John 9:6Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But why did He use spittle for the clay, and not water? He intended to send the blind man to Siloam. Therefore, so that you might attribute nothing to the spring, but know that the power which came forth from His mouth formed and opened the eyes, He spat on the ground. The Evangelist points to this very thing when he says, "and He made clay from the spittle."

He also used spittle in bestowing sight. Since He was about to send the blind man to Siloam, He did this so that they would not ascribe the miracle to the water of the spring. Rather, they were to know that the power which came from His mouth formed the blind man's eyes and opened them. For this reason He spat on the ground and made clay from the spittle of His mouth.

Then, lest you think the miracle depended on the earth, He commands him to wash, so that the clay might fall away completely. Some, however, say that this clay did not fall away at all, but was changed into eyes.

How does He heal the blindness? By spitting on the ground and making clay. Whoever believes that the Word descended into the holy Virgin like a drop falling upon the earth will anoint the eyes of his mind with clay from spittle and earth. That is, he will anoint them with the one Christ, consisting of Godhead, signified by the drop and spittle, and of humanity, signified by the earth from which came the Lord's body.

Indeed, how could the varied multitude of Greeks or Gentiles ask mercy from God in any way? Their mind was burdened with incomparable ignorance, so that it could not at all see the Illuminator.

Therefore, just as the one being healed did not see Jesus, but unexpectedly receives sight through His mercy and love for mankind, so the same also happened through Christ with the Gentiles.

The healing is performed on the Sabbath. Here the Sabbath may serve us as an image of the final time of the present age, when the Savior shone upon the Gentiles. For the Sabbath is the end of the week, and the Only-begotten came and appeared to us all in the last hour and in the final times of the age.

Concerning the manner of the healing, we must say with true amazement: “How magnified are Thy works, O Lord; in wisdom hast Thou made them all,” Ps 103:24.

But why, someone may ask, though He could easily do everything by a word, does He mix clay from spittle? Having anointed the sufferer’s eyes, why does He appear to command something seemingly superfluous as well? “Go,” He says, “wash in the pool of Siloam.”

I think a deep meaning lies in these words, for the Savior commands nothing in vain. He anoints with clay, supplying, as it were, what was lacking and absent in the nature of sight. By this He shows that He Himself was our Fashioner in the beginning, the Creator and Maker of all.

But this deed also has a certain mystical meaning. We shall also say what it is, and what we are disposed to understand here.

It was possible for the Gentiles to be washed from the blindness that enclosed them and to behold the divine and holy Light. That is, they could receive knowledge of the holy and consubstantial Trinity.

This could happen in no other way than by becoming partakers of His holy Flesh, being washed from the sin that blackened them, and being freed from the power of the devil, plainly through holy baptism.

Since the Savior traced beforehand for the blind man an image of this mystery, He fulfilled the meaning of this communion for the time being through the anointing with spittle.

As an image of holy baptism, He commands him to run and wash in Siloam, whose name the wise and Spirit-bearing Evangelist considers it necessary to interpret.

This is because by “Sent” we understand no one other than the Only-begotten Son, who came down to us from God and was sent for the destruction of sin and the dominion of the devil.

Recognizing that He Himself moves invisibly upon the waters of the holy font, we are washed with faith, not for the cleansing of bodily impurity, as it is written, but as washing away the stain and uncleanness of the eyes of the soul. Thus at last, being pure, we may purely contemplate the divine beauty.

Therefore, as we believe that the body of Christ is life-giving, since it is the temple and dwelling place of the living God the Word and possesses all His power, so we honor it as able to impart illumination. For it is the body of the natural and true Light.

When He raised the only-begotten son of the widow who had died, He was not satisfied with a command alone and with the words, “Young man, I say unto thee, arise,” Lk 7:14. Though He could accomplish all His desires by a word, He also laid His hand upon the bier.

By this He showed that His body also has life-giving power. So also here He anoints with spittle, teaching that His body can impart illumination through a simple touch. For it is the body of the true Light, as we have said.

The blind man departs and quickly washes, immediately fulfilling the command. In himself he shows, as it were, the ready obedience of the Gentiles, of whom it is written: “Thine ear hath heard the readiness of their heart,” Ps 9:38.

Thus the experience itself bears witness to the hard-heartedness of the wretched Jews and to the readiness of the Gentiles for obedience. By the clay and the washing, the man is at once freed from blindness and returns “seeing.”

It could not have been otherwise than according to the will of Christ. Therefore faith is beautiful, for it brings us the God-given power of grace. By contrast, double-mindedness and doubt are harmful.

For “a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways,” as it is written, and such a man shall receive nothing from the Lord, Jas 1:7-8.

Since they did not want to believe that the Lord existed before Abraham, this deed proved to them that He is the Son of Him Who through Him created the first Adam from the earth. Through earth He supplied and completed what was lacking in this blind man.

Moreover, He did this to rebuke those who say that man consists of four elements. From earth and spittle He formed what was lacking in the man's members. He did this also for their benefit, since signs encouraged them and taught them faith. "The Jews," he says, "seek signs" (cf. 1 Cor 1:22).

