John 9:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Moreover, by sending him to Siloam, He wished to show that He is not alien to the Law and the Old Testament. Finally, there was no danger that the glory would be attributed to Siloam. Many had often washed their eyes in it, but had experienced nothing of the kind.

No, even here it was the power of Christ that acted, accomplishing all things. For this reason the Evangelist adds the interpretation for us. Having said, "to Siloam," he added, "which is translated, Sent," so that you may know that here too Christ healed him. As Paul says, "They drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ" (1 Cor 10:4).

Therefore, just as Christ was the spiritual Rock, so He was also the spiritual Siloam. It seems to me that the sudden appearance of the water also indicates to us an incomprehensible mystery. Which one? The sudden and unexpected appearing of Christ.

But notice the soul of the blind man, obedient in all things. He did not say: "If clay or spittle can give sight, what need have I of Siloam? And if Siloam is necessary, why the clay? Why did He anoint my eyes? Why did He command me to wash?"

No, he thought nothing of the kind. He cared only to obey the One Who commanded in everything, and he was not scandalized by anything that took place.

If someone asks, "How did he receive sight after washing off the clay?" he will hear nothing from us except that we do not know how it happened. And what is astonishing if we do not know? Neither the Evangelist nor the healed man himself knew this.

He knew only what had happened, but could not understand how. When they questioned him about it, he said, "He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see" (v. 15). But how it happened he could not say, even if they asked him a thousand times.

For Christ is both the spiritual Rock (1 Cor 10:4) and the spiritual Siloam. As the stream of Siloam, by its strange flow, represented something sudden and wondrous, so the coming of the Lord, hidden and unknown even to the angels, drowns every sin by its power.

Will healing stop at faith? No. One must also go to Siloam, the font of baptism, and be baptized into the Sent One, that is, Christ. For all of us who were baptized spiritually were baptized into Christ.

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.

The blind man who received sight served the Lord like a staff, through which He gathered many blind men and healed them of the blindness of the heart. Many treasures were hidden in the few words of the Lord. In this act of healing it was mystically inscribed that He is the Son of the Creator.

"Go," He says, "wash your face." So that no one might think this healing was more like skill than miracle, He sent him to wash. He did this to show that the blind man did not doubt that the Lord had healed him. He also did it so that, through questions and accounts of what had happened, the blind man might openly reveal his faith.

Thus the Lord's spittle became like a key for the eyes that were shut. He healed the eyes and pupils at the waters, and in the waters He symbolically applied His sanctification to our weakness. The Lord did this so that, when they spat in His face, the eyes of the blind opened by His spittle would accuse them.

The power of the word of God. The spring of Siloam did not open the blind man's eyes, just as the waters of the Jordan did not cleanse Naaman. The command of God did this. Likewise, the waters of our redemption do not cleanse us, but the names remembered over them are our redeemers.

For it was not Siloam that opened the blind man's eyes, just as the waters of the Jordan did not heal Naaman (4 Kingdoms 5:14). The command of Christ did this. In exactly the same way, the water of our cleansing does not sanctify by itself. The names remembered over it, the names of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, cleanse us.

You too should approach the pool of Siloam, that is, Him Who was sent by the Father. For you know: "My teaching is not Mine, but His Who sent Me." Let Christ wash you, so that you may see. Come to baptism; the time has come.

Come quickly, so that you too may say: "I went and washed, and began to see." So that you too may say: "I was blind and began to see." So that you may say. As that man said when light was poured upon him: "The night is far spent, the day is at hand." Cyril of Alexandria understands his healing as a prefiguration of the salvation of the Gentiles.

"So he went and washed, and came back seeing." He went without wavering at all, but obeyed without contradiction, though he might have said: "What is this? Perhaps He could not heal me? Is He mocking me and sending me in vain? I have often washed there, and it helped me nothing."

Or he might have said: "If the clay heals me, why is washing in the appointed pool necessary? But if the pool heals, why was the clay necessary?" The blind man neither said nor thought anything of the sort. He believed that Jesus Christ had done and commanded what would serve for his healing. He obeyed and went, and because of such faith he was not deceived in his hope.

He also sent him to the pool in order to test both his faith and his obedience. Naaman the Syrian did not believe and did not consent when Elisha commanded him to wash in the Jordan. Only with difficulty was he persuaded by the many counsels of his servants. But this blind man immediately obeyed the Lord's command and believed that he would receive sight through washing.

This sending also contains another, spiritual and mystical cause. The pool of Siloam, meaning "Sent," signified Jesus Christ. For He is the One sent from God the Father. Therefore He said, "As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you" (Jn 20:21). In harmony with this, He is also called the Apostle: "Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus Christ" (Heb 3:1).

The blind man signified all human nature. Through sin it had become alien to spiritual illumination and, as if blind, had become enslaved to the creature rather than the Creator. It was enlightened by the grace of Christ.

Therefore the Prophet speaks in His person: "He has sent Me to preach good tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to captives, and recovery of sight to the blind" (Isa 61:1).

The waters of the pool of Siloam prefigured the water of holy Baptism. Just as the blind man, after washing in those waters, became a stranger to blindness and received sight, so those baptized in the water of holy Baptism put off sin and put on the light of divine grace. For this reason holy Baptism is also called illumination.

The blind man, then, washed in the pool and returned no longer blind, but whole and seeing.

Why did the Lord, in this healing of the man born blind, use these outward actions: the anointing of the eyes with clay made from spittle, and washing in the well of Siloam? It is impossible to answer exactly, since this is not explained in the Gospel. Many conjectures have been made.

The best of them is that the Lord did this to awaken faith in the blind man, seeing the disposition of his soul. The well of Siloam had sacred significance and may have been near the place of healing.

Moreover, it was the Sabbath when the Lord performed this miracle of healing (Jn 9:14). Did the Lord not wish to show those who accused Him of violating the Sabbath that God Himself approved this deed of mercy toward the sick man on the Sabbath day? For God bestowed healing on the blind man through washing in a sacred spring, from which water was also taken for the sacrifice of libation on the feast of Tabernacles (Jn 7:2).

During this present stay in Jerusalem at the feast of Tabernacles, as before, the Lord pointed in His discourses to the fulfillment in Himself of certain types (Jn 7:37; Jn 8:12 and following). Did He not have this in view now also, expressing by action what He had previously spoken in discourse?

He had said before: I am the spiritual rock from which living water flows. I am the true light that enlightens men. By His present action does He not show that He is the true Siloam, the Sent One, the fulfillment of all divine blessings? The sacred waters of Siloam, flowing from beneath the sacred mountain, were their image (cf. Theophylact and Chrysostom).

"He washed and came seeing." Since neither the clay nor the washing had healing power in themselves according to the natural laws of nature, the illumination of the man born blind through these actions was undoubtedly a miracle. It was a special act of the Lord, surpassing the laws of nature.

"He came," that is, he returned to his own house or to the place where he had formerly sat and begged, and not to the Lord. For the Lord met him only afterward (Jn 9:35 and following).

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?