9 9:1As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 9:2And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 9:3Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 9:4We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 9:5As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 9:6Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7 9:7and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.
8 9:8The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 9:9Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 9:10So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 9:11He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 9:12They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”
13 9:13They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 9:14Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 9:15So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 9:16Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 9:17So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”
18 9:18The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 9:19and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 9:20His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 9:21But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22 9:22(His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) 23 9:23Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
24 9:24So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 9:25He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 9:26They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 9:27He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 28 9:28And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 9:29We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” 30 9:30The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 9:31We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32 9:32Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 9:33If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 9:34They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.
35 9:35Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 9:36He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 9:37Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” 38 9:38He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39 9:39Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” 40 9:40Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 9:41Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.
These OT fulfillments establish Jesus as the one who brings about the prophesied fulfillment of both the exodus from Egypt and the prophesied new exodus and return from exile. The exile resulted from Israel’s sin, and Isaiah was commissioned to harden hearts, stop ears, and close eyes until Israel went into exile (Isa. 6:10–12). This hardening was to be lifted when the Lord gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and understanding to the heart (e.g., Isa. 32:3–4); even the lame would be healed (Isa. 35:5–6; cf. John 5).
Jesus came to accomplish the fulfillment of what the exodus from Egypt typified and the prophets prophesied about a new exodus and return from exile. To set that in motion, Jesus gave sight to the blind, doing a new-creation work (9:6–7) that resulted in his being worshiped (9:38; cf. 1:9–13).
In verses 4–5 Jesus speaks of working while it is day, refers to himself as the one “sent,” says that “night is coming,” and declares, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” The day in which Jesus says it is necessary for him to work is thus to be understood as the duration of his ministry prior to the cross. The night that comes will be the darkness following the departure of the Light of the World, Jesus.
God “formed the man of dust from the ground” in Genesis 2:7, so when John 9:6 says that Jesus “spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva,” there might be an overtone of the one through whom all things were made (1:3) doing a new-creation work in this blind man’s life. In addition, the blind man will become a follower of Jesus, and the Jews will begin to treat the blind man the same way they treat Jesus. For this reason, when John relates that Jesus “anointed [epechrisen] the man’s eyes with the mud” (9:6), there may be an overtone of the man’s becoming like the Anointed One, the Christ (cf. 1 John 2:20, 27).
Then, just as Elisha sent Naaman to wash in the Jordan (2 Kings 5:10), Jesus sends the blind man to “‘wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing” (John 9:7).
The darkness and light in verses 4–5 recall the prophecy of “distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish” and “thick darkness” in Isaiah 8:22, followed immediately by the prophecy of the “great light” seen by “those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness” (Isa. 9:2), which results from the child born as the Prince of Peace sitting on the throne of David (Isa. 9:6–7). Just prior to those statements, Isaiah had spoken in 8:6 of how “this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently.” The Hebrew place name “Shiloah” is cognate to the verb shalakh, meaning sent, and that name, “Shiloah,” in Isaiah 8:6 is translated “Siloam” in the Septuagint. This seems to forge a connection between “Siloam” (John 9:7) and the one “sent.”
Peter Leithart has written, “The blind man is being healed by the Sent One in the pool of sending, and thereby becomes one sent, a type of an apostle. He is plunged into the pool “Sent” by the One Sent, immersed in the Sent One’s sending.”
Jesus is the great light that has dawned, the Light of the World. Jesus is a new and better Elijah. Jesus knows God’s purposes and works, and Jesus can do what no one else can. As the Bread of Life, Jesus fed the five thousand. As the Light of the World, Jesus gave sight to one blind from birth.
9:8–34 The Rejection. John presents the reaction to the giving of sight to the man born blind. The blind man’s neighbors respond to his sight (vv. 8–12), then take him to the Pharisees (vv. 13–17). The Pharisees call in his parents (vv. 18–23) and then interact again with the man born blind (vv. 24–34):
- the seeing man and his neighbors (vv. 8–12);
- the seeing man and the Pharisees (vv. 13–17);
- the parents and the Pharisees (vv. 18–23);
- the seeing man and the Pharisees (vv. 24–34).
In each of these episodes, the question of how the blind man now sees is raised and addressed (vv. 10, 15, 19, 26). There also seems to be a progression in the way Jesus is referenced from one episode to the next:
- “the man called Jesus” (v. 11)
- “he is a prophet” (v. 17)
- “if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ” (v. 22)
- “if anyone is a worshiper of God [or, a pious man] and does his will” (v. 31)
These increasingly honorific ways of speaking of Jesus continue into the next section, verses 35–41, where Jesus identifies himself as “the Son of Man” and the man given sight responds by worshiping him (vv. 35, 38).
