They reviled him therefore and said: Be thou his disciple; but we are the disciples of Moses.
ελοιδορησαν αυτον και ειπον συ ει μαθητης εκεινου ημεις δε του μωσεως εσμεν μαθηται
13 Church Fathers comment on this verse
But this is not true. You are disciples neither of Moses nor of Him. If you were disciples of Moses, you would also be His disciples. For this reason Christ had said to them earlier: "If you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me" (Jn 5:46). They constantly had recourse to these words.
To his reproach they say, "You are His disciple, but we are Moses' disciples." Here too they plainly lie. For if they were Moses' disciples, they would also be Christ's, as He Himself says to them: "If you believed Moses, you would believe Me" (Jn 5:46).
In saying this, the Evangelist is in a certain way mocking them. Notice to what senselessness those who had received the priesthood had come. They reproach so honorable a thing, namely being guided by Christ.
Certain saints, moved by wondrous love for this guidance, say: "How sweet are Your words to my throat, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth" (Ps 118:103). Another speaks as though to our Lord Jesus Christ concerning those who do not believe Him: "Bring this to pass, and Your word will be for me delight, gladness, and joy of my heart" (Jer 15:16).
But not taking to themselves any of the sacred words, they regard the man guided by Christ as guilty precisely for this guidance alone. Taking their own doctrines as true, they assign Christ as teacher to the blind man, and Moses to themselves.
Indeed, the Gentiles have been enlightened by Christ through the gospel teaching. Israel died with the figures of Moses and was buried beneath the darkness of the letter. Therefore Paul says of them in one place: "To this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies upon their heart" (2 Cor 3:15).
That we are describing the story of the blind man as a type of the Gentiles is beyond doubt. We turn what happened to him figuratively into the truth of what happened to them.
Still, we must point out that reproach for Christ's sake is pleasant and full of every glory. Through the very thing by which those who persecute His lovers think they cause grief, they unknowingly make them rejoice. Instead of doing them real harm, they make them only more glorious.
Certainly the destructive Pharisees, debasing their own heads and in no way Christ, say of Him, "You are His disciple." But of themselves, as though swelling to excessive arrogance, they say, "We are disciples of Moses."
Let such a curse be upon us and upon our children. It is a curse if you crush the heart and do not weigh the words.
"We are disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this Man, we do not know where He is from." If you knew what God spoke to Moses, you would know that God was foretold through Moses.
For the Lord says to you: "If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote of Me" (Jn 5:46). Therefore, do you follow the servant and turn your back on the Lord? But you do not even follow the servant, for through him you could have been led to the Lord.
They reproached him and said, "You are His disciple" (Jn 9:28). Behold what a reproach is upon us and upon our children! It is indeed a reproach if you receive it with the heart and do not examine the words.
"But we are disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this Man, we do not know where He is from" (Jn 9:28-29). If only you knew what God spoke to Moses, then you would know that God foretold Him through Moses.
For you know that the Lord said: "If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote of Me" (Jn 5:46). What then? Do you go after the servant and turn away from the Lord? But you do not even go after the servant, otherwise you would be directed by him to the Lord.
But you are not even disciples of Moses. If you were disciples of Moses, you would also be disciples of Jesus Christ. For Jesus Christ said, "If you believed Moses, you would believe Me" (Jn 5:46).
They reproach him, having neither an answer nor a reason. "They reviled the blind man": you, they said, are a disciple of that Man, but we are disciples of Moses.
Notice first that they had such hatred against Christ that they did not even want to mention His name. Earlier they said, "This Man," then, "What do you say about Him?" and again, "You are a disciple of that Man" (Jn 9:16-17).
Notice secondly that they boasted in vain that they were disciples of Moses. If they had listened to and understood Moses' teaching, they would have obeyed Christ and would have been His disciples.
For Moses clearly bore witness concerning Christ, saying: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet from your brethren, like me. Him you shall hear. And the man who does not listen to His words, which that Prophet shall speak in My name, I will require it of him" (Deut 18:15, 19).
In agreement with this, our Lord taught the Jews: "There is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you trust. For he wrote of Me" (Jn 5:45-46). But let us look further at the malice of the Pharisees.
The healed man, perceiving their secret intentions and not wishing to please them against the truth, did not repeat his answer. He only remarked ironically, “Do you also wish to become His disciples, since you question so closely about His works?”
With hatred they rejected this thought. “We are Moses’ disciples, that Moses with whom God spoke. But you are this Man’s disciple, and we do not know where He is from.”
