John 9. The Healing of the Man Born Blind. Jesus the Light of the World. Hostility to His Followers.
John 9:1-12. The Miracle. The expression passed by (cf. Mark 1:16) does not necessarily connect the incident with the preceding chapter. In subject-matter it is more closely connected with the first part of ch. 10. It belongs to the period between the Feasts of Tabernacles and the Dedication. The encounter with a man born blind suggests the question of sin and suffering, so often raised in the OT and especially in Job. The disciples see the difficulty of the orthodox Jewish explanation. Can this man's suffering be due either to his own or his parents'sin? There is probably a reference, either to the Greek view of the soul's pre-existence (cf. Wis_8:19 f., being good I came into a body undefiled), or to the possibility of prenatal sin in the womb, an idea certainly recognised in Rabbinic theology (see Lightfoot, Horœ Hebraicœ). Jesus answers that they must think of individual suffering not as caused by sin but as the occasion for the showing forth of God's good will. His own work is to give to men the light of spiritual truth and life. The details of the miracle recall Mark 7:33; Mark 8:23. For Siloam cf. Isaiah 8:6 and Nehemiah 3:15. The form of the name agrees with the LXX. In Neh. the pool of Shelah is said to be near the King's garden. It contained the water brought from the Virgin's spring (Gihon) to the mouth of the Tyropœ an Valley. Probably the author has in view Isaiah 8:6, where Israel's rejection of the Waters of Shiloah, which flow gently, symbolises their rejection of the kindly guidance of Yahweh. He seems to have interpreted the name sending forth as a passive, sent. [84] The account of the neighbours'surprise, and the man's description, confined to what he would have felt without seeing, are, like the whole chapter, a striking example of the author's vivid realism.
[84] [There may be some sacramental teaching here. See Moffatt, INT, p. 549: Scott, pp. 129f. A. J. G.]