Bible Study series: John 9:1-12. This was a great sign.

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John 8

At that link, I provide a lot more commentary.

In this post, links are provided for further study.

Let’s begin.

Scripture: John 9:1-12

¹ Then as he was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth. ² His disciples asked him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents, that he was born blind?” ³ Jesus replied: “Neither this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God may be displayed in him. ⁴ We must work the works of the one who sent me while it is day; the night comes when no one can work. ⁵ While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” ⁶ After saying these things, he spit on the ground and made mud out of his saliva and smeared the mud on his eyes ⁷ and said to him, “Go and wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is interpreted as Sent). So he left and washed and came, seeing. ⁸ Then his neighbors and those who had seen him before that he was a beggar were saying, “Isn’t he the one who used to sit and beg?” ⁹ Others were saying, “That’s the one.” Others were saying, “No, but he is like him.” But he kept saying, “I’m the one.” ¹⁰ So they were saying to him, “How then were your eyes opened?” ¹¹ He answered, “A man called Jesus made mud and smeared my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.” So after I left and washed, I recovered my sight.” ¹² Next, they said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I don’t know.” (John 9:1-12)

Comments:

Jesus is in Jerusalem probably between the Feast of Tabernacles (John 8) and the Feast of Dedication (John 10).

Here is a table of the signs, but John also clarifies in various places that Jesus performed many other signs. So now we see that John’s narrative is highly stylized and edited, to suit his purpose.

THE EIGHT SIGNS OF JOHN’S GOSPEL
	Sign	Verses
1	Turning water into wine	2:1-11, the “beginning” or “first” sign
2	Healing an official’s son	4:43-54 “the second sign”
3	Healing a disabled man at a pool	5:1-15; see 6:2, where many healings are summarized
4	Feeding 5000	6:1-14 (see 6:14 and 6:26)
5	Walking on water	6:16-21
6	Healing a man born blind	9:1-12 (see 9:16 and “such signs”)
7	Raising Lazarus from dead	11:1-44 (see “signs” in 11:47 and “this sign” in 12:18)
8	Rising from the dead	20:1-31 (see many other signs in 20:30)
Source: BTSB, p. 2141, slightly edited. I repost it in this chapter because we don’t have to worry about the cost of printed pages. This is online writing.

And here is the purpose of the signs, without a complicated commentary:

³⁰ So then Jesus performed many other signs in front of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. ³¹ These were written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30-31)

The signs are for us to believe that he is the Messiah (or Christ), the Son of God. They are signposts, which point to Jesus and his glory. Evidently, Messiahship and Sonship are interchangeable here.

One has to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus.

The bottom line is that for John’s Gospel believing and faith must not get stuck in an intellectual assent. “I believe that God exists and Jesus lived.” Instead, everyone who believes or has faith must put their complete trust in God’s Son.

Word Study on Faith and Faithfulness

Now let’s move on.

1:

This verse simply sets up the problem. We will learn in v. 14 that this day is the Sabbath, so when the Pharisees investigate the nonemergency healing, they will get angry at the man and Jesus for violating their Sabbath rules.

2:

Rabbi means “Teacher.” It did not have the official status or hold office of the later Rabbis.

1. Titles of Jesus: Rabbi and Teacher

“Disciples”: the noun is used 261 times in the NT, though many of them are duplicates in the three synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. BDAG, a thick Greek lexicon which many believe is authoritative, says of the noun (1) “one who engages in learning through instruction from another, pupil, apprentice”; (2) “one who is rather constantly associated with someone who has a pedagogical reputation or a particular set of views, disciple, adherent.”

Word Study on Disciple

The disciples are trapped in cultural thinking. Many believed that illness, particularly blindness, was caused by sin, whether by the victim or the parents. Apparently the disciples believed that the man was born or conceived in sin.

Mounce quotes the Babylonian Talmud: “There is no death without sin, and there is no suffering without iniquity (b. Shabb. 55a). Apparently this was the general principle.

