Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - John 9:2 - 9:2
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Who did sin? (tis hēmarten). Second aorist active indicative of hamartanō. See Act 3:2; Act 14:8 for two examples of lameness from birth. Blindness is common in the Orient and Jesus healed many cases (cf. Mar 8:23; Mar 10:46) and mentions this fact as one of the marks of the Messiah in the message to the Baptist (Mat 11:5). This is the only example of congenital blindness healed. It is not clear that the disciples expected Jesus to heal this case. They are puzzled by the Jewish notion that sickness was a penalty for sin. The Book of Job had shown that this was not always the case and Jesus shows it also (Luk 13:1-5). If this man was guilty, it was due to prenatal sin on his part, a curious notion surely. The other alternative charged it upon his parents. That is sometimes true (Exo 20:5, etc.), but by no means always. The rabbinical casuists loved to split hairs on this problem. Ezekiel (Eze 18:20) says: “The soul that sinneth it shall die” (individual responsibility for sin committed). There is something in heredity, but not everything.
That he should be born blind (hina tuphlos gennēthēi). Probably consecutive (or sub-final) use of hina with first aorist passive subjunctive of gennaō.