John 9:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Nor does Christ mean by these words that this man was not blinded for this reason, but that others were blinded because of their parents' sins. One person cannot be punished for the sins of another. If we allow this, then we must also allow that the man born blind sinned before birth. Therefore, when He says, "Neither this man sinned," He does not assert that one can sin from birth and be punished for it. Likewise, when He says, "nor his parents," He does not express the thought that one can be punished for one's parents.

The Lord refutes this opinion through Ezekiel: "As I live, says the Lord, this proverb shall no more be spoken: The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge" (cf. Ezek 18:3). Moses also says, "The fathers shall not die for the sons" (Deut 24:16). And it is related of one king that he did not do this, that is, he did not kill the children of the murderers, because he kept the law of Moses (4 Kgs 14:6).

If someone says, "How then is it written, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation" (Ex 20:5)? we shall answer that this is not a universal decree. It was spoken with reference to those who came out of Egypt. The meaning is this. Since those who came out of Egypt, despite signs and wonders, became worse than their fathers, who had seen none of these things, the same fate would overtake them as overtook their fathers, because they dared the same transgressions. Anyone who examines that passage carefully will be fully assured that it was said about them.

Why, then, was the man born blind? He says, "That the glory of God might be manifested." Here again there is a new difficulty, as though the glory of God could not be manifested without his punishment. But He did not say at all that it could not be. Of course it could. Rather, He says that the glory of God might be manifested in him also.

Will you say, then, that he was wronged for the sake of God's glory? Tell me, in what way was he wronged? What if the Lord had willed that he should not be born at all? For my part, I say that he even received a benefit from his blindness, because he gained sight with the inner eyes.

What benefit was there in sight for the Jews? They only incurred greater punishment because, while seeing, they remained blind. And what harm came to him from blindness? Through it he gained sight. Thus, just as the evil of the present life is not truly evil, so also its good is not truly good. Sin alone is evil, and blindness is not evil. He who brought the blind man from non-being into being also had authority to leave him in such a condition.

Some say that the particle here means not cause, but consequence. It is the same as in another place, where it is said, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind" (Jn 9:39). Christ certainly did not come in order that those who see might become blind. Likewise Paul says, "What may be known of God is manifest in them, so that they are without excuse" (Rom 1:19-20). Yet the Lord did not manifest this to them so that they might be deprived of defense, but so that they might be justified. Again elsewhere he says, "The law entered, that the trespass might abound" (Rom 5:20). Yet the law did not enter for this purpose, but to restrain sin.

Do you see that this particle everywhere indicates the consequence? As an excellent master builder, after constructing one part of a house, leaves another part unfinished so that by the remaining works he may defend himself before those who disbelieve that he built the whole house, so also God strengthens and repairs our body, as though it were a certain aged dwelling. He heals the withered hand. He strengthens paralyzed limbs. He straightens the lame. He cleanses lepers. He raises up the sick. He restores those whose legs are paralyzed. He raises the dead. He opens closed eyes. He gives sight to those who never had it.

By correcting all these defects of our infirm nature, He manifests His power. When Christ says, "That the glory of God might be manifested," He speaks of Himself, not of the Father, for the Father's glory was manifest. Since they knew that God created man by taking dust from the earth, Christ also acted in the same way. If He had said, "I am the One who took dust from the earth and created man," this would have seemed unbearable to the hearers. But when He showed it by deed, they could no longer be offended.

For this reason, taking dust and mixing it with saliva, He revealed His hidden glory in this way. It is no small glory that He should be acknowledged as the Maker of creation. From this one could truly infer the rest. The part was a pledge for the whole. The certainty of the greater confirmed the lesser also. Man is superior to all creation, and the eye is superior to all our members. For this reason Christ created sight not simply, but in the manner described above.

The eye is a small member in size, but it is more necessary than the whole body. Paul indicates this when he says, "If the ear should say, Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body?" (1 Cor 12:16). Although everything in us serves as proof of God's wisdom, the eye does so especially. It governs the whole body. It gives beauty to the whole body. It adorns the face. It serves as a lamp for all the members.

What the sun is in the universe, the eye is in the body. Extinguish the light in the sun, and everything perishes and falls into confusion. Extinguish the light in the eyes, and feet, hands, and soul become useless. Without eyes, knowledge becomes impossible. Through them we have known God: "For His invisible things from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made" (Rom 1:20). Thus the eye serves as a lamp not only for the body, but even more for the soul. For this reason it has been placed, as it were, in a royal position above, presiding over the other senses. This is what Christ fashions.

