New Testament in a Year

A Man Born Blind Is Given Sight

9 And as he^[a] went away, he saw a man blind from birth. ² And his disciples asked him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?” ³ Jesus replied, “Neither this man sinned nor his parents, but it happened^[b] so that the works of God could be revealed in him. ⁴ It is necessary for us to do the deeds of the one who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work! ⁵ While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” ⁶ When he^[c] had said these things, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes. ⁷ And he said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated “sent”). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

⁸ Then the neighbors and those who saw him previously (because he was a beggar) began to say,^[d] “Is this man not the one who used to sit and beg?” ⁹ Others were saying, “It is this man”; others were saying, “No, but he is like him.” That one was saying, “I am he!” ¹⁰ So they began to say^[e] to him, “How^[f] were your eyes opened?” ¹¹ He replied, “The man who is called Jesus made clay and smeared it^[g] on my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash!’ So I went, and I washed, and^[h] I received sight.” ¹² And they said to him, “Where is that man?” He said, “I do not know.”

The Reaction of the Pharisees to the Healing

¹³ They brought him—the one formerly blind—to the Pharisees. ¹⁴ (Now the day on which Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes was the Sabbath.) ¹⁵ So the Pharisees also were asking him again how he received sight. And he said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” ¹⁶ So some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because he does not observe the Sabbath!” Others^[i] were saying, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And there was a division among them. ¹⁷ So they said to the blind man again, “What do you say about him, because he opened your eyes?” And he said, “He is a prophet.”

¹⁸ So the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and received sight, until they summoned the parents of the one^[j] who received sight. ¹⁹ And they asked them, saying, “Is this man your son, whom you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?” ²⁰ So his parents answered and said, “We know that this man is our son, and that he was born blind. ²¹ But how he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. Ask him! He is a mature adult;^[k] he will speak for himself!” ²² (His parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had already decided that if anyone should confess him to be Christ, he would be expelled from the synagogue. ²³ Because of this his parents said, “He is a mature adult;^[l] ask him.”)