John 9:13-34 - The Reaction Of The Pharisees To The Healing

¹³ They brought him to the Pharisees--the man who had been blind. ¹⁴ Now the day on which Jesus made the clay and opened the man's eyes was the Sabbath. ¹⁵ So the Pharisees renewed their questioning as to how he had obtained his sight. "He put clay on my eyes," he replied, "and I washed, and now I can see."

¹⁶ This led some of the Pharisees to say, "That man has not come from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath." "How is it possible for a bad man to do such miracles?" argued others.

¹⁷ And there was a division among them. So again they asked the once blind man, "What is your account of him? --for he opened your eyes." "He is a Prophet," he replied.

¹⁸ The Jews, however, did not believe the statement concerning him--that he had been blind and had obtained his sight--until they called his parents and asked them,

¹⁹ "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How is it then that he can now see?"

²⁰ "We know," replied the parents, "that this is our son and that he was born blind; ²¹ but how it is that he can now see or who has opened his eyes we do not know. Ask him himself; he is of full age; he himself will give his own account of it." ²² Such was their answer, because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already settled among themselves that if any one should acknowledge Jesus as the Christ, he should be excluded from the synagogue. ²³ That was why his parents said, "He is of full age: ask him himself."

²⁴ A second time therefore they called the man who had been blind, and said, "Give God the praise: we know that that man is a sinner."

²⁵ "Whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know," he replied; "one thing I know--that I was once blind and that now I can see."

²⁶ "What did he do to you?" they asked; "how did he open your eyes?"

²⁷ "I have told you already," he replied, "and you did not listen to me. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also mean to be disciples of his?"

²⁸ Then they railed at him, and said, "You are that man's disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. ²⁹ We know that God spoke to Moses; but as for this fellow we do not know where he comes from."

³⁰ "Why, this is marvellous!" the man replied; "you do not know where he comes from, and yet he has opened my eyes! ³¹ We know that God does not listen to bad people, but that if any one is a God-fearing man and obeys Him, to him He listens. ³² From the beginning of the world such a thing was never heard of as that any one should open the eyes of a man blind from his birth. ³³ Had that man not come from God, he could have done nothing."

³⁴ "You," they replied, "were wholly begotten and born in sin, and do *you* teach *us*?" And they put him out of the synagogue.