The great miracle of healing the man blind from birth caused all the stronger excitement in Jerusalem because the healed man was very well known in the city as a beggar blind from birth. Therefore, when this miracle was brought to the Pharisees' attention, they began a most careful investigation of the event.
All their efforts in this case were directed toward casting doubt on the reality of the miracle. For this purpose they questioned, about what had happened, now the former blind man and now his parents.
But the parents of the healed man, out of fear of being excommunicated from the synagogue, refused, under the pretense of ignorance, to give testimony about how their son had received sight.
The healed man himself, however, despite the Pharisees' efforts to draw him to their side in judging Jesus, never for a moment ceased to bear firm and courageous witness to the truth.
At last he did not fear to expose the malicious blindness of the Pharisees, who said that they did not know "where He is from." "This is a marvel," the firm confessor of Christ observed, "that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. This is surely a work of God."
The judges could not endure such a bold and sharp rebuke, and they cast the former blind man out of the assembly.
To this open mockery the Pharisees answered proudly: "Perhaps you are His disciple, the disciple of this violator of the Sabbath law. But we are disciples of the one who gave us this law. We are Moses' disciples. God spoke with Moses. But as for this man, we do not know where He is from." The leaders and teachers of the Jewish people obviously had to investigate where Jesus had come from, since crowds of people followed Him and many considered Him to be the Christ. Yet they say that they do not know Him, which means that they are obviously lying.
Acting against the Messiah, they constantly had on their lips Abraham and Moses, the true servants of the Messiah. "We are Moses' disciples," they said, striving by craftiness to justify their rejection of the God-man. "We know that God spoke to Moses. But as for this man," the Lord Jesus Christ, "we do not know where He is from." They said this while the man born blind, healed by the Lord, stood before their council and before their eyes. They were, so to speak, handling the Lord's miracle, while they knew the ancient miracles of Moses only from the account of Holy Scripture.
This bold speech finally drove the questioners out of patience, and they began to revile the former blind man, heaping every kind of reproach on him: "You are His disciple, but we are Moses' disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses. But as for this man, we do not know where He is from."
They reproached him. This bold mockery of them drew from their side a reproach against the courageous confessor of truth, though the reproach proved weak.
"You are His disciple." From his lips they had not heard a single word against Jesus. In this behavior they saw proof of his attachment to Him. Therefore they abusively call him a follower of Jesus.
"We," in contrast to the former blind man, means: we are the learned representatives and guides of the people. We have studied the law and the prophets. We are disciples of the law, disciples of Moses.
The contrast here, disciple of Jesus and disciples of Moses, chiefly concerns the Lord's supposed violation of the Sabbath law given by Moses. You are a disciple of this violator of the Sabbath law, while we are disciples of him through whom that law was given to us.
From this reproach one should not conclude that the healed man already belonged to the Lord's disciples in the proper sense. Nor should this be concluded from his mocking question to the Pharisees, whether they too already wished to be His disciples.
He was not yet a disciple and follower of the Lord; compare Jn 9:35 and following. But judging by his statements, he was ready to become one. He could know that his Healer had disciples (Jn 9:2). Therefore he asked the Pharisees whether they too wished to join the company of these disciples. They then repeated, in reference to him, the word he had used.
That truth was on their side in this case, and that they were orthodox disciples rather than the former blind man, they prove, in their opinion, irrefutably. Moses, their teacher, was the greatest of the prophets who received immediate revelation from God.
He was therefore unquestionably God's messenger, with whom alone God spoke mouth to mouth. He was thus an immediate witness of divine truth. "But this Man," whom they contemptuously do not even name alongside Moses, "we do not know where He is from." That is, we do not know by whom He was sent, nor by whom He is authorized to teach and act; compare Jn 8:14.
The Pharisees and Sadducees are evidently thrown into confusion by the preceding and following answers, in verses 30-31, of the intelligent and honest man standing before them. They resort to the usual weapon of malicious people who feel themselves weaker: reproach and self-praise.
They reproach the man who received sight for being a disciple of an unknown man, one of whom they do not know where He is from. They themselves, they say, are disciples of Moses, to whom God spoke.
Yet earlier the Lord had said to them: "If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote of Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?" (Jn 5:46-47).
The Lord, seeing the blackness of these men's hearts, read in it unbelief even in the authority with which they liked to cover their complete failure to understand the Spirit of God in the law given to them.
The next answer of the man born blind contains an even sharper reproach against them. In it one sees the same thought: they understand neither the law of God nor His commands. They are false shepherds if they do not understand the source of the Healer's authority.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 15 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS