The Great Commentary (Mossman/Cobb English)

They say unto the blind man again , What sayest thou of Him who hath opened thine eyes t He said He is a Prophet That is a specially holy man, a wonder-worker. So Abraham (Gen xx. 7) is called a Prophet (see what is said on 1 Cor. xiv. ad rem 9 and Ecdus. xlviii. 12, on the various meanings of the word Prophet). “ Being at present not anointed in heart, he did not confess Christ to be the Digitized by V^rOOQie BITTERNESS OF THE JEWS. 347 Son of God. But yet he did not speak falsely of Him. For the Lord said of Himself, “ A prophet is not without honour, save in His own country .” They asked the blind man the same question again and again, out of bitter hatred of Christ, and also to involve him in the same guilt with Christ They wished also to elicit something out of his mouth to make him contradict himself, that so they might convict him of a lie. But God caught them in their own craftiness. For by this frequent examination, the consistent confession of the blind man, and consequently the glory of Christ, shone forth. S. Chrysostom wisely says, “It is the nature of truth to become stronger by the snares laid against it.” And that was now the case, for the parents are brought forward, who fully acknowledged their son, and confirmed his words. Ver 1 8 . — But the Jews did not believe , &c. They hoped to elicit something from them to refute either the blind man or Christ, “ by finding that he was not born blind,” says S. Chrysostom, or was not quite blind but dim-sighted, or that he regained his sight by magic, and not by the miracle wrought by Christ. “ They sought,” says S. Augustine, “ how they might accuse him, that they might cast him out of the synagogue,” as they shortly afterwards did. Theophylact states that this was their dilemma. It is either false that your son now sees, or that he was blind at first But it is admitted that he sees, it was therefore false that he was, as he says, previously blind. His parents reply cautiously. They knew him to be their son, and that he was bom blind. But how he gained his sight they knew not They speak with prudence so as not to deny the truth, nor yet incur the peril of excommunication. And hence they say, “ He is of age,” meaning, says S. Augustine, “ we should justly be compelled to speak for an infant, for it could not speak for itself. But he is a man who can speak for himself, therefore (say they) ask him. n

For the Jews t &c “ But it was no evil to be put out of the synagogue,” says S. Augustine, “ for they expelled, but Christ received him.” “ But the parents said this, because they were less Digitized by V^rOOQie 348 s. JOHN, c. tX. firm than their son, who stood forth as an intrepid witness of the truth,” says Theophyiact

Then again called they the man , &c. To give God the glory, is a form of obtestation or oath among the Jews (see Josh. vii. 19). Confess that this man is a sinner, and so wilt thou by this confession of the truth give glory to God, who is the chief and eternal truth. “ To give glory to God ” (says the Gloss) “ is to speak the truth as in the presence of God.” They wished to persuade him under the pretext of religion (says S. Chrysostom), to deny that he was cured by Christ, or if he were, it was by magic and sleight of hand. “ Deny,” says the Interlinear Gloss, “ the benefit thou hast received by Christ But this were to blaspheme, and not to give glory to God.” Whether He be a sinner. “ He answers prudently and cautiously, neither laying himself open to the charge, nor yet concealing the truth,** says the Interlinear Gloss. But S. Chrysostom objects, “How was it that just before he called Him a Prophet, and now he says, * Whether he be a sinner I know not ? * ” He does not say this by way of assertion, or through fear, but because he wished Jesus to be acquitted of the charges by the evidence of the fact. “I do not wish to argue the point with you. But I know for certain, that though once blind, now I see.” How opened He thine eyes t Just like hounds, says & Chrysostom, who track their prey now here, now there. Wherefore would ye hear it again ? “ Ye do not wish to learn, but merely to cavil,” says S. Chrysostom. Will ye also be His disciples ? “ As I now see and envy not,” says the Gloss, “ nay, I profess myself to be Jesus* disciple, even so I wish you to become His disciples also.” “ He speaks thus,” says S. Augustine, “as indignant at the hardness of the Jews, and as having been restored to sight, not enduring those who were blind (in heart).** Note here the heroic constancy and nobleness of the blind man in defending Jesus before the Pharisees, His sworn enemies. And hence he deserved to be taken up and exalted by Christ Digitized by V^rOOQle HOW FAR GOD HEARS SINNERS. 349

They then reviled him , &c They cursed him, saying, Be thou accursed, or at all events heaped maledictions and reproaches upon him. But their curse was without effect, and was turned by Christ into a blessing. For it is an honour to the godly, to be cursed by the wicked. Whence S. Augustine says, “ It is a curse if thou look into the heart of the speakers, but not if thou weighest the words themselves. May such a curse be on us, and on our children.” But we know not this man whence he ix, whether sent by God, as was Moses, or by the deviL So Euthymius. Ver 30. — The man answered &c. It was your business, as doctors and learned in the Law, to know that Jesus, who works so many miracles, must have been sent by God only. For it is God who works miracles by Him. “ He brings in everywhere the miracle of his recovery of sight,” says S. Chrysostom, “ because they could not gainsay that, but were convinced thereby.”

If this man were not of God, He could do nothing, ue., for curing my blindness. “ He says this freely, stedfastly, and truly 99 Digitized by V^rOOQie PRIDE OF THE PHARISEES, 351 (S. Augustine), “for to enlighten the blind is supernatural work, and specially belongs to God.” Ver, 34. — They answered, &c, in sins, both in mind and body, for thou wast bom blind by reason of thy sin. For they held the tenet of Pythagoras that the soul existed before the body, and that it was in consequence of its sins thrust down into a deformed (i.e., a blind) body. So Cyril, Leontius, and others. Maldonatus explains, “ Thou hast done nothing but sin from thy birth.” So S. Chrysostom and Theophylact. And dost thou teach us? Thou blind sinner, wilt thou teach us who have our sight, and are wise and righteous ? And they cast him out of the private house in which they were, as not deserving to be disputed with by such just teachers, says Maldonatus. Or out of the temple, as says S. Chrysostom, and consequently out of the synagogue, adds Leontius. That is, they excommunicated him. “ But the Lord of the temple found him,” says Chrysostom, “ and took him up.” Both statements are credible : that they drove him out of the house, and also excommunicated him, for this latter they had decided to do. As if they said, “ Begone, thou apostate, and go to thine own Jesus.” But this leads us to suppose that all this took place in the House of Judgment, a public place (see on verse 31). And that he was expelled from the synagogue appears more plainly from our Lord’s own words in the next chapter, I am the door

Jesus heard that they had cast him out , &c Christ received him kindly, and rewards his constancy. Having given sight to his body, He now enlightens his mind. In giving him bodily sight, He had cast in some scattered seeds of faith, which He now particularly forms into perfect shape: so as to make him believe, that He whom he looked upon as a mere prophet, for having given him sight, was God also, and the Son of God. The Gloss says, “ The blind man had already a heart prepared to believe, but knew not in whom he had to believe.” This, in answer to his question, he learns from Christ Christ took trouble to find him in the place, where He knew he was. It is the part of a good shepherd to seek fora wandering Digitized by V^rOOQie 352 sheep, who cannot by itself come back into the right way. “ They expel,” says & Augustine (in loc .), “ the Lord receives, and he becomes a Christian, even the more because he was expelled.” Believest thou t Christ did not demand faith from the blind man for the healing of his body, but He does for the healing of his soul : for, as S. Augustine says (Serm. xv. de Verb. Apost .), “ He who made thee without thyself, doth not justify thee without thyself: He made thee without thy knowledge, He justifies thee through thy will”