerly.”

[9:8]  ⁹ 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.

[9:8]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “the one.”

[9:9]  ¹¹ tn Grk “Others were saying.”

[9:9]  ¹² tn Grk “This is the one.”

[9:9]  ¹³ tn Grk “No, but he is like him.”

[9:9]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “That one”; the referent (the man himself) is specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:9]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “I am he.”

[9:10]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “So they were saying to him.”

[9:10]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “How then were your eyes opened” (an idiom referring to restoration of sight).

[9:11]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “That one answered.”

[9:11]  ¹⁹ tn Or “clay” (moistened earth of a clay-like consistency).

[9:11]  ²⁰ tn Grk “and smeared.” Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when obvious from the context.

[9:11]  ²¹ tn Grk “said to me.”

[9:11]  ²² tn Or “and I gained my sight.”

[9:1]  ²³ tn Or “going along.” The opening words of chap. 9, καὶ παράγων (kai paragwn), convey only the vaguest indication of the circumstances.

[2:20]  ²⁴ tn See the note on this phrase in v. 18.

[2:20]  ²⁵ tn A close parallel to the aorist οἰκοδομήθη (oikodomhqh) can be found in Ezra 5:16 (LXX), where it is clear from the following verb that the construction had not yet been completed. Thus the phrase has been translated “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years.” Some, however, see the term ναός (naos) here as referring only to the sanctuary and the aorist verb as consummative, so that the meaning would be “this temple was built forty-six years ago” (so ExSyn 560-61). Ultimately in context the logic of the authorities’ reply appears to fit more naturally if it compares length of time for original construction with length of time to reconstruct it.

[2:20]  ²⁶ sn According to Josephus (Ant. 15.11.1 [15.380]), work on this temple was begun in the 18th year of Herod the Great’s reign, which would have been ca. 19 b.c. (The reference in the Ant. is probably more accurate than the date given in J. W. 1.21.1 [1.401]). Forty-six years later would be around the Passover of a.d. 27/28.