3:

These Psalms may be in the background to the disciples’ simplistic theology:

³ Even from birth the wicked go astray;
from the womb they are wayward, spreading lies.
⁴ Their venom is like the venom of a snake,
like that of a cobra that has stopped its ears,
⁵ that will not heed the tune of the charmer,
however skillful the enchanter may be. (Ps. 58:3-5, NIV)

And this one:

⁵ Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me. (Ps. 51:5, NIV)

Recall that Jacob and Esau wrestled in Rebekah’s womb (Gen. 25:21-22).

And John 5:14 implies that the lame man did something wrong in the past. However, here, Jesus raises their sights and demands that they look forward, not backwards to the past. It does not matter what the blind man’s past was like or what his parents may have done or not done. No, God did not cause the blindness many years ago, just to heal the man many years later; Jesus was not answering such thorny questions. Instead, God was going to get glory out of this bad situation, redeem it, and work a miracle by healing the man.

Don’t focus on your past and play the blame game. “If only I had not sinned, then I would not be blind or ill!” If you need to repent of a sin, then God will clarify it to you. You don’t have to allow your overactive conscience or your small, defective theology that equates sickness with sin in all situations to cancel out your faith. Get rid of your cheap theology. Focus on Jesus and his healing power, instead.

Human Sin: Original and Our Committed Sin

Bible Basics about Sin: Word Studies

4:

“must”: Jesus includes the disciples in the “we.” Both Jesus and they have a divine mission to carry out.

He also impresses on them the urgency to work while it is during the day. Night will come when no one can do the works of God. It is not clear when this night will come, perhaps during judgment when God brings down the curtain on This Age. It is difficult to believe that Satan will be permitted to hinder the works or God even in communist and Islamic countries, for the gospel has a way of slipping in through the cracks. Even during God’s wrath in the book of the Revelation, the message goes out and penetrates. More immediately, he is referring to his time on the earth. The world sits in darkness, but we can still work in it.

5:

In view of this night and day contrast, Jesus once again announces the second of the seven “I am” statements: I am the light. He does not use the significant egō eimi (pronounced eh-goh ay-mee) I am” but just eimi “I am.”

However, the light is still a symbol. Now let’s fill it in: How does Jesus signify light? First, God is light (1 John 1:5). It reflects his divine nature, and it speaks of truth. It illuminates the soul and spirit of humanity, after they repent and surrender to Jesus. Yet, light can shine on the path that leads to their repentance and surrender (BDAG). Light speaks of truth over error; knowledge over ignorance; wisdom over foolishness.

Being the light and working while it is still daytime “does not mean that Jesus stops being the light of the world once he has ascended. It means, rather, that the light shines brightly while he lives out his human life up to the moment of his glorification. Throughout that period he is the light that exposes the world, judges the world, saves the world” (Carson, comment on vv. 4-5).

Jesus is the light coming into the world, and darkness does not extinguish it:

⁴ In him was life, and this life was the light of people. ⁵ And the light shines in darkness, and the darkness did not put it out. … ⁹ The true light, which shines on every person, was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world through him was made and the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to his own people, but his own people did not receive him. ¹² But to all who received him, to the ones who believe in his name, he gave the authority to become children of God … (John 1:4-5, 9-12).

People who are perceptive enough to see the light can become children of God. But generally speaking his own people did not receive him.

Jesus said in 8:12:

¹² So then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. The one following me in no way walks in darkness but will have the light of life.”

John 11:9-10:

⁹ Jesus replied, “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If someone walks around in the daytime, he does not trip because he sees the light to this world. ¹⁰ But if anyone walks around at night, he trips because the light is not in him.” (John 11:9-10)

Jesus repeats the important theme in John 12:35-36:

³⁵ So Jesus told them, “For still a brief time the light is among you. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. And the one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. ³⁶ While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light.”  (John 12:35-36)

As noted, Jesus includes his disciples in the mission of doing the works of God. The one following Jesus will be a bright light and experience the life which he shines on them.

The light-darkness metaphor is found elsewhere in the NT. The one following Jesus will be a bright light and experience the life which he shines on them. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount:

¹⁴ You are the light of the world the light of the world. A town sitting above on a mountain cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do they light a lamp and place it under a container, but on a lampstand, and it shines on everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In this way, let your light shine before people, so that they see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (Matt. 5:14-16)

Jesus is the source of our light, after we enter the kingdom. Then our (his) light shines in our good works.

Paul agrees:

¹² The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. (Rom. 13:12, NIV)

In Ephesians:

⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) ¹⁰ and find out what pleases the Lord. ¹¹ Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. ¹² It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. ¹³ But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. ¹⁴ This is why it is said:

“Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.” (Eph. 5:8-14, NIV)

In Colossians:

… and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1:12-14, NIV)

In the Thessalonian correspondence:

⁴ But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. ⁵ You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. ⁶ So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. ⁷ For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. ⁸ But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. (1 Thess. 5:4-8, NIV)

Old Testament background (NIV):

The Lord is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear? (Ps. 27:1)

⁸ They feast on the abundance of your house;
you give them drink from your river of delights.
⁹ For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light. (Ps. 36:8-9)

¹⁰⁵ Your word is a lamp for my feet,
a light on my path. (Ps. 119:105)

¹⁹ The sun will no more be your light by day,
nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you,
for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your glory. (Is. 60:19)

Just go to biblegateway.com and search for light. Amazing hits.

The Essenes, living in Qumran, saw a conflict between light and darkness (Mounce, referencing 1 QS 3:20-21).

Throughout the Mediterranean world the word light meant “truth” and “the right way,” “ethical living.” Bruce reminds us that the expression “sons of light” means the “ethical qualities of the person or persons thus described” (comment on 12:35-36a).

“world”: The Greek noun is kosmos (pronounced coss-moss). It could refer to the physical universe (17:5; 21:25). Or it could refer to humanity as a group. What we call humanity or humankind is, in John, the world. This is why God invades the kosmos. “The ‘world’ is the place or realm where God is at work, the place that is the main focus of God’s attention. God’s saving light invades the dark world. Jesus came to the dark world to save as many as those who believe in him and in his name. In sum, “it appears that the personification of the ‘world’ in John is the portrait of a class of people.” It is the dimension of a relational encounter between God and people (Klink, comment on 1:10, pp. 100-01).

6:

“People of the ancient world regarded saliva as possessing curative powers. In the Hellenistic world, it was frequently used in magical rites and for that very reason came to be forbidden in the Jewish community” (Mounce comment on v. 6). So with that background, Jesus enters the thought world of their day and works a miracle by unusual means (see Mark 7:33 and 8:23). Once again, John reflects the historical context.

Carson, after a long discussion of various ancient societies and their taboos, including Lev. 15:8, which discusses saliva, sees Jesus as claiming religious authority. “The situation is not entirely unlike the healing of the man with leprosy: by touching him Jesus does not contract the leper’s uncleanness, but heals the leper of his disease (Mt. 8:1-4)” (comment on v. 6, p. 364).

An interesting connection, made by church fathers, sees the mud or clay as referring to Gen. 2:7, where God made humans out of the dust of the ground (Carson, comment on v. 6). The Greek word in the Septuagint (pronounced sep-TOO-ah-gent and a third-to-second century B.C. translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek) is the same as “mud” or “clay” here. Klink seems to like the idea, because in the Fourth Gospel Jesus was involved in creation. And sure enough the placement of the Greek pronoun “his” (as in “his” mud) instead of “his” (the blind man’s) eyes leans in that direction (comment on v. 6). Admittedly, when I first saw the Greek pronoun’s placement, I immediately wanted to translate it as “his mud.” But I went with what grammarian Novakovic suggested (“his eyes”). So combining Carson’s idea about Jesus’s authority and Klink’s (and the church father’s) idea about an echo of creation in Gen. 2:7, the mud could be symbolic. Yes, he really did make and apply it, but he wanted to symbolize something higher with the real mud. Borchert mentions it (comment on vv. 6-7):

What Jesus did next was rather shocking. The story as stated simply bristles with symbolic allusions, which are subject to varied scholarly opinions with respect to their meanings. It may suffice here to suggest a few possible allusions.