Just as the ways of referring to Jesus grow more and more reverent across the passage, so does the hostility to the man born blind grow more and more fierce. The first two interactions, with neighbors (vv. 8–12) and with Pharisees (vv. 13–17), are fact-finding conversations, and it is revealed that the miracle took place on the Sabbath (v. 14), which does not bode well for Jesus (v. 16). The third interaction (vv. 18–23) opens with the declaration that the Jews did not believe the man’s testimony (v. 18) and concludes with the disclosure of the Jewish intimidation policy, in which they threaten that anyone who confesses Jesus as Messiah will be expelled from the synagogue (v. 22). At the end of the fourth interaction (vv. 24–34), the seeing man is cast out (v. 34), apparently expelled from the synagogue.
The neighbors and those aware of the blind man recognize that he now has sight, and in verses 8–9 they begin to dispute the identity of the man, reflecting how unexpected and surprising his new sight is. As the man’s identity is questioned, with some asserting that he is not the man who was born blind, he insists, “I am the man” (v. 9). The man uses the same phrase Jesus used of himself in 8:58, “I am” (Gk. egō eimi). Jesus and the man born blind are not using the assertion “I am” the same way, but the reuse of the very words of Jesus does identify the man with Jesus. Jesus is the Anointed One, and he has anointed the blind man’s eyes (9:6). Jesus is the I Am, and those who follow Jesus become like him—they do not become divine like Jesus, but they are rejected like Jesus and begin to speak and act like him.
The neighbors ask how the man sees (v. 10), he rehearses the details (v. 11), and they ask where Jesus is, which the man cannot answer (v. 12). No one knows where Jesus comes from or where he goes (cf. 8:14).
The neighbors take the now-seeing man to the Pharisees, and it is revealed that Jesus performed the new-creation work of giving sight on the Sabbath (9:13–15). This provokes the same reaction that the healing of the man lame for thirty-eight years did (5:1–16), and they assert that Jesus can be neither good nor from God because “he does not keep the Sabbath” (9:16a). Other Pharisees, however, ask how such a sign could be done by a sinner doing sin, reflecting division in Pharisaic opinion (v. 16b).
When they ask the seeing man what he thinks of Jesus, he asserts that Jesus is a prophet (v. 17). This conclusion is natural given the similarity between Elisha’s healing of Naaman by washing in the Jordan and the healing of the blind man by washing in the pool of Siloam.
Not satisfied with the man’s answer, the Pharisees call in his parents and ask them whether the man is their born-blind son and how it is that he now sees (vv. 18–19). The man’s parents acknowledge him as their son, but they deflect the question concerning how he now sees because they fear being put out of the synagogue (vv. 20–23).
The Pharisees who have rejected Jesus seem to have prevailed when the man born blind is again brought before them. Ironically, they assert, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner” (v. 24). The Pharisees have it backwards. The man is giving glory to God, and Jesus is not a sinner but always does what pleases God (8:29).
The man born blind has been transformed. He was a blind beggar (9:8), but when Jesus gave him sight, he also transformed his character. This man now boldly stands before the religious authorities and confesses truthfully (v. 25). The Pharisees again ask how he came to see (v. 26), but the man recognizes their pretense and hypocrisy. He seems to recognize that the opponents of Jesus are not looking for facts but are trying to intimidate him, so he asserts that he has already answered but they did not listen. Then he sarcastically asks whether they want to become disciples of Jesus (v. 27).
John has presented how Jesus shows that Moses wrote of him, and that those who believe Moses believe Jesus (5:46; cf. 5:39; 7:19). The Pharisees nevertheless assert that their disagreement with the blind man and Jesus arises from their adherence to Moses (9:28). The opposition to Jesus is incoherent and self-contradictory. The crowd in Jerusalem had said in 7:27, “We know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from,” but the Pharisees now assert, “We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from” (9:29).
The man born blind sees right through the specious, self-defeating arguments of the Pharisees. This man can see physically, and he can also see spiritually. He agrees with Jesus that if the Pharisees really followed Moses, they would know that what Jesus does is obviously of God (v. 30). He reinforces the truth that God does not listen to the prayers of sinners, whereas God hears the prayers of the righteous (v. 31). By healing a man born blind, Jesus has done something otherwise unheard of (v. 32), and, like Nicodemus (3:2), the man knows that Jesus could do nothing if God were not with him (9:33).
