John 9

John 9 is the ninth chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It maintains the previous chapter's theme "Jesus is light",[1] recording the healing of a man who had been blind from birth, a miracle performed by Jesus, and their subsequent dealings with the Pharisees.[2] The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that John composed this Gospel.[3]

John 9
John 16:14-22 on the recto side of Papyrus 5, written about AD 250.
BookGospel of John
CategoryGospel
Christian Bible partNew Testament
Order in the Christian part4

Text

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 41 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:

Sub-divisions

The New King James Version organises this chapter as follows:

Location

Jesus and His disciples are said to be "passing by" and there is no indication yet that they have left Jerusalem, the scene of the narrative in chapters 7 and 8. Jesus sends the man He heals to the Pool of Siloam, a rock-cut pool on the southern slope of Jerusalem, located outside the walls of the Old City to the southeast. However, there are also references to a Jewish ruling that anyone who believed Jesus to be the Messiah would be excluded from the synagogue (John 9:22). There is no other New Testament reference to Jerusalem having a synagogue, but rabbinical tradition states that there were 480 synagogues in Jerusalem at the time of the Jewish rebellion.[4]

Chronology

The initial events of this chapter occur on a Sabbath (John 9:14), not necessarily connected with the Feast of Tabernacles or the days immediately afterwards when the events of John 7-8 took place. H. W. Watkins suggests that this was the last day, the "great day" of the Feast of Tabernacles referred to in John 7:37 because "nothing has taken place which makes it necessary to suppose any interval, and though the discourses seem long, they would have occupied but a short time in delivery",[1] and the Pulpit Commentary agrees that "the day may have been a festival sabbath".[5]

Christ healing the blind, by Nicolas Colombel, 1682

Verse 4

New King James Version

I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.[6]

This verse begins with "we must" (Greek: ἡμᾶς δεῖ, hemas dei) in the Westcott-Hort version [7] and in the New International Version.[8] The Textus Receptus and the Vulgate both use the singular, "I must" (Latin: Me oportet).[9] The reference to "Him who sent me" anticipates the evangelist's note that "Siloam means 'Sent' (verse 6), so that Jesus who has been sent by his Father ... is also present in this water".[10]

Verse 22
The Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He (Jesus) was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.[11]

"The word for ‘out of the synagogue’ (Greek: ἀποσυνάγωγος) is peculiar to John, occurring [in] John 12:42, John 16:2, and nowhere else".[12] The decision has been linked to the possible Council of Jamnia which was once thought to have decided the content of the Jewish canon sometime in the late 1st century (c. 70–90 AD).[13]

Verse 34 confirms that "they cast him out",[14] the Amplified Bible and the New Living Translation adding text to refer to his exclusion from the synagogue.[15]

Verse 38
Then he said, "Lord, I believe!" And he worshiped Him.[16]

A few manuscripts, such as Papyrus 75 and Codex Sinaiticus, omit the whole of verse 38 and the beginning of verse 39.[17]

Verse 39
And Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind."[18]

Verses 40-41
"Surely, we are not blind, are we?" Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, 'We see', your sin remains."

See also

References
  1. Watkins, H. W., Ellicott's Commentary for Modern Readers on John 8, accessed 16 May 2016
  2. Halley, Henry H., Halley's Bible Handbook: an Abbreviated Bible Commentary. 23rd edition. Zondervan Publishing House. 1962.
  3. Holman Illustrated Bible Handbook. Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. 2012.
  4. JewishEncyclopedia.com, Jerusalem: Synagogues and Schools, accessed 26 May 2016
  5. Pulpit Commentary on John 9, accessed 16 May 2016
  6. John 9:4: NKJV
  7. John 9:4: Westcott-Hort
  8. John 9:4: NIV
  9. John 9:4: Vulgate
  10. Kieffer, R., John in Barton, J. and Muddiman, J. (2001), The Oxford Bible Commentary, p. 978
  11. John 9:22 NKJV
  12. Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges on John 9, accessed 19 May 2016
  13. Graetz, Heinrich (1871). "Der alttestamentliche Kanon und sein Abschluss (The Old Testament Canon and its finalisation)". Kohélet, oder der Salomonische Prediger (Kohélet, or Ecclesiastes) (in German). Leipzig: Carl Winters Universitätsbuchhandlung. pp. 147–173
  14. John 9:34
  15. BibleGateway.com, Versions of John 9:34
  16. John 9:38 NKJV
  17. Kieffer, R., John in Barton, J. and Muddiman, J. (2001), The Oxford Bible Commentary, p. 979
  18. John 9:39 NKJV
Preceded by
John 8		 Chapters of the Bible
Gospel of John		 Succeeded by
John 10
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