Matthew 23:17

23:17 Blind fools! Which is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold sacred?

Matthew 23:19

23:19 You are blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

Matthew 23:24

23:24 Blind guides! You strain out a gnat yet swallow a camel! ¹ 

Matthew 23:26

23:26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, ²  so that the outside may become clean too!

Matthew 15:14

15:14 Leave them! They are blind guides. ³  If someone who is blind leads another who is blind, ⁴  both will fall into a pit.”

Isaiah 56:10-11

56:10 All their watchmen ⁵  are blind,

they are unaware. ⁶ 

All of them are like mute dogs,

unable to bark.

They pant, ⁷  lie down,

and love to snooze.

56:11 The dogs have big appetites;

they are never full. ⁸ 

They are shepherds who have no understanding;

they all go their own way,

each one looking for monetary gain. ⁹ 

John 9:39-41

9:39 Jesus ¹⁰  said,] ¹¹  “For judgment I have come into this world, so that those who do not see may gain their sight, ¹²  and the ones who see may become blind.”

9:40 Some of the Pharisees ¹³  who were with him heard this ¹⁴  and asked him, ¹⁵  “We are not blind too, are we?” ¹⁶  9:41 Jesus replied, ¹⁷  “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, ¹⁸  but now because you claim that you can see, ¹⁹  your guilt ²⁰  remains.” ²¹ 

[23:24]  ¹ tn Grk “Blind guides who strain out a gnat yet who swallow a camel!”

[23:26]  ² tc A very difficult textual problem is found here. The most important Alexandrian and Byzantine, as well as significant Western, witnesses (א B C L W 0102 0281 ˹³ 33 Ï lat co) have “and the dish” (καὶ τῆς παροψίδος, kai th" paroyido") after “cup,” while few important witnesses (D Θ Ë¹ 700 and some versional and patristic authorities) omit the phrase. On the one hand, scribes sometimes tended to eliminate redundancy; since “and the dish” is already present in v. 25, it may have been deleted in v. 26 by well-meaning scribes. On the other hand, as B. M. Metzger notes, the singular pronoun αὐτοῦ (autou, “its”) with τὸ ἐκτός (to ekto", “the outside”) in some of the same witnesses that have the longer reading (viz., B* ˹³ al) hints that their archetype lacked the words (TCGNT 50). Further, scribes would be motivated both to add the phrase from v. 25 and to change αὐτοῦ to the plural pronoun αὐτῶν (aujtwn, “their”). Although the external evidence for the shorter reading is not compelling in itself, combined with these two prongs of internal evidence, it is to be slightly preferred.

[15:14]  ³ tc ‡ Most mss, some of which are significant, read “They are blind guides of the blind” (א¹ C L W Z Θ Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat). The shorter reading is read by א*^,2 B D 0237 Epiph. There is a distinct possibility of omission due to homoioarcton in א*; this manuscript has a word order variation which puts the word τυφλοί (tufloi, “blind”) right before the word τυφλῶν (tuflwn, “of the blind”). This does not explain the shorter reading, however, in the other witnesses, of which B and D are quite weighty. Internal considerations suggest that the shorter reading is original: “of the blind” was likely added by scribes to balance this phrase with Jesus’ following statement about the blind leading the blind, which clearly has two groups in view. A decision is difficult, but internal considerations here along with the strength of the witnesses argue that the shorter reading is more likely original. NA²⁷ places τυφλῶν in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

[15:14]  ⁴ tn Grk “If blind leads blind.”

[56:10]  ⁵ sn The “watchmen” are probably spiritual leaders, most likely prophets and priests, responsible for giving the people moral direction.

[56:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “they do not know”; KJV “they are all ignorant”; NIV “they all lack knowledge.”

[56:10]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text has הֹזִים (hozim), which appears to be derived from an otherwise unattested verbal root הָזָה (hazah). On the basis of alleged cognates, BDB 223 s.v. הָזָה offers the definition “dream, rave” while HALOT 243 s.v. הזה lists “pant.” In this case the dog metaphor of the preceding lines continues. The reference to dogs at the beginning of v. 11 favors the extension of the metaphor. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has חזים (“seers”) here. In this case the “watchmen” are directly identified as prophets and depicted as lazy.

[56:11]  ⁸ sn The phrase never full alludes to the greed of the leaders.

[56:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “for his gain from his end.”

[9:39]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Or “that those who do not see may see.”

[9:40]  ¹³ sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.

[9:40]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “heard these things.”

[9:40]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “and said to him.”

[9:40]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

[9:41]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “you would not have sin.”

[9:41]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “now because you say, ‘We see…’”

[9:41]  ²⁰ tn Or “your sin.”

[9:41]  ²¹ 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).