These things his parents said, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had already agreed among themselves that if any man should confess him to be Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.
ταυτα ειπον οι γονεις αυτου οτι εφοβουντο τους ιουδαιους ηδη γαρ συνετεθειντο οι ιουδαιοι ινα εαν τις αυτον ομολογηση χριστον αποσυναγωγος γενηται
9 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Notice how here also the Evangelist brings their thoughts and intentions into view. I say this concerning the remark they had made earlier, saying, "making Himself equal with God" (Jn 5:18). If that too had been only the opinion of the Jews and not the teaching of Christ, the Evangelist would have added that such was the Jewish opinion.
His parents answered in this way because they feared the Pharisees. They were unsteady and more faint-hearted than their son.
Beautifully and justly our Lord Jesus Christ sends “woe” upon the heads of the Pharisees: “For woe unto you lawyers, because ye have taken away the key of knowledge. Ye entered not in yourselves, and those who were entering in ye hindered,” Lk 11:52.
Let the lover of God again consider whether the beauty of truth is not present in these words. For Christ could in no way speak falsehood.
Behold, besides the fact that none of them strives to communicate the teaching concerning His coming, they also terrify without restraint those who might themselves understand it from the wondrousness of the works.
By their savage cruelty they build an irremovable obstacle to the acknowledgment of Him who could be seen in His very miraculous works. Thus they, wretched men, are not ashamed to make the grateful man, and therefore one already ready for faith, excluded from the fellowship of the synagogue.
As though by their own authority, they separate from God one who is attached to God. As though they could compel the Lord of all Himself to assist them in the fury that belongs to them against everyone.
Yet the wondrous Evangelist defends the parents and says that those questioned were overcome by fear. Therefore they did not wish to say that Christ had healed their son, so that he might expose and make manifest to later generations the whole enormity of the madness of the Jews.
Indeed, what could be more inhuman than such men? They determine punishment even for gratitude, and count worthy of execution those who could understand Him who was proclaimed by the Law and the prophets.
That the impious intentions of the Jews were not unknown to the holy prophets, we learn from the Sacred Scriptures. Thus He who searches hearts and inward parts, “piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and judging the thoughts and intentions of the heart, before whom all things are naked and open,” Heb 4:12-13, speaks through Isaiah.
“Woe, rebellious children, thus saith the Lord: ye have taken counsel, but not through Me; and made covenants, but not through My Spirit, to add sin to sin,” Is 30:1.
For whoever says that the Lord is Jesus will undoubtedly say it by the Holy Spirit, according to Paul’s word, 1 Cor 12:3. But whoever is concerned with the opposite does not speak by the Holy Spirit.
By whom, then? Such a man will rather speak by Beelzebul. Therefore the intentions of the Jews were not by the Holy Spirit, for they were adding sins to sins.
First they brought destruction upon their own heads through unbelief. Then they also sent it upon others by preventing them from confessing Christ.
Indeed, their undertaking was filled with extreme impiety. Besides this, the Psalmist mocks those occupied with such useless and empty works in the words: “O Lord, in Thy wrath Thou shalt trouble them, and fire shall devour them. Their fruit shalt Thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the sons of men. For they intended evil against Thee; they devised a plan which they were not able to establish,” Ps 20:10-12.
Yes, they were in no way able to fulfill their God-opposing design, though often and in countless ways they attempted to destroy the glory of Christ. Therefore they are found behind, that is, they are removed from the face and from the eyes of the Master of all, Ps 20:13.
They justly hear: “Walk by the light of your fire and by the flame which ye have kindled,” Is 50:11.
“He is indeed our son. Yet it would be right to compel us to speak for an infant, since he cannot speak for himself. He has long been speaking, and only recently has he been seeing. We know that he was blind from birth. We know that he has long been speaking, and we see that he has recently received sight. Ask him himself, in order to understand. Why do you accuse us?” Thus his parents answered, because they feared the Jews.
Outside the synagogue there could no longer be any evil. They cast out, but Christ received.
Then the Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received sight until they summoned the parents of this man who had received sight (Jn 9:18). That is, they summoned the parents of the one who had been blind and had begun to see. And they asked them, “Is this your son, of whom you say that he was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered them: “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees, we do not know. Or who opened his eyes, we do not know. He is of age. Ask him. Let him speak for himself” (Jn 9:19-21).
