Weymouth - John - 9

9:1  As He passed by, He saw a man who had been blind from his birth.

9:2  So His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned--this man or his parents--that he was born blind?"

9:3  "Neither he nor his parents sinned," answered Jesus, "but he was born blind in order that God's mercy might be openly shown in him.

9:4  We must do the works of Him who sent me while there is daylight. Night is coming on, when no one can work.

9:5  When I am in the world, I am the Light of the world."

9:6  After thus speaking, He spat on the ground, and then, kneading the dust and spittle into clay, He smeared the clay over the man's eyes and said to him,

9:7  "Go and wash in the pool of Siloam" --the name means `Sent.' So he went and washed his eyes, and returned able to see.

9:8  His neighbours, therefore, and the other people to whom he had been a familiar object because he was a beggar, began asking, "Is not this the man who used to sit and beg?"

9:9  "Yes it is," replied some of them. "No it is not," said others, "but he is like him." His own statement was, "I am the man."

9:10  "How then were your eyes opened?" they asked.

9:11  "He whose name is Jesus," he answered, "made clay and smeared my eyes with it, and then told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and obtained sight."

9:12  "Where is he?" they inquired, but the man did not know.

9:13  They brought him to the Pharisees--the man who had been blind.

9:14  Now the day on which Jesus made the clay and opened the man's eyes was the Sabbath.

9:15  So the Pharisees renewed their questioning as to how he had obtained his sight. "He put clay on my eyes," he replied, "and I washed, and now I can see."

9:16  This led some of the Pharisees to say, "That man has not come from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath." "How is it possible for a bad man to do such miracles?" argued others.

9:17  And there was a division among them. So again they asked the once blind man, "What is your account of him? --for he opened your eyes." "He is a Prophet," he replied.

9:18  The Jews, however, did not believe the statement concerning him--that he had been blind and had obtained his sight--until they called his parents and asked them,

9:19  "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How is it then that he can now see?"

9:20  "We know," replied the parents, "that this is our son and that he was born blind;

9:21  but how it is that he can now see or who has opened his eyes we do not know. Ask him himself; he is of full age; he himself will give his own account of it."

9:22  Such was their answer, because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already settled among themselves that if any one should acknowledge Jesus as the Christ, he should be excluded from the synagogue.

9:23  That was why his parents said, "He is of full age: ask him himself."

9:24  A second time therefore they called the man who had been blind, and said, "Give God the praise: we know that that man is a sinner."

9:25  "Whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know," he replied; "one thing I know--that I was once blind and that now I can see."

9:26  "What did he do to you?" they asked; "how did he open your eyes?"

9:27  "I have told you already," he replied, "and you did not listen to me. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also mean to be disciples of his?"

9:28  Then they railed at him, and said, "You are that man's disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.

9:29  We know that God spoke to Moses; but as for this fellow we do not know where he comes from."

9:30  "Why, this is marvellous!" the man replied; "you do not know where he comes from, and yet he has opened my eyes!

9:31  We know that God does not listen to bad people, but that if any one is a God-fearing man and obeys Him, to him He listens.

9:32  From the beginning of the world such a thing was never heard of as that any one should open the eyes of a man blind from his birth.

9:33  Had that man not come from God, he could have done nothing."

9:34  "You," they replied, "were wholly begotten and born in sin, and do *you* teach *us*?" And they put him out of the synagogue.

9:35  Jesus heard that they had done this. So having found him, He asked him, "Do you believe in the Son of God?"

9:36  "Who is He, Sir?" replied the man. "Tell me, so that I may believe in Him."

9:37  "You have seen Him," said Jesus; "and not only so: He is now speaking to you."

9:38  "I believe, Sir," he said. And he threw himself at His feet.

9:39  "I came into this world," said Jesus, "to judge men, that those who do not see may see, and that those who do see may become blind."

9:40  These words were heard by those of the Pharisees who were present, and they asked Him, "Are *we* also blind?"

9:41  "If you were blind," answered Jesus, "you would have no sin; but as a matter of fact you boast that you see. So your sin remains!"