Jn. 9:1 Now as time passed, He saw a man who was blind from birth.
Jn. 9:2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Jn. 9:3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man, nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.”
Being blind from birth sets this miracle apart from just restoring sight to a blind person, a person who had their sight lost because of an accident or disease. This is the third Messianic Miracle recorded in the Gospels.
The disciples asked whether or not this man, before his birth, had sinned and caused his blindness, or was it a sin of his parents that caused it. First, let’s explain about his parents. The Mosaic Law in Exodus 34:6,7 states that God “visits the sins of the fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” So, the disciples asking the question of whether or not his blindness is due to his parent’s sin is actually Scriptural. The strangest part of the question is how can an unborn child sin? Judaism never taught reincarnation, so there couldn’t have been sin from a previous life. The “Pentateuch and Haftorah” on Exodus 34:7 says this Scripture refers to the consequences of sin, not the sin itself.
Source: Exodus 34:6, 7
Pharisaic Judaism taught that a birth defect, such as congenital blindness, could be caused by a specific sin of either the parent or the unborn child. The reason for the strange question was that there was a teaching that at the point of conception, the fetus has two inclinations: either a good inclination (yetzer tov), or an evil inclination (yetzer ra). Christians today call it a free will. This evil inclination could cause the fetus to sin in the womb causing its own birth defect . Something as insignificant as the fetus becoming angry at it’s mother and kicking her in the womb would be sufficient sin to possibly cause congenital blindness, or some other birth defect. It is obvious that Pharisaic Judaism believed that the fetus or unborn child was a person having already a soul and therefore they would have been anti-abortion or pro-life as we are and is orthodox Judaism today.
In the next verse, Yeshua once again disagrees with the Pharisees and teaches a new truth. Not all illnesses are due to personal sin or caused by Satan. Sometimes God causes it so that He can later be glorified through it (Exodus 4:11).
Source: Exodus 4:11
Jn. 9:4 “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.”
Again, we see the sub-theme of Yochanan’s Gospel — the conflict between light and darkness.
Jn. 9:5 “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Jn. 9:6 When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the blind man with the clay.
This man had been born blind. Yeshua spat on the ground, made a poultice of spittle and clay, anointed the eyes of the blind man. He then instructed him to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam. The use of spittle was mentioned in Rabbinic literature concerning healing (BT:Baba Bathra 126b). He was also healed in a manner that was clearly forbidden because it was the Sabbath day. In M:Shabbat 108:20 it says, “To heal a blind man, what is prohibited, so far that it may not be injected into the eye and the eyebrow it may. Spittle is forbidden on the eyelid.” Before anyone gets too excited here, lets remember one thing: this verse is found in the Mishnah (Oral Law). There is no such prohibition in the Torah (Mosaic Law). Yeshua did not violate the Word of God by healing this man on the Sabbath. The Pharisees, for the most part, recognized the Mishnah as having the same authority as Scripture. Yeshua did not. He did recognize the most of the Oral Law as very sound guiding principles and agreed with them completely. But, in some cases, the Pharisees simply went too far. When they did, Yeshua very quickly contradicted them.
Sources: BT:Baba Bathra 126b; M;Shabbat 108:20
Jn. 9:7 And He said to him, “Go, and wash in the Pool of Siloam (which is translated “sent”). So he went away and washed and came back seeing.
When he washed as instructed, his eyes were opened and he received his sight. It is an important fact for us to note that, in everything that Yeshua says or does, He is hinting back at something in the Biblical text that will establish His identity and His authority. Yeshua never attempts to hide His identity. In a very Hebraic way, through what He says or what He does, He establishes in a very clear and pointed way to His listeners both His identity and His authority.
In performing these miracles, Yeshua is declaring His Deity. In a very Hebraic way He is claiming to be God (Isaiah 35:4). According to Jewish tradition, for eye trouble, spittle was commonly used. There was a tradition that the spittle of the firstborn son of a father has healing power. In using spittle in the performance of a miracle, Yeshua is declaring in a very dramatic way that He is the firstborn of the Father.
Source: Isaiah 35:4
Healing someone who had went blind was restoring what God had already created. Healing someone who had been blind from birth and had never been able to see was an act of creation that only God could do.
This entire chapter of Yochanan’s Gospel is occurring during the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkoth). Yeshua now proceeds to heal the man, and then sends him to the Pool of Siloam to wash. This is probably because there were so many people there for the Beit Shoveah ceremony that would be witnesses to the miracle. The Pool of Siloam is at the end of a long, dark tunnel called Hezekiah’s Tunnel. It extends for about a half mile into the city.
Jn. 9:8 Therefore the neighbors and those that had previously seen that he was blind said, “Is this not he who sat and begged?”
Jn. 9:9 Some said, “This is he.” Others said, “He is like him.” He said, “I am he.”
Jn. 9:10 Therefore they said to him, “How were your eyes opened?”
Jn. 9:11 He answered and said, “A man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received sight.”
Jn. 9:12 Then they said to him, “Where is He?” He said, “I do not know.”