For it was not Siloam that opened the blind man's eyes, just as the waters of the Jordan did not heal Naaman. The command of Christ did this. In exactly the same way, the water of our cleansing does not sanctify by itself. The names invoked over it cleanse us. Therefore He anointed his eyes with clay, so that the others also might wash away the blindness of their heart.

For this reason the Lord spat on the ground, made clay, and anointed his eyes. He showed how the ancient creation had been accomplished, and revealed to those able to understand the hand of God through which man was created.

What the Creator-Word had refrained from creating in the womb, He manifested openly, so that the works of God might be revealed in him. He did this so that we should not seek another hand by which man was made, or another Father.

We know that the hand of God, which formed us in the beginning and forms us in the womb, chose us in these latter times when we had perished. It found and took upon its shoulders its lost sheep, and with joy restored it in the court of life.

He heals the blindness by His mouth, His hands, and many other means, so that through these actions He may implant a firmer faith in unbelievers. He spits on the ground and makes clay from the spittle. He uses earth for the healing to show that from the same dust, from which the whole body, τὸ ζῶον, was formed in the beginning, the remaining part, the eyes, is now created.

By His spittle He restores the body and joins together the scattered dust, foreign to union. He clearly shows us that the Word ordered all things by the power of His mouth. For "by the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their host" (Ps 32:6).

Perhaps He also heals by spitting in order to strike fear into those who shortly afterward would act lawlessly by spitting upon Him. Yet He did not thereby restrain the boldness of the raging men. He, Who performed such a healing through spitting, endured much spitting Himself. Thus He reveals the creative power of His first, that is, divine, dignity.

Thus He "made clay from the spittle." What does spittle joined to clay signify, if not the Word incarnate? This blind man bore in himself the image of the whole human race. The spittle was joined to clay, and the blind man received sight. The Word became incarnate, and the world was enlightened.

For if one sees the best and most precious part of us, as a created thing and essence, produced from dust, will he not acknowledge by irrefutable judgment that the other organs also came from the same matter and power?

On the other hand, He also did this so that you may clearly understand the Son as equal and indistinguishable from the Father in all the marks by which the Father is known as God. I mean power, glory, essence, and lordship. He restores the blind man's eyes by taking no other substance, but dust, just as the Father once created man from dust together with Him.

At the same time this also is revealed: God, Who now abides in human form and changed dust into the nature of an eye, is the same One Who once fashioned man from dust together with the Father.

For this reason, then, He spat and made clay, so that by the likeness of the actions He might show Himself the Creator of both man and light. It may be that this man, blind from birth, had no pupils at all. Therefore Christ, so as not to create them from nothing, made clay and by the power of His spittle changed it into pupils.

He also spat to show that His spittle had healing power, as did His hands and the hems of His garments. And after anointing the blind man's eyes,

What, then, do these words mean: "He spat on the ground, and made clay from the spittle, and anointed the blind man's eyes with the clay"? And afterward: "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (Jn 9:6-7)? Why, in other cases, did the Lord heal by a word, sometimes by a touch, but here also use external substances, earthly dust and water? Why not dust alone, and not water alone, but both?

First, probably to awaken, test, and reveal the faith of the one being healed. Such faith was necessary for his healing and edifying for us. He acted this way in other cases also. Why, for example, did He ask the paralytic, "Do you want to be made whole?" Did He not know, by His omniscience, that he wanted it? And is it not simply clear that a paralytic wants to be healthy?

Therefore He asked not in order to learn, but to restore a spirit that had fallen through helplessness into hopelessness. He did so to awaken faith and thereby lay the beginning of healing.

Likewise with the blind man. By placing clay upon his eyes, He allowed him to perceive His love for mankind and His condescension toward the beggar. He awakened trust and hope in him. Therefore, when He then sent him to the pool of Siloam, the blind man was not troubled because the clay had produced no effect. He did not think that the water of Siloam promised no more. He went without contradiction and thus performed a deed of faith.

Second, the Lord probably used clay from spittle and Siloam to secure many witnesses for the miracle, whose darkening by the Jewish assembly He foresaw. How many outside eyes the blind man drew to himself as he went to the pool in that fearsome condition, with his eyes anointed with clay. How many eyes saw him at the pool itself, at the very moment of receiving sight, and on his return with seeing eyes.

All who saw this knew that the water of Siloam does not give sight, and road dust even less. Therefore all recognized in the illumination of the man born blind a divine miracle.

Third, there is probably still another great meaning hidden in the depths of the material signs of Christ's miracle. I will again speak in the words of Chrysostom. Did not the earthly dust which Jesus took and made into clay for the blind man say to the Jews concerning Him: recognize in Him that first and supreme Wonderworker, Who, according to the account in the most ancient of your sacred books, took earthly dust and made man?

Siloam, "which is translated Sent," whose name means messenger, conveyed to the blind man the sight sent from Jesus. Did it not say to the Jews concerning Him: recognize in Him the Messenger of God, Whom I foretold to you long ago by my name, until now unexplained, and only now explained?