Two spittle miracles are recorded in Mark (the healing of the deaf man who also had a speech problem in 7:32–35 and the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida in 8:22–25), but there are no spittle miracles in Matthew or Luke. In both cases from Mark, as in this case from John, spittle seems to be a kind of vehicle Jesus used to perform the miracle. Like his touch (cf. Mark 5:31; 5:41), Jesus’ spittle seems to be an aspect of his person that carried his power. In the present case the mixing of Jesus’ spittle (ptysma) with dirt is somewhat reminiscent of God’s breath mixing with dirt of the earth in the miracle of human creation (Gen 2:7). (Borchert, comment on vv. 6-7)

In any case, I would not sell “healing clay” or “healing mud” from my saliva over TV (!). In other words, I would not use this specific strategy to heal someone. The Bible was written for us (and for all generations), but not to us. This unusual method was intended to relate to their culture; don’t insist on duplicating it, as some healing evangelists do today in selling prayer cloths or little bottles of oil.

Much better is Jas. 5:14-15:

¹⁴ Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. … (Jas. 5:14-15, NIV)

Using oil to heal is all right in a church setting, but neither should anyone sell it over the radio or TV.

7:

This verse has a symbol in it: the word Siloam means “Sent.” It is a different Greek verb than we see in v. 4 (“the one who sent me”), but the connection is still there (some commentaries on the list, below, see the connection).  Borchert: “The intersection of the Pool of Siloam with the Festival of Tabernacles should also not be overlooked here because the water drawn for the water ceremony in the temple was carried in procession from this very same pool. The Pool of Siloam was a strategic place of well-being for the inhabitants of Jerusalem because after Hezekiah dug the water tunnel from the Spring of Gihon to the Pool of Siloam, the Jerusalemites had a continual source of life-sustaining water within the walls of the city during times of siege” (comment on vv. 6-7). The water was “sent” from a higher source.

However, let’s not make a big deal of it. I don’t believe in outsmarting the inspired biblical authors.

As to Siloam, nowadays you can google it. It is very interesting.

The main point is that the muddied blind man was obedient. Naaman the leprous general was told to wash in the Jordan River.

⁹ So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. ¹⁰ Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.” … ¹³ Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” ¹⁴ So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy. (2 Kings 5:9-12, 13-14, NIV)

Both Naaman and the former blind man obeyed the unusual instructions and got healed. Come to think of it, I have heard of a healing evangelist who was instructed by the Lord to touch his tongue with his finger and then touch a mute woman’s tongue, in a meeting over in eastern Europe. He hesitated, and so did she. But he obeyed, and she allowed it, and she was healed. She could talk. Let’s not look down our noses at such things. God may wish to do things in an unusual way. Don’t slam the door shut, but don’t market it in your fund raising, and don’t see it as a formula that should be done every time.

It is important to realize that Jesus took the man aside, just as he did two other times when he used his saliva (Mark 7:31-37 and 8:22-26. This indicates that he was not universalizing saliva as a healing agent. He was merely fitting in to the man’s though world.

8-9:

The scene shifts to the aftermath of the healing. His neighbors and those who had seen him sitting a begging before, were speaking among themselves. Who is this healed man? Is the long-term beggar we saw every day? No? Then who? We don’t know. He may just look like the blind beggar. But he kept saying, “It’s me” or “I am he” or “I’m the one.” Those three clauses work for a translation.

10-12:

They finally agree that he is the same man who was born blind. So they ask him the logical question which everyone in his neighborhood wanted to know: How did your eyes open up? Then he recounts what happened. They did not think it was so strange about making mud and smearing it on his eyes. Once again, this is the thought world of their culture, and Jesus entered it. Jesus apparently slipped away in the crowd, much like he did in 5:13.

We should keep track of a progression or gradation in the understanding of who Jesus is. In v. 10, the former blind man says “a man called Jesus.” Soon he will call him a prophet (v. 17), the man sent from God (v. 33) and then the Lord (v. 38), the Son of Man.

Let the investigation begin.

GrowApp for John 5:1-12

1. Has God healed you in an unusual way from a physical defect or disease? Tell your story.

2. Has God healed you of your spiritual blindness? Tell your story.

RELATED

14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels

12. Eyewitness Testimony in John’s Gospel

4. Church Fathers and John’s Gospel

3. Archaeology and John’s Gospel

SOURCES

For the bibliography, click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:

John 8