Jn. 9:13 They brought him who was formerly blind to the Pharisees.
Jn. 9:14 Now it was the Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.
This verse tells us that it was on the Sabbath when Yeshua healed the man’s blindness. Because of this obvious Messianic Miracle, the man is brought to the Pharisees for interrogation
Jn. 9:15 Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them,“He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”
Jn. 9:16 “Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such miracles?” And there was division among them.
Some of the Pharisees said that Yeshua can’t be from God because He doesn’t keep the Sabbath; meaning that He violated the Sabbath, or He worked on the Sabbath when He healed the man. Therefore, He must be a sinner. The Mishnah (Oral Law) covering the Sabbath was very specific. A person could only walk a short distance (approximately a 1/4 mile) before it was considered work and many simple manual tasks, such as starting a fire or sewing a ripped garment, was considered work. Healing was also considered work, and healing on the Sabbath was a sin according to the Pharisees. However, there is no specific prohibition in the Written or Oral Law against healing on the Sabbath. But, other Pharisees wondered how He could be called a sinner if He could perform such miracles. How could He do these Messianic Miracles if He wasn’t the Messiah Himself? Their conclusion must have been that possibly He was the Messiah and that healing on the Sabbath was not a sin. So, there was a division among the Pharisees.
Jn. 9:17 They said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”
Jn. 9:18 But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight.
Jn. 9:19 And they asked them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”
Jn. 9:20 His parents answered them, and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind.”
Jn. 9:21 “But by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself.”
The Pharisees did not believe that the man had been born blind from birth, so they decided to interrogate his parents. The parents confirmed that this was their son and that he had been born blind. But, they refused to answer the question of how he could see now.
Jn. 9:22 His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that Yeshua was the Messiah, he would be put out of the synagogue.”
The parents feared excommunication from the synagogue, from the Temple, and from the Jewish community. Evidently the Pharisees were already making this a practice, that if anyone believed in Yeshua as the Messiah, they would be put out of the synagogue. Out of fear, the parents said, “Ask him.”
Jn. 9:23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
Jn. 9:24 So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, “Give God the glory! We know this man is a sinner.”
Jn. 9:25 He answered and said, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know that though I was blind, now I see.”
Jn. 9:26 Then they said to him again, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?”
Jn. 9:27 He answered them, “I told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?”
Jn. 9:28 Then they reviled him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples.”
The Pharisees again interrogated the man. He again told them of his healing. But when the Pharisees for the third time asked him what happened, he got sarcastic with them. He was walking around miraculously healed and the Pharisees would not accept it. He had enough of their questioning. His asking them if they wanted to follow Yeshua drove the Pharisees mad and they proceeded to insult them. The Pharisees had been “painted into a corner” by this miracle and they were desperately trying to get out of it without admitting that Yeshua was the Messiah. Being totally in the wrong right now no longer counts.
Jn. 9:29 “We know that God spoke to Moses; but as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from.”
Jn. 9:30 The man answered and said to them, “Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He has opened my eyes.”
Jn. 9:31 “Now we know that God does not hear from sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him.”
Jn. 9:32 “Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone has opened the eyes of one that was born blind.”
The third Messianic Miracle was the healing of the man born blind. This verse tells us that not one case had been reported since the beginning of time of a man being healed that was born blind.
Jn. 9:33 “If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.”
Jn. 9:34 They answered and said to him, “You were completely born in sins, and you are teaching us?” And they cast him out.
The man by this time has had enough of the Pharisees and next he directly challenges them. In essence, he is saying to them, “You are the religious leaders of Israel and always taught us that only Messiah would be able to give me sight...... Someone has given me my sight, so this person must be the Messiah. Why don’t you acknowledge Him as the Messiah?” The Pharisees’ answer was to “cast him out’ or excommunicate him. M:Eduyoth speaks of three degrees of excommunication. The lightest degree is called Niddui. It is separation for 30 days from the synagogue, the community, the wife and servants. This punishment could be doubled or tripled if there was no repentance. It could be pronounced either publicly or privately by the Rabbis. See II Thess. 3:14,15 and Titus 3:10. The middle degree was called Cherem. This was exclusion from all communion with Jews, even to the purchasing of food. This had to be done by ten men and could last indefinitely. It meant to be un-synagogued or kicked out of the synagogue and then considered dead. See Matt. 18:15-20. The third and most serious degree was called Shmatah. This was total exclusion from the Jewish community and abandonment of the individual to the judgment of God. This is called the Great Excommunication. See I Corin. 5:1-7
Sources: Mt. 18:15-20; I Corin. 5:1-7; II Thess. 3:14, 15; Titus 3:10; M:Eduyoth
Jn. 9:35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He found him, He said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?”
Jn. 9:36 He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?”
Jn. 9:37 And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him, and it is He who is talking to you.”
Jn. 9:38 Then he said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped Him.”
Jn. 9:39 And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who may see may be made blind.”
Jn. 9:40 Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, “Are we blind also?”
Jn. 9:41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘we see!’ Therefore your sin remains.”