Then, so that you might not think He needs matter when He creates, and so that you might know that in the beginning He had no need of clay, He says, after anointing with clay, "Go, wash" (Jn 9:7). He who produced the higher beings from nothing could all the more create an eye without matter. Therefore, so that you might know He does this not from necessity, but to show that He was also the Creator in the beginning, He says, "Go, wash." Know that I have no need of clay in order to create eyes, but that My glory might be manifested in the blind man.

Through Moses He laid down the law: “The father shall not die for the son,” Deut 24:16. But how, you will say, is it written: “visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation,” Ex 34:7?

To this one may say, first, that this sentence is not universal, spoken of all, but only of those who came out of Egypt. Then consider also the meaning of the sentence.

It does not say that children are punished for sins committed by their fathers. It says that punishments for the sin of the fathers pass also to the children when the children commit the same sins.

Those who came out of Egypt might have thought that they would not be punished as their fathers were, even if they sinned worse than they. Therefore He says to them: no, it is not so.

The sins of the fathers, that is, the punishments, will pass also to you, because you have not become better, but have committed the same sins, and even worse ones.

If we see that children often die as punishment for their parents, we should know that God takes them from this present life in His love for mankind. He does this so that in life they may not become worse than their parents, and not live to the harm of their own soul, or even of many others.

But the abyss of God’s judgments has hidden these cases within itself. Let us proceed further.

Here again is another difficulty. Someone may ask: how did He say this? It would mean that a man deprived of light had been wronged so that the works of God might be manifested in him. Could they not have been manifested otherwise?

Tell me, then, what wrong does the man suffer? You will say that he was deprived of light. And what harm is there from being deprived of sensory light? On the contrary, he was more greatly benefited.

Together with bodily sight, he also received sight with the eyes of the soul. Blindness served him for good, since through healing from it he came to know the true Sun of Righteousness. Therefore this blind man was not wronged, but benefited.

Then everyone who studies the word of God should know that the particles “in order that” are often used in Scripture not to indicate cause, but the event itself. For example, David says: “that Thou mightest be justified in Thy words,” Ps 50:6.

David did not sin in order that God might be justified. But as a result of David’s sin, God came to be justified.

For when God bestowed on David so many gifts of which he was not worthy, and David transgressed God’s commandment, committed murder and adultery, and used royal power to insult God, what consequence followed from this?

It could only be that God, judging and reproving David, was justified and appeared victorious over the condemned king. For David transgressed the law of Him from whom he had received the kingdom. He transgressed precisely because he was king.

Had he been a private man, he could not so easily have committed two such great crimes. Thus you see that in the phrase “that Thou mightest be justified,” the particle signifies not cause, but result.

You will find many such turns of speech also in the Apostle. For example, in the Epistle to the Romans: “What may be known of God is manifest to the Gentiles, so that they are without excuse,” Rom 1:19-20.

God gave knowledge to the Gentiles not so that, by sinning, they might be without excuse, but so that they might not sin. Yet since they sinned, the knowledge made them without excuse.

Again, “the law entered, that the trespass might abound,” Rom 5:20. Although the law was not given so that sin might abound, but so that it might diminish, those who received the law did not wish to diminish sin.

Therefore the law served them for the increase of sin. Their sin became weightier and more grievous because they had the law and nevertheless sinned.

So here also, the expression “that the works of God might be manifested” indicates not cause, but result. For through the healing of the blind man, God was glorified.

Often a builder of a house makes one part and leaves another unfinished, so that to one who does not believe that he built the first part, he may prove through the construction of the unfinished part that he is also the artisan of what was made before.

So also our God Jesus, by healing damaged members and restoring them to their natural condition, shows that He Himself is the Creator of the other members as well.

Therefore, as it seems to me, it is useful to say a little about this also, to prevent possible harm from this side and to block every entrance to false reasonings. We have already shown that God does not bring the sins of parents upon children, if the children are not participants in their impiety. We have also shown that embodiment does not occur because of sins preceding birth. Christ, in a marvelous way, destroyed and rejected both ideas. As God He knows all things, or rather, He Himself governs our affairs and distributes to each what is proper and fitting.

When He says that the blind man did not sin and was not blinded for this reason, He declares it madness to regard the human soul as guilty of sins preceding the body. By plainly saying that neither did his parents sin so that their son was born blind, He overthrows the irrational opinion of the Jews.

Having thus taught His disciples what they needed to know for the overthrow of the doctrines just mentioned, He gave them only as much as was proper to offer to human knowledge. He is silent about the rest. He no longer adds an explanation of the reason why the man who was innocent of any fall before birth was born blind. He ascribes to the divine nature alone, as its own exclusive property, the knowledge and ordering of all such matters.

