1 And Jesus, while passing by, saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” 3 Jesus responded: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but it was so that the works of God would be made manifest in him. 4 I must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day: the night is coming, when no one is able to work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 When he had said these things, he spat on the ground, and he made clay from the spittle, and he smeared the clay over his eyes. 7 And he said to him: “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated as: one who has been sent). Therefore, he went away and washed, and he returned, seeing. 8 And so the bystanders and those who had seen him before, when he was a beggar, said, “Is this not the one who was sitting and begging?” Some said, “This is he.” 9 But others said, “Certainly not, but he is similar to him.” Yet truly, he himself said, “I am he.” 10 Therefore, they said to him, “How were your eyes opened?” 11 He responded: “That man who is called Jesus made clay, and he anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ And I went, and I washed, and I see.” 12 And they said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.” 13 They brought the one who had been blind to the Pharisees. 14 Now it was the Sabbath, when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. 15 Therefore, again the Pharisees questioned him as to how he had seen. And he said to them, “He placed clay over my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 And so certain Pharisees said: “This man, who does not keep the Sabbath, is not from God.” But others said, “How could a sinful man accomplish these signs?” And there was a schism among them. 17 Therefore, they spoke again to the blind man, “What do you say about him who opened your eyes?” Then he said, “He is a Prophet.” 18 Therefore, the Jews did not believe, about him, that he had been blind and had seen, until they called the parents of him who had seen. 19 And they questioned them, saying: “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? Then how is it that he now sees?” 20 His parents responded to them and said: “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 But how it is that he now sees, we do not know. And who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him. He is old enough. Let him speak for himself.” 22 His parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jews. For the Jews had already conspired, so that if anyone were to confess him to be the Christ, he would be expelled from the synagogue. 23 It was for this reason that his parents said: “He is old enough. Ask him.” 24 Therefore, they again called the man who had been blind, and they said to him: “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 And so he said to them: “If he is a sinner, I do not know it. One thing I do know, that although I was blind, now I see.” 26 Then they said to him: “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them: “I have already told you, and you heard it. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 28 Therefore, they cursed him and said: “You be his disciple. But we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God spoke to Moses. But this man, we do not know where he is from.” 30 The man responded and said to them: “Now in this is a wonder: that you do not know where he is from, and yet he has opened my eyes. 31 And we know that God does not hear sinners. But if anyone is a worshipper of God and does his will, then he heeds him. 32 From ancient times, it has not been heard that anyone has opened the eyes of someone born blind. 33 Unless this man were of God, he would not be able to do any such thing.” 34 They responded and said to him, “You were born entirely in sins, and you would teach us?” And they cast him out. 35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out. And when he had found him, he said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” 36 He responded and said, “Who is he, Lord, so that I may believe in him?” 37 And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen him, and he is the one who is speaking with you.” 38 And he said, “I believe, Lord.” And falling prostrate, he worshipped him. 39 And Jesus said, “I came into this world in judgment, so that those who do not see, may see; and so that those who see, may become blind.” 40 And certain Pharisees, who were with him, heard this, and they said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them: “If you were blind, you would not have sin. Yet now you say, ‘We see.’ So your sin persists.”
John · Catholic Public Domain Version
John 9 Catholic Public Domain Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (3)
- Esther and Daniel are the Vulgate books (Esther 1–16 with the Greek additions as chapters 10:4–16; Daniel 1–14 with the Song of the Three, Susanna and Bel). Baruch 6 is the Letter of Jeremiah.
- The translator's footnotes, cross-references, chapter summaries and book introductions in the CrossWire module are not shown.
- No imprimatur; single translator.
