Yohanes 9:2

9:2 His disciples asked him, ¹  “Rabbi, who committed the sin that caused him to be born blind, this man ²  or his parents?” ³ 

Yohanes 9:8

9:8 Then the neighbors and the people who had seen him previously ⁴  as a beggar began saying, ⁵  “Is this not the man ⁶  who used to sit and beg?”

Yohanes 9:17-20

9:17 So again they asked the man who used to be blind, ⁷  “What do you say about him, since he caused you to see?” ⁸  “He is a prophet,” the man replied. ⁹ 

9:18 Now the Jewish religious leaders ¹⁰  refused to believe ¹¹  that he had really been blind and had gained his sight until at last they summoned ¹²  the parents of the man who had become able to see. ¹³  9:19 They asked the parents, ¹⁴  “Is this your son, whom you say ¹⁵  was born blind? Then how does he now see?” 9:20 So his parents replied, ¹⁶  “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind.

Yohanes 9:25

9:25 He replied, ¹⁷  “I do not know whether he is a sinner. I do know one thing – that although I was blind, now I can see.”

Yohanes 9:40-41

9:40 Some of the Pharisees ¹⁸  who were with him heard this ¹⁹  and asked him, ²⁰  “We are not blind too, are we?” ²¹  9:41 Jesus replied, ²²  “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, ²³  but now because you claim that you can see, ²⁴  your guilt ²⁵  remains.” ²⁶ 

Yohanes 11:37

11:37 But some of them said, “This is the man who caused the blind man to see! ²⁷  Couldn’t he have done something to keep Lazarus ²⁸  from dying?”

[9:2]  ¹ tn Grk “asked him, saying.”

[9:2]  ² tn Grk “this one.”

[9:2]  ³ tn Grk “in order that he should be born blind.”

[9:2]  sn The disciples assumed that sin (regardless of who committed it) was the cause of the man’s blindness. This was a common belief in Judaism; the rabbis used Ezek 18:20 to prove there was no death without sin, and Ps 89:33 to prove there was no punishment without guilt (the Babylonian Talmud, b. Shabbat 55a, although later than the NT, illustrates this). Thus in this case the sin must have been on the part of the man’s parents, or during his own prenatal existence. Song Rabbah 1:41 (another later rabbinic work) stated that when a pregnant woman worshiped in a heathen temple the unborn child also committed idolatry. This is only one example of how, in rabbinic Jewish thought, an unborn child was capable of sinning.

[9:8]  ⁴ tn Or “formerly.”

[9:8]  ⁵ tn An ingressive force (“began saying”) is present here because the change in status of the blind person provokes this new response from those who knew him.

[9:8]  ⁶ tn Grk “the one.”

[9:17]  ⁷ tn Grk “the blind man.”

[9:17]  ⁸ tn Grk “since he opened your eyes” (an idiom referring to restoration of sight).

[9:17]  ⁹ tn Grk “And he said, ‘He is a prophet.’”

[9:17]  sn At this point the man, pressed by the Pharisees, admitted there was something special about Jesus. But here, since prophet is anarthrous (is not accompanied by the Greek article) and since in his initial reply in 9:11-12 the man showed no particular insight into the true identity of Jesus, this probably does not refer to the prophet of Deut 18:15, but merely to an unusual person who is capable of working miracles. The Pharisees had put this man on the spot, and he felt compelled to say something about Jesus, but he still didn’t have a clear conception of who Jesus was, so he labeled him a “prophet.”

[9:18]  ¹⁰ tn Or “the Jewish religious authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory, the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus. (For further information see R. G. Bratcher, “‘The Jews’ in the Gospel of John,” BT 26 [1975]: 401-9.) Here the phrase refers mainly to the Pharisees, mentioned by name in John 9:13, 15, 16. References in this context to Pharisees and to the synagogue (v. 22) suggest an emphasis on the religious nature of the debate which is brought out by the translation “the Jewish religious leaders.”

[9:18]  ¹¹ tn The Greek text contains the words “about him” at this point: “the Jewish authorities did not believe about him…”

[9:18]  ¹² tn Grk “they called.”

[9:18]  ¹³ tn Or “the man who had gained his sight.”

[9:19]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “and they asked them, saying”; the referent (the parents) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:19]  ¹⁵ tn The Greek pronoun and verb are both plural (both parents are addressed).

[9:20]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “So his parents answered and said.”

[9:25]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “Then that one answered.”

[9:40]  ¹⁸ sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.

[9:40]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “heard these things.”

[9:40]  ²⁰ tn Grk “and said to him.”

[9:40]  ²¹ tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “are we?”).

[9:41]  ²² tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

[9:41]  ²³ tn Grk “you would not have sin.”

[9:41]  ²⁴ tn Grk “now because you say, ‘We see…’”

[9:41]  ²⁵ tn Or “your sin.”

[9:41]  ²⁶ sn Because you claim that you can see, your guilt remains. The blind man received sight physically, and this led him to see spiritually as well. But the Pharisees, who claimed to possess spiritual sight, were spiritually blinded. The reader might recall Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in 3:10, “Are you the teacher of Israel and don’t understand these things?” In other words, to receive Jesus was to receive the light of the world, to reject him was to reject the light, close one’s eyes, and become blind. This is the serious sin of which Jesus had warned before (8:21-24). The blindness of such people was incurable since they had rejected the only cure that exists (cf. 12:39-41).

[11:37]  ²⁷ tn Grk “who opened the eyes of the blind man” (“opening the eyes” is an idiom referring to restoration of sight).

[11:37]  ²⁸ tn Grk “this one”; the second half of 11:37 reads Grk “Could not this one who opened the eyes of the blind have done something to keep this one from dying?” In the Greek text the repetition of “this one” in 11:37b referring to two different persons (first Jesus, second Lazarus) could confuse a modern reader. Thus the first reference, to Jesus, has been translated as “he” to refer back to the beginning of v. 37, where the reference to “the man who caused the blind man to see” is clearly a reference to Jesus. The second reference, to Lazarus, has been specified (“Lazarus”) in the translation for clarity.