1As Jesus1154 was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who has sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3Jesus answered, “Neither did this man sin, nor his parents; but [it was] in order that the works of God might be revealed in him. 4I must do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6When he had said this, he spat on the ground, made mud with the saliva and anointed the blind man’s eyes with the mud. 7He then said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). And so, the man went away, washed, and came back seeing. 8At this, the neighbors and those who saw that he had been blind1155 before said, “Is this not the man who sat and begged?” 9Others were saying, “It is he!” Still others were saying, “He looks like him.”
The man said, “I am he!”1156 10Therefore, the people asked him, “How were your eyes opened?”
11He answered, “A man called Jesus made mud, anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash.’ And so, I went away and washed, and I received sight.”
12Then they asked him, “Where is he?”
The man replied, “I do not know.”
13They brought the man who had been blind to the Pharisees. 14It was a Sabbath when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15Again, the Pharisees also asked the man how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and I see!”
16At this, 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 signs?” And there was a division among them. 17They asked the blind man again, “What do you say about him, since he opened your eyes?”
He said, “He is a prophet!”
18The Jews did not believe [the report] about this man, that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of this man who had received his sight. 19They asked the parents, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”
20His parents answered them, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind. 21But how 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.” 22His parents said this because they feared the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone would confess Jesus as Christ, that person would be expelled from the synagogue. 23Therefore, his parents said, “He is of age. Ask him!”
24And so, they called the man who had been blind a second time, and they told him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner!”
25At this, the man answered, “I do not know if he is a sinner. One thing I do know: that though I was blind, now I see!”
26Again, they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
27He answered them, “I told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You do not also want to become his disciples, do you?”
28They insulted him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29We know that God has spoken to Moses; but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.”
30The man answered them, “How amazing! You do not know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31Now we know that God does not listen to sinners; but he will listen to anyone who is God-fearing and who does his will.1157 32Since the world began, it has never been heard of that anyone opened the eyes of someone born blind. 33If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
34They answered him, “You were born completely in sins, and do you teach us?” And they threw him out.
35Jesus heard that they had thrown the man out,1158 and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of God?1159“
36The man answered, “And who is he, Sir,1160 that I may believe in him?”
37And Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking with you.”
38Then the man said, “Sir,1161 I believe!” and he expressed adoration to1162 Jesus.
39Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see; and so that those who see may become blind.”
40The Pharisees who were present heard these things, and they asked Jesus, “Are we also blind?”
41Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see!’ and therefore, your sin remains.”
The good shepherd
- Greek “he”
- CT reads “was a beggar” instead of “had been blind”
- Greek evgw. eivmi (which indicates that this idiomatic expression is fairly neutral—see note on 8:58).
- Psalm 66:18/65 LXX; Proverbs 15:29; 28:9
- Greek “him”
- CT reads “Son of man”
- Or “Lord”
- Or “Lord”
- proskuneo can also be translated “worship (in the broad sense),” “venerate,” “fall down in reverence,” “do obeisance” (see NT introduction regarding proskuneo)
Text: The Eastern / Greek Orthodox Bible, New Testament (EOB). Used with permission.
