Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - John 9:2 - 9:2

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Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - John 9:2 - 9:2


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

2. Rabbi. see on Joh 1:39, Joh 4:31.

ἵνα τ. γεννηθῇ. That he should be born blind, in accordance with the Divine decree; comp. Joh 4:34, Joh 6:29; Joh 6:40, and see on Joh 8:56. They probably knew the fact from the man himself, who would often state it to the passers-by. This question has given rise to much discussion. It implies a belief that some one must have sinned, or there would have been no such suffering: who then was it that sinned? Possibly the question means no more than this; the persons most closely connected with the suffering being specially mentioned, without much thought as to possibilities or probabilities. But this is not quite satisfactory. The disciples name two very definite alternatives; we must not assume that one of them was meaningless. That the sins of the fathers are visited on the children is the teaching of the Second Commandment and of every one’s experience. But how could a man be born blind for his own sin?

Four answers have been suggested. (1) The predestinarian notion that the man was punished for sins which God knew he would commit in his life. This is utterly unscriptural and scarcely fits the context.

(2) The doctrine of the transmigration of souls, which was held by some Jews: he might have sinned in another body. But it is doubtful whether this philosophic tenet would be familiar to the disciples.

(3) The doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul, which appears Wis 8:20 : the man’s soul sinned before it was united to the body. This again can hardly have been familiar to illiterate men.

(4) The current Jewish interpretation of Gen 25:22, Psa 51:5, and similar passages; that it was possible for a babe yet unborn to have emotions (comp. Luk 1:41-44) and that these might be and often were sinful. On the whole, this seems to be the simplest and most natural interpretation, and Joh 9:34 seems to confirm it.