‘And they reviled 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 do not know where he has come from”.'
His reply angered the Judaisers. They had totally lost their patience and reviled him. ‘You are his disciple,' they added, ‘but we are Moses' disciples. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he is from'. To the Jews Moses was a supreme figure. Thus they appealed to his authority against the obvious truth.
They now wanted to bring out their own superiority, and so they compared Jesus with Moses, to His detriment. But how did they know God had spoken to Moses? The answer is because of the wonderful things that he did. Why then could they not see that this was also true of Jesus? The answer is, because they were blind. They had failed to recognise that a greater than Moses was here.
‘We do not know where he is from.' In their eyes He was an obscure Galilean with no background and, as far as they knew, He had not learned the Law from any recognised Teacher. He was a total unknown. Thus His word was unacceptable. He had no credentials. They totally ignored His miracles and His outstanding teaching. Interestingly the people had rejected Jesus for the very opposite reason, because they did know where He was from (John 7:27). The Judaisers wanted conformity to their requirements. The crowds wanted mystery, and spectacle. Jesus fitted in with neither.
This prevarication infuriated the man. Here he was, having been cured of permanent, lifelong blindness, and they did not know where His benefactor had come from? Surely anyone could see that He must be from God. He could no longer stay silent whatever the consequences. He had reached the end of his patience.