Yet with great skill He turns His answer again to another subject and says, "But that the works of God might be manifested in him." Will someone then ask whether the Lord, in saying this to us now, declares as doctrine that human bodies suffer for this reason alone, "that the works of God might be manifested in" them? This is by no means the case. On the contrary, to reason and think so is wholly absurd.

He does not say this as a dogma, as someone might perhaps suppose. We often learn from the Holy Scriptures that some suffer because of sins. Thus Paul writes clearly in his Epistle to those who dare to approach the divine altar with, as it were, unwashed feet, and to touch the mystery of blessing with unclean and impious hands: "For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and many sleep. For if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened, that we may not be condemned with the world" (1 Cor 11:30-32). Thus in some cases suffering is laid upon those who have fallen into sickness and death through divine wrath.

Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, when He freed the paralytic from his long illness and miraculously showed him to be sound, said, "Behold, you have become well. Sin no more, lest something worse happen to you" (Jn 5:14). By this He indicates that the man, having once escaped and been saved by grace from Him, might again be subjected to something worse because of sin.

But some may say: let us agree that this is true. Yet what reason can be given to explain why some undergo terrible sufferings from their swaddling clothes and from the first moments of their existence, being born with illnesses from the womb? We certainly do not believe in the preexistence of the soul, nor do we acknowledge sins of the soul before the body. How, indeed, can that which has not yet been called into being sin? But if there is no sin or transgression preceding the suffering, what cause of the sufferings can we finally indicate?

What infinitely surpasses us is wholly inaccessible to the understanding of our reason. I would counsel sensible people, and first of all myself, to refrain entirely from such investigations (Sir 3:21-22). We must reflect more on what has been appointed for us. We must not investigate the depths, search out difficulties, or try boldly to dig into what is hidden in the divine and ineffable counsel alone. Rather, we must piously leave to God's knowledge alone what belongs exclusively to Him. We must be truly persuaded and believe that, being the source of all righteousness, He will neither do nor decide anything concerning us, or concerning any other creature, that would be unworthy of Him or would not proceed from the foundations of true justice.

Therefore, since this disposition is fitting for us, I think the Lord does not speak dogmatically when He says, "That the works of God might be manifested in him." On the contrary, He diverts the answer to the question, as it were, onto another path. He transfers it from depths inaccessible to us into the realm of moral instruction. This is quite usual for Him.

To be assured that this is true, listen again to how He acted when the holy disciples once showed great curiosity about the end of the age. They attempted to learn with excessive exactness about His second coming, and they transgressed the measure proper to men. Clearly turning them away from such questions, He says, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has placed in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea" (Acts 1:7-8).

Do you hear how He in no way permits us to seek what is least fitting for us, but exhorts us to turn to what was necessary? So also here, after clearly saying what needed to be known, He is silent about the rest. He knows that knowledge of this belongs to Him alone. Yet in order not to provoke in them, by complete silence, a desire to ask again about the same matter, He skillfully presents something in the form of a reply, and as though an answer corresponding to the question. He says, "But that the works of God might be manifested in him."

In other and simpler words, this may be expressed as follows. This man was not born blind because of his own sins or his parents' sins. But since it has once happened that he has been subjected to this, God can be glorified in him also. If by an action from above he is shown to be free from the suffering that oppresses and wastes him, who will not marvel at the Physician? Who will not see in Him the power of the Healer? I think this is the thought contained in the saying. Let those who are wiser interpret it better.

If others argue and affirm that this man was born blind so that Christ might be glorified in him, we shall again say to them: my good friends, was he alone in all Judea blind from birth at the time of our Savior's coming? Was there no other such person at all? I think they will agree, even unwillingly, that there was probably a very great multitude of such people in the whole land. Why then did Christ reveal Himself, or manifest His love for mankind, in this one alone, or in a few others? Yet I think it is wholly unnecessary to dispute about this as well.

Therefore, rejecting the first-mentioned error as utterly foolish, let us state the truth. In these words He revealed to us as much as needed to be known. Then He directs His disciple to another matter of reflection, skillfully turning him away from the investigation of these words.

His disciples asked Him: "Rabbi!" You know that Rabbi means "Teacher." They called Him Teacher because they wished to learn. In any case, they addressed their question to the Lord as to a teacher.

"Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered: "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, that he was born blind" (Jn 9:2-3).

What does His saying mean? If there is not one man without sin, were the parents of this blind man without sin?

Was he himself born without ancestral sin, sine originali peccato, and did he add nothing to that sin in the course of life?

Or because his eyes were blind, did his lusts fall entirely asleep? How much evil has been done by the blind!

From what evil does an evil mind restrain itself, even if the eyes are blind? He could not see, but he could have thoughts.

Perhaps he desired what he could not carry out because of blindness, yet what in his heart could be condemned by the Searcher of hearts.