The Pharisees cannot refute the arguments of this man who now sees physically and spiritually, so they pursue an ad hominem attack. They allege that he was “born in utter sin” and appeal to their own authority when they ask how he dares to think that he can teach them (v. 34a). Unable to refute his arguments with either logic or Scripture, they can only expel him from the synagogue (v. 34b).
In reality, the Pharisees had no problem with the formerly blind beggar. Their problem was with Jesus. Only when the man born blind was given sight by Jesus did he begin to be rejected by those who rejected Jesus. The man born blind was anointed, as Jesus was (v. 6; cf. 1 John 2:20, 27), and he began to talk like Jesus (John 9:9; cf. 8:58). As he became like Jesus, he began to see through hypocrisy and sin as Jesus did (9:27, 30–33). And as he became like Jesus, those who rejected Jesus began to reject him as well (v. 34).
The man’s parents were afraid they would be cast out of the synagogue (vv. 22–23), but the man realized that if Jesus was not in the synagogue, it would be left to thugs and thieves. Better to be cast out by rebels because of association with Jesus than to renounce Jesus in order to maintain one’s place among killing liars who do the deeds of their father, “the devil” (8:44).
9:35–41 The Reception. In 9:35, Jesus comes to this man whom his enemies have rejected, and a remarkable dialogue ensues between them. It becomes clear that this man’s theological and biblical understanding has yet to catch up with what he has experienced. Jesus healed his physical and spiritual blindness, but the man still lacks a full understanding of Jesus.
Jesus asks him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” (v. 35). What takes place in the rest of the passage indicates that this question pertains to the Daniel 7:13–14 Son of Man, the Most High who will receive everlasting dominion. From his reply in John 9:36, it seems the man understands that Jesus refers to Daniel 7:13–14, but he does not know that Jesus is the one there described. Jesus answers the man born blind (John 9:37) in a manner reminiscent of his answer to the Samaritan woman (4:26).
The Samaritan woman responded rightly to Jesus’ disclosure to her that he was the Messiah (4:25), immediately going and telling others about Jesus (vv. 28–29). The man born blind likewise responds rightly to Jesus’ disclosure that he is the Daniel 7:13–14 Son of Man: “He said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped [Jesus]” (John 9:38).
This is the only place in John’s Gospel where someone worships Jesus (but cf. 20:28). What is this man doing worshiping Jesus? If he knew and understood Daniel 7, he would know that in that vision Daniel saw a preexistent heavenly being identified as the “son of man,” a figure simultaneously identified with and distinguished from the Ancient of Days, who would be enthroned alongside the Ancient of Days in fulfillment of Psalm 110, a figure who would receive everlasting dominion.
Jesus identifies himself as the Son of Man, and the right response to that revelation is to worship him. Jesus does not refuse to receive worship, as angels do in Revelation (cf. Rev. 19:10; 22:8–9). Jesus is God. Jesus is to be worshiped. Jesus is to be trusted. Jesus is Lord.
In John 9:39, Jesus makes a statement that brings out the meaning of the healing of the man born blind. Jesus gave that man physical sight, and that new physical sight is a picture of the spiritual transformation that has taken place in him, as a result of which he speaks the name of Jesus (v. 11), recognizes him as a prophet (v. 17), knows that he comes from God (v. 33), and worships him as the Son of Man (vv. 37–38). Along the same lines, Jesus brought judgment into the world, “that . . . those who see may become blind” (v. 39). The Pharisees have physical sight but are blind to the glory of Jesus, as becomes clear in verses 40–41.
When Jesus says the Pharisees would have no guilt if they were blind (v. 41), he seems to mean that they would not have been exposed to the things Jesus had done among them. They would not be guilty of the sin of beholding Jesus and, rather than worshiping, going to war against him. This seems to explain why he says, “Now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains” (v. 41). They claim to perceive the truth. They claim to understand. They have come, however, to the wrong conclusion, which merely establishes their guilt.
1 Greek Ioudaioi probably refers here to Jewish religious leaders, and others under their influence, in that time; also verse 22
2 Greek him
3 Some manuscripts the Son of God
4 Greek you would not have sin
1 This Greek word, eptysen, is an example of onomatopoeia.
2 Leithart, Deep Exegesis, 102.
3 See the discussion of the Son of Man in Hamilton, Daniel in Biblical Theology.