Cross references (36)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 2 Luke 13:2; John 9:34; Exodus 20:5; Acts 28:4
- 3 John 11:4; John 11:40; Ecclesiastes 9:1–2; Job 2:3–6; Job 42:7
- 4 John 12:35; Ephesians 5:16; John 4:34; Ecclesiastes 9:10; John 11:9–10
- 5 John 8:12; John 12:46; Acts 13:47; John 1:4–9; Revelation 21:23
- 6 Mark 8:23; Mark 7:33; Revelation 3:18
- 7 Isaiah 35:5; John 9:11; John 11:37; Isaiah 8:6; Acts 26:18
- 8 1 Samuel 2:8; Luke 18:35; 1 Samuel 21:11; Acts 3:2–11; Luke 16:20–22
- 10 Mark 4:27; Ecclesiastes 11:5; John 3:9; John 9:26; John 9:15
- 11 John 9:6–7; John 9:27
- 12 Exodus 2:18–20; John 5:11–13; John 7:11
- 13 John 12:42; John 8:3–8; John 11:46–47; John 11:57; John 12:19
- 14 John 5:9; Luke 13:10–17; Matthew 12:1–14; Luke 14:1; Mark 2:23–3:6
- 15 John 9:26–27; John 9:10–11
- 16 John 10:19; John 7:43; John 7:12; Matthew 12:2; John 3:2
- 17 John 4:19; John 6:14; Acts 3:22–26; Acts 10:38; Acts 2:22
- 18 Hebrews 3:15–19; John 12:37–40; Hebrews 4:11; John 1:19; Isaiah 26:11
- 19 Acts 4:14; John 9:8–9; Acts 3:10
- 22 John 7:13; John 16:2; Luke 6:22; Isaiah 57:11; John 12:42–43
- 23 John 9:21
- 24 John 9:16; Joshua 7:19; John 8:49; John 19:6; Psalm 50:14–15
- 25 1 John 5:10; John 9:30; John 5:11
- 27 Luke 22:67
- 28 Romans 2:17; 1 Corinthians 4:12; 1 Corinthians 6:10; John 7:19; Matthew 27:39
- 29 John 8:14; Numbers 12:2–7; Psalm 22:6; 2 Kings 9:11; Isaiah 53:2–3
- 30 Psalm 119:18; John 12:37; Isaiah 29:18; Isaiah 29:14; John 3:10
- 31 Proverbs 15:29; Isaiah 1:15; Proverbs 28:9; Micah 3:4; Proverbs 1:28–29
- 32 Isaiah 64:4; Job 20:4; Luke 1:70; Revelation 16:18
- 33 John 9:16; John 3:2; Acts 5:38–39
- 34 John 9:2; John 9:22; Isaiah 66:5; Job 25:4; Luke 18:17
- 35 John 20:31; Romans 10:20; 1 John 5:13; 1 John 4:15; John 10:36
- 36 Romans 10:14; Song of Songs 5:9; Proverbs 30:3–4; John 1:38; Matthew 11:3
- 37 John 4:26; Psalm 25:8–9; John 7:17; Psalm 25:14; John 14:21–23
- 38 Matthew 14:33; Matthew 28:9; John 20:28; Matthew 28:17; Luke 24:52
- 39 John 3:19; Acts 26:18; John 12:46; John 8:12; 1 John 2:11
- 40 Revelation 3:17; Matthew 15:12–14; John 9:34; Matthew 23:16–28; Romans 2:19–22
- 41 Isaiah 5:21; John 15:22–24; Luke 18:14; 1 John 1:8–10; Proverbs 26:12
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
The Lord Jesus, as we heard when the Holy Gospel was being read, opened the eyes of a man who was born blind. Brethren, if we consider our hereditary punishment, the whole world is blind. And therefore came Christ the Enlightener, because the devil had been the Blinder.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 6 (1888)
We have just read the long lesson of the man born blind, whom the Lord Jesus restored to the light; but were we to attempt handling the whole of it, and considering, according to our ability, each passage in a way proportionate to its worth, the day would be insufficient.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 7 (1888)
"And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind from his birth." Being full of love for man, and caring for our salvation, and desiring to stop the mouths of the foolish, He omitteth nothing of His own part, though there be none to give heed.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 14 (1889)
They also maintain that the Saviour exhibited an emblem of this mystery in the case of that man who was blind from his birth, since the Æon was in this manner produced by Monogenes blind, that is, in ignorance, thus falsely ascribing ignorance and blindness to the Word of God, who, according to their own theory, holds the second [place …
The pool of Siloam, for example, where the man whose eyes our Lord had anointed with clay made out of spittle was commanded to wash, has a figurative significance, and undoubtedly conveys a secret sense; but yet if the evangelist had not interpreted that name, a meaning so important would lie unnoticed.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)