They Feared the Jews
13 They brought him who had been blind to the Pharisees. 14 It was a Sabbath when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 Again therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and I see.” 16 Some therefore of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” So there was division among them. 17 Therefore they asked the blind man again, “What do you say about him, because he opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.” 18 The Jews therefore didn’t believe concerning him, that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight, 19 and asked them, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered them, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but how he now sees, we don’t know; or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. He is of age. Ask him. He will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said these things because they feared the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if any man would confess him as Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age. Ask him.”
An inquiry opens, and the man's own parents decline to help him.
They brought him who had been blind to the Pharisees.
A healing has become a case. It was a Sabbath when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes John 9:14 — the same late placement of the detail as in chapter five, and the same effect.
Again therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight John 9:15. It is the third time he has been asked to describe it, and his answer gets shorter each time: he put mud on my eyes, I washed, and I see.
Some therefore of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” So there was division among them.
The inquiry is split from the start, and the two positions are honestly stated. One begins from the rule and reasons to the man; the other begins from the deed and reasons back. Neither side is composed of fools, and the chapter will show which method gets there.
Therefore they asked the blind man again, “What do you say about him, because he opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”
His assessment is rising. A man, then a prophet, and by the end of the chapter something more — and the whole progression happens under interrogation. This Gospel is showing faith growing in the one place designed to stop it.
The Jews therefore didn’t believe concerning him, that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight,
The committee changes tack. Unable to fault the deed, they attack the fact, and summon the family to establish whether the man was blind at all.
"Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? How then does he now see?" John 9:19. Three questions at once, and the middle clause — whom you say — is an accusation of fraud dressed as procedure.
20 His parents answered them, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but how he now sees, we don’t know; or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. He is of age. Ask him. He will speak for himself.”
The parents answer the two questions that cost nothing and refuse the two that matter. It is careful, accurate, and a betrayal — a man's father and mother, in a public hearing, handing him back to the committee.
His parents said these things because they feared the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if any man would confess him as Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.
The writer explains, and the explanation is the sharpest thing in the chapter. Expulsion meant more than losing a place of worship; it cut a family out of the community's economic and social life. What the parents feared was real and serious.
And the policy is what is remarkable. A ruling has been agreed already, in advance of any inquiry, that confessing him carries a penalty. The proceedings the reader is watching are not an investigation. They are the enforcement of a decision taken earlier, which is why the evidence keeps failing to matter.
"He is of age. Ask him" John 9:23. The chapter's most frightened sentence, repeated so that nobody misses it. He is thirty years old, he has just received his sight, and the two people who should have been proudest in Jerusalem that day have decided to make him fight alone.
settled What this mark means