Fathers

John 9

Tap a verse to read the Fathers. Press and hold, then drag, to make a card.

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “This man didn’t sin, nor did his parents; but, that the works of God might be revealed in him. I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When he had said this, he spat on the ground, made mud with the saliva, anointed the blind man’s eyes with the mud, and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he went away, washed, and came back seeing. The neighbors therefore, and those who saw that he was blind before, said, “Isn’t this he who sat and begged?” Others were saying, “It is he.” Still others were saying, “He looks like him.” He said, “I am he.” They therefore were asking him, “How were your eyes opened?” He answered, “A man called Jesus made mud, anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went away and washed, and I received sight.” Then they asked him, “Where is he?” He said, “I don’t know.” They brought him who had been blind to the Pharisees. It was a Sabbath when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Again therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and I see.” Some therefore of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” There was division among them. Therefore they asked the blind man again, “What do you say about him, because he opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.” The Jews therefore didn’t believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight, and asked them, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered them, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we don’t know; or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. He is of age. Ask him. He will speak for himself.” His parents said these things because they feared the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if any man would confess him as Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age. Ask him.” So they called the man who was blind a second time, and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” He therefore answered, “I don’t know if he is a sinner. One thing I do know: that though I was blind, now I see.” They said to him again, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I told you already, and you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don’t also want to become his disciples, do you?” They insulted him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses. But as for this man, we don’t know where he comes from.” The man answered them, “How amazing! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God, and does his will, he listens to him. Since the world began it has never been heard of that anyone opened the eyes of someone born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were altogether born in sins, and do you teach us?” Then they threw him out. Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and finding him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” He answered, “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have both seen him, and it is he who speaks with you.” He said, “Lord, I believe!” and he worshiped him. Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, that those who don’t see may see; and that those who see may become blind.” Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.

About · Privacy · Credits · Support VRSZ

What the Fathers say

John 9:3

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

"Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents." This He saith not as acquitting them of sins, for He saith not simply, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents," but addeth, "that he should have been born blind" - "but that the Son of God should be glorified in him." "For both this man hath sinned and his parents, but his blindness proceedeth not from that." And this He said, not signifying that though this man indeed was not in such case, yet that others had been made blind from such a cause, the sins of their parents, since …

Homily on the Gospel of John 56 ↗

Cyril of Alexandria

That which lies before us is hard to explain and capable of causing much perplexity, so that it would be perhaps not unlearned to pass it over in silence, and because of its excessive difficulty to leave it. But when the Jewish doctrines have been refuted, lest another thing akin to them, like any root of bitterness springing up, trouble you, as Paul says; (for perhaps some will hence suspect that the bodies of men are affected with sufferings, in order that the works of Grod may be made manifest in them;) I, for my part, think it …

Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 6 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

The Lord, in resolution of their perplexity, says: "Neither did he sin (for how could he have sinned before birth), nor his parents." However, He says this not to absolve them of sins. For He did not simply say that his parents did not sin, but added that "he was born blind." Although his parents did sin, it was not for that reason that this affliction befell him. To lay the sins of fathers upon children who are in no way guilty is unjust. …

Commentary on John ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

Was he then born without original sin, or had he never added to it by actual sin? Both this man and his parents had sinned, but that sin was not the reason why he was born blind. Our Lord gives the reason; viz. That the works of God should be made manifest in him.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas ↗

Gregory the Dialogist

For of scourges there are sundry kinds; for there is the scourge whereby the sinner is stricken that he may suffer punishment without withdrawal, another whereby he is smitten, that he may be corrected; another wherewith sometimes a man is smitten, not for the correction of past misdeeds, but for the prevention of future; another which is very often inflicted, whereby neither a past transgression is corrected, nor a future one prevented, but which has this end, that when unexpected deliverance follows the stroke, the power of the …

Morals on the Book of Job, Preface 5.12 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

1298 Then when he says, Jesus answered, our Lord reveals the reason for the man's infirmity: first, he excludes the reason they assumed; secondly, he mentions the real reason; and thirdly, he explains it. 1299 He excludes the reason they assumed when he says, it was not that this man sinned, or his parents: for the disciples had assumed that this was the reason for his infirmity, as was said. …

Commentary on John ↗