If his parents had sin, and he himself had sin, why did the Lord say, "Neither he nor his parents sinned"?

Surely because the answer concerned the matter about which He had been asked: that he was born blind.

For his parents had sin, but it was not because of that sin that he was born blind.

If, then, he was not born blind because of the sin of his parents, why was he born blind? Hear how the Teacher teaches.

He seeks a believer in order to make him understanding. He Himself names the reason why the man was born blind: "Neither he nor his parents sinned, but it was so that the works of God might be manifested in him" (Jn 9:3).

But afterward, giving the law through Moses, God said: "The fathers shall not die for the sons, and the sons shall not die for the fathers" (Deut 24:16).

And through Ezekiel (Ezek 18:2-4) He again says: "What is this proverb you have in the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?"

"As I live, says Adonai the Lord, this proverb shall no more be spoken. The teeth of the one who eats unripe grapes shall be set on edge."

"But that the works of God might be manifested in him." Here He calls the restoration of the blind man's eyes through clay the works of God.

Because everyone acknowledged the formation of Adam's body from the earth as God's work, Jesus Christ also restores this blind man's eyes from the earth, the most beautiful part of the body.

He does this so that it might be beyond doubt to all that He is God, as possessing power equal to God.

For He who has thus restored the most beautiful part can also create the whole man.

Or by the works of God He means the invisible power of His Godhead, which was then especially revealed.

What then? Could the works of God not have been manifested otherwise, unless this man had been punished?

They could have been manifested. But he was not punished. Rather, he was benefited, because through the blindness of his bodily eyes he received sight in his spiritual eyes.

What profit is there from the former if the latter do not see?

The Creator could have created this man blind, not as punishment, but according to the wise plans of the divine economy.

He did this so that the works of God might be manifested and so that the man might thus receive sight in his soul.

Some say that the word "that," ινα, is used here not to express a causal connection or purpose, but simply to indicate what may happen as a consequence.

Namely, the works of God would be manifested in him.

A similar sense is found in the expression: "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind" (Jn 9:39).

That is, it means that those who do not see will see, and those who see will become blind. Yet Jesus Christ did not come for the purpose of making those who see blind.

The Apostle Paul also says: "The law came in, that the trespass might abound" (Rom 5:20). But the law did not come for this purpose.

The Apostle only said what would happen, namely, the increase of transgressions, and many other things. This is an idiom of Scripture.

He was blind, but afterward he received a recompense for this small and almost insensible sorrow.

For he received a double set of eyes: bodily eyes, by which he saw the things in the world, and spiritual eyes, by which he came to know the Creator of the world.

Therefore the blindness of his bodily eyes became the cause of the enlightenment of his spiritual eyes.

If you reason soundly, will you doubt that those who had eyes and did not believe were far more unfortunate than the blind man who was later enlightened and believed?

Having thus resolved the Apostles' perplexity by His answer, the God-man continues further.

More particularly, they mean the special miraculous actions performed by God through the Messiah, such as the healing of the blind man in the present case.

This was for the glory of God and of the Messiah, and also for his spiritual enlightenment and his own salvation.

Thus, according to the direct meaning of Christ's words, it seems that the blind man was born blind not because of his own sins or those of his parents.

Rather, it was so that the Lord Jesus might work the miracle of healing him, enlighten his mind, and bring him to faith in Himself and to eternal salvation.

But the Greek turn of speech here, ἵνα, does not always denote purpose. Sometimes it denotes only consequence (Rom 5:20; cf. Theophylact).

Applied to the present case, this means that neither the blind man's own sin nor his parents' sin was the cause of his being born blind.

Rather, the fact that he was born this way would have as its consequence the manifestation of God's special works in him, and through this his own salvation.

That is, the Lord does not, strictly speaking, answer the disciples' question. He only shows the outcome of the man born blind's illness in relation to himself and to the glory of God.

The cause of this, as of other divine actions toward men that are unknown to man, lies hidden in the mysteries of God's wisdom, which man cannot comprehend.

"It is not for you to know what the Father has fixed by His own authority" (Acts 1:7).

This is a mystery of God's wisdom. Thus it was necessary according to the plans of His governance of the world.

But in the present case, precisely because the blind man was born blind and has remained so until now, the special works of God will be manifested in him.

That is, I will heal him, and by this the One who sent Me will be glorified in Me.

The spiritual salvation of the man born blind himself will be accomplished. Perhaps he would not have been saved if he had not been born blind.

"He received a benefit from his blindness, because he gained sight with the inner eyes."

In other words, to be chosen as an instrument of God's glory constitutes the highest dignity for man.

And to be brought by bodily blindness to spiritual sight is the most desirable benefaction for the soul. It fully compensates for the inconveniences of blindness.