“He is, of course, our son. Yet we truly would have had to answer for him as for an infant, if he could not answer for himself. In due time he began to speak, and now he has begun to see. We know that he was blind from birth. We know that in due time he began to speak, and behold, now he has begun to see. Ask him himself, so that you may know. Why are you trying to trap us?” Thus his parents answered because they feared the Jews. For the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Him as Christ should be put out of the synagogue (Jn 9:22).
Yet to be outside the synagogue was no longer an evil. They cast out, but Christ received. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age. Ask him” (Jn 9:23).
See how fear of human lips drives out truth and brings forth falsehood! The parents of the blind man feared the Jews, because they had decreed that whoever confessed Jesus Christ to be the awaited Messiah should immediately be expelled from their assembly. When the Pharisees saw that they could not accomplish their intention either through the blind man or through his parents, they again summon the man who had been blind.
Fearing expulsion from the synagogue and the Pharisees' vengeance, the healed man's parents gave an evasive answer. They confirmed that this was their son, born blind, but professed ignorance about why he now saw. They answered that they had not been present at the healing and therefore did not know who had opened his eyes. "Ask him. He is of full age and can answer for himself."
The matter was taking a very unpleasant turn for them. At all costs they had to find some opening that would allow them to reject or remove the miracle. They sent for the parents of the man who had been blind.
“Is this your son, of whom you say that he was born blind? How then does he now see?” Perhaps they hoped by threats or bribery to force the parents to renounce their kinship, or to admit some deception here. Yet the parents also held to the simple truth. With the usual Jewish servility and cunning, they refused to draw any conclusions that might expose them to unpleasant consequences.
“We know,” they said, “that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees, we do not know. He is of age. Ask him. Let him speak for himself.”
They had agreed. This word shows that such a decision or decree had already been made, and was not merely intended. There is no indication whether such a decision was adopted officially by the Sanhedrin or privately.
Yet since excommunication from the synagogue was a judicial, official, and public matter, the decision to punish the supposedly guilty in this way was probably also adopted officially. As such it was known to others, including the parents of the healed man and, of course, the healed man himself.
Whoever confessed Him as Christ, that is, as the Messiah, was to be put out of the synagogue. Of the different degrees of excommunication from the synagogue later established by the rabbis, probably only one was known at that time. Excommunication consisted in a formal announcement in the synagogue that such a person was not admitted to synagogue public assemblies for thirty days.
At the same time, neither family members nor outsiders were permitted to have any dealings with such a person. The term could also be extended. This was one of the severe punishments. Besides heavy loneliness and alienation from society, the excommunicated person seemed for a time to cease being a member of God's chosen people.
Verses 18-23. The blind man's answer did not please the blind enemies of Jesus. They understood that what remained for them was to reject the event itself. They had to claim that the blind man had not been blind, and that there had been deception.
Four questions were put to the blind man's summoned parents. Was this truly their son, that is, was he not some impostor? If he was their son, had he truly been born blind? Who healed him? And finally, how did He heal him?
The Sanhedrin, it seems, wished to be no less skeptical than the academic Renan. It subjected the event to the most rigorous logical judgment. The parents answered the first two questions affirmatively. This meant much for the triumph of truth. The parents say that the healed man truly had been blind from birth. Thus the enemies of Jesus, trying to darken the truth, only assisted its glory.
The parents left the last two questions of the Sanhedrin for their son to answer. Why? “They feared the Jews. For the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Him as Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.” There were three kinds of excommunication.
By one, piddi, the disgraced person was forbidden to have dealings with anyone, whether his own people or strangers, for thirty days. He could not approach anyone nearer than four cubits. The second degree of excommunication, Cherem, was solemn expulsion from the synagogue. It was accompanied by an order not to speak a word to anyone, nor to eat or drink with others.
The third degree, Chammata, completely excluded the disgraced person from ecclesiastical and civil society (Buxtorf, Lexic. Talm., cols. 827, 1304, 2463; Udringae Synod. 739). In any case, there was something to fear.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 22 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS