They said unto the blind man again, What say you of him, that he has opened your eyes? He said, He is a prophet.
All Commentaries on John 9:17 Go To John 9
Theophylact of Ochrid
AD 1107
Which of the two groups of Pharisees asked the blind man, What sayest thou of Him? The one inclined to judge Christ fairly. Having posed the question, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? they now bring forward the beneficiary of the Lord’s power, in defense of Christ and as a living refutation of the Lord’s slanderers. This faction of the Pharisees did not demand, “What do you have to say about that lawbreaker who dared to make clay on the Sabbath?” Instead, they speak kindly to the blind man, even mentioning the miracle. They admit that He hath opened thine eyes, as if to encourage him to speak openly on Christ’s behalf. They actually prompt him to declare that Jesus opened his eyes. “After what Jesus did for you,” they say, “you ought to proclaim Him to all.” Therefore, the blind man confesses Christ as far as his knowledge of Him permits, stating that his benefactor is not a sinner but is from God. He affirms that Jesus is a prophet, while the evil contingent of Pharisees continues to insist that this man is not of God, because he keepeth not the Sabbath day. To them, Christ was a violator of the Sabbath because He applied clay with one finger. Never mind that they, with their whole hand, loosed their animals on the Sabbath and led them to water! These hard and obstinate men call for the blind man’s parents, meaning to bully them into denying their son’s blindness. Unable to silence the grateful blind man, they try instead to intimidate his parents and impugn the miracