Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 9:14
And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.
14. it was the sabbath ] We cannot be sure whether this is the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Joh 7:37) or the next Sabbath. There were seven miracles of mercy wrought on the Sabbath: 1. Withered hand (Mat 12:9); 2. Demoniac at Capernaum (Mar 1:21); 3. Simon’s wife’s mother (Mar 1:29); 4. Woman bowed down eighteen years (Luk 13:14); 5. Dropsical man (Luk 14:1); 6. Paralytic at Bethesda (Joh 5:10); 7. Man born blind.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 14. It was the Sabbath] Some of the ancient rabbins taught, and they have been followed by some moderns, not much better skilled in physic than themselves, that the saliva is a cure for several disorders of the eyes; but the former held this to be contrary to the law, if applied on the Sabbath. See LIGHTFOOT’S Hor. Talm.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
It was observed before, that Christ made choice of the sabbath day, as the day wherein he did many of his mighty works. It was on the sabbath day that he cured the impotent man who lay at the pool of Bethesda, Joh 5:10; and upon the sabbath day that he cured him who had the withered hand, Mat 12:10; and now again upon the sabbath day that he cured him who was born blind. Possibly he chose that day, because that was a day wherein he ordinarily preached that heavenly doctrine, which he confirmed by these miraculous works; or, perhaps, that he might take occasion from thence to instruct the Jews, if they would have received instruction, in the true doctrine of the sabbath, that they might not superstitiously think that it was not lawful to do acts of mercy on the sabbath day: certain it is, that himself maketh that improvement of it, Mat 12:1-8. Or to show them, that he was the Lord of the sabbath; and that, as his Father by his works of providence worketh on the sabbath day, so did he, being equal with his Father: by which argument he before defended himself for the cure of the impotent man on the sabbath day, Joh 5:17.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8-15. The neighbours therefore . . .said, Is not this he that sat and beggedHere are a number ofdetails to identify the newly seeing with the long-known blindbeggar.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay,…. Which was reckoned a violation of the sabbath, Joh 9:16, and was one reason why they had the man to the Pharisees to be examined, and why they were desirous of knowing where Jesus was:
and opened his eyes; by putting on the clay, and sending him to wash in the Pool of Siloam: nor did the miracle, nor the good done to the man, excuse with them, what they thought a breach of the sabbath.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Now it was the sabbath ( ). Literally, “Now it was a sabbath” (no article). To the Pharisees this fact was a far more important matter than whether or how the thing was done. See Volumes I and II for discussions of the minute Sabbath regulations of the rabbis.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
It was the Sabbath day when [ ] . The best texts read, instead of ote when, ejn h= hJmera on which day. Literally, it was a Sabbath on the day on which.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And it was the sabbath,” (en de sabbaton) “Now it was a sabbath,” an holy day, when the man had been healed of his blindness, much as Jesus had healed the thirty-eight year old infirm man at the pool of Bethesda, not far away, on a previous sabbath day, Joh 5:9-10; Joh 5:16; Joh 5:18; Joh 5:25, for which the Jews had wanted to kill him.
2) “Day when Jesus made the clay,” (en he hemera ton pelon epoiesen ho lesous) “On which day Jesus (had) made or formed the clay,” from the dust of the earth, from which man was taken, to restore sight to the blind beggar, Joh 9:6; Joh 9:11.
3) “And opened his eyes.” (kai aneoksen autou touo ophthalmous) “And had opened his eyes,” to cause him to see, to be no longer blind, Joh 9:10; Joh 9:15; Joh 9:17; Joh 9:25.
Now he could sing, “I once was blind but now I see.”
“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,” whether redeemed from physical or spiritual bondage and blindness, darkness, etc., Psa 107:2; Rom 13:11-12; Eph 4:17-18.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
14. Now it was the Sabbath. Christ purposely selected the Sabbath-day, which must have given ground of offense to the Jews. He had already found, in the case of the paralytic, that this work was liable to slander. Why then does he not avoid the offense — which he could easily have done — but because the defense malignantly undertaken by men would tend to magnify the power of God? The Sabbath-day serves as a whetstone to sharpen them, to inquire more eagerly into the whole matter. And yet what advantage do they reap from a careful and earnest examination of the question but this, that the truth of the Gospel shines more brightly? We are taught by this example that, if we would follow Christ, we must excite the wrath of the enemies of the Gospel; and that they who endeavor to effect a compromise between the world and Christ, so as to condemn every kind of offenses, are altogether mad, since Christ, on the contrary, knowingly and deliberately provoked wicked men. We ought to attend, therefore, to the rule which he lays down, that they who are blind, and leaders of the blind, (Mat 15:14,) ought to be disregarded.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(14) And it was the sabbath dayi.e., most probably, the last day, that great day of the feast of Joh. 7:37. Nothing has taken place which makes it necessary to suppose any interval, and though the discourses seem long, they would have occupied but a short time in delivery. The whole narrative follows in unbroken order, which makes it difficult to suppose that a week intervened.
When Jesus made the clay.This is mentioned as a servile work which contravened the Sabbath law. The anointing the eyes with spittle on the Sabbath was specially forbidden by the decrees of the Rabbis. They held that no work of healing might be performed on the Sabbath except in cases of immediate danger.
On the question of our Lords relation to the Sabbath day, comp. Notes on Joh. 5:16 et seq., and on Mat. 12:10; Luk. 13:11-16; Luk. 14:1-5.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. Sabbath day The Evangelist here prepares us for the ground upon which the Pharisees will seek to invalidate the miracle.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Now it was the Sabbath on the day that Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.’
The day of the healing was the Sabbath, and according to the teaching of the Rabbis all healing, apart from emergency work, was forbidden. And healing blindness was not seen as an emergency work. It could be done any day of the week. The Pharisees were thus concerned, and they were even more so when they learned that Jesus had actually moulded clay on the Sabbath.
This was certainly breaking their carefully worked out rules. They did not consider the wonder of what was happening. Their rules and regulations meant more to many of them than the wonder of God at work. It was this which showed them to be essentially blind. So instead of sharing in the general amazement at the miracle, and recognising God at work in a new way, something which might have meant them rethinking their position, they looked at the minor details with critical eyes and ignored the main lesson. They did not consider the amazing fact that a man who was blind from birth had wonderfully received his sight. They asked rather whether the making of clay to give sight to a man blind from birth could be justified, whether the making of clay for this reason on the Sabbath was allowable within the Law. And their view was rather that inessential healing should not take place on the Sabbath. Thus the man was a lawbreaker. They overlooked the essential difference between natural healing, and healing by the power of God.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 9:14. And opened his eyes. This phrase shews that the man’s blindness proceeded not from any fault or defect in the organs of vision, but from his entire want of those organs: his eyelids were grown together, or contracted, as is the case of those who are born without eyes. Hence Jesus is said to have opened the man’s eyes, to intimate, that in this miracle he made, rather than recovered, his organs of vision. Dr. Lightfoot has shewn, that anointing the eyes on the sabbath-day with any kind of medicine, was forbidden to the Jews by the tradition of the elders. It was certainlya malicious intention to expose Jesus to the rage of the sanhedrim (who are meant by the Pharisees), Joh 9:13; Joh 9:15, &c., which occasioned them to bring the blind man before them.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
14 And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.
Ver. 14. It was the sabbath day ] And our Saviour knew it would be as ill resented as that other miracle on the sabbath day done, Joh 5:9 , for which they sought to kill him. Men be they pleased or displeased, duty must be discharged. Tenenda regula, caecos ac duces caecorum negligendos esse.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
14. ] Lightf. cites from a Rabbinical treatise on the Sabbath, “sputum etiam super palpebras poni prohibitum.” But the making the clay , as a servile work, seems to be here prominently mentioned.
Meyer notices, and it is interesting, as a minute mark of accuracy, that the man only relates what he himself, as being blind, had felt: he says nothing of the spittle.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 9:14 . The reason of this action was that the cure had been wrought on a Sabbath. [“Prohibitum erat sputum oculo illinere Sabbato, sub notione aliqu medicinali,” Lightfoot.]
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
And = Now.
the sabbath day = a sabbath. Compare Joh 5:10.
made the clay. Held then to be a breach of the law
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
14.] Lightf. cites from a Rabbinical treatise on the Sabbath, sputum etiam super palpebras poni prohibitum. But the making the clay, as a servile work, seems to be here prominently mentioned.
Meyer notices,-and it is interesting, as a minute mark of accuracy,-that the man only relates what he himself, as being blind, had felt: he says nothing of the spittle.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 9:14
Joh 9:14
Now it was the sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.-The Sabbath day was to be kept holy under the law of Moses. The keeping of this holy was the test of loyalty to God under the Mosaic law. Jesus had healed this man on this day, and they concluded that God would not be with a man that would heal on the Sabbath.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Joh 5:9, Joh 5:16, Joh 7:21-23, Mat 12:1-14, Mar 2:23-28, Mar 3:1-6, Luk 6:1-11, Luk 13:10-17, Luk 14:1
Reciprocal: Mat 12:2 – Behold Mar 2:28 – General Luk 6:2 – Why Luk 13:14 – and not
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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There is no evidence in the life of Christ that he made any distinction between days, when he had opportunity for working a beneficial miracle. But John knew what was coming up over this case, and made the statement of this verse as an explanation beforehand, of the disturbance soon to be thrust into the work of Jesus. Made the clay was a manual act, and that was sufficient to give the Pharisees an excuse for their quarrel with the man for whom the work had been done.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 9:14. Now it was the sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. It is very interesting to compare this verse with the similar words in chap. Joh 5:9-10. The only offence expressly mentioned there was the carrying of the bed, though there is no doubt that the charge against Jesus related not to this only but also to the performance of the cure (chap. Joh 7:22). Here the two counts of the accusation are distinctly presented in their separation from each other,(1) Jesus had made the clay; (2) He had opened the mans eyes. Another verse of the fifth chapter is likewise necessarily recalled to mind: speaking of the charge of labouring on the sabbath, Jesus said (Joh 9:17), My Father worketh until now: I also work. So here in reference to the same day He says, We must work the works of Him that sent me.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Ver. 14. Keil remarks that the expression is not for, but now (). There is therefore no indication here of the reason for which they brought him; it is an incidental remark, explanatory of what follows.
The words: He made clay are skillfully added in order to make prominent the anti-Sabbatic work in the miracle. Renan says of Jesus: He openly violated the Sabbath. We have already seen that there is nothing of this (vol. I., p. 461). In this case, as in that of chap. 5, Jesus had trampled under foot, not the Mosaic Sabbath, but its Pharisaic caricature. The word , again, alludes to Joh 9:10. This expression, as well as the repeated and in this Joh 9:15, indicates a certain impatience on the part of the blind man, whom these questions weary. He already penetrates their designs. Thus, also, is the somewhat abrupt brevity of his reply explained. The division which manifested itself in the public, is reproduced in this limited circle. Some, starting from the inviolability of the Sabbath ordinance, deny to Jesus, as a transgressor of this ordinance, any divine mission; from this results logically the denial of the miracle. Others, starting from the fact of the miracle, infer the holy character of Jesus, and thus implicitly deny the infraction of the Sabbath. Everything depends on the choice of the premise, and the choice depends here, as always, on moral freedom. It is at the point of departure that the friends of the light and those of darkness separate; the rest is only a matter of logic. We must not translate by sinner. The defenders of Jesus do not dream of affirming His perfect holiness; the termination expresses abundance, custom; thus: a man without principles, a violator of the Sabbath, a publican. The question addressed to the blind man in Joh 9:17, has as its aim to wrest from him a word which may furnish a pretext for suspecting his veracity. As for him, he recognizes in the miracle, according to the received opinion Joh 3:2, the sign of a divine mission, and he frankly declares it.
Confronting of the blind man with his parents:
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
John now introduced the fact that Jesus had healed the man on a Sabbath because it became the basis for much of the discussion that followed. Most of the Pharisees would have regarded Jesus’ action as inappropriate work that violated Sabbath ordinances (cf. Joh 5:9; Joh 5:16; Joh 7:21-24). He had healed a man, made clay, and anointed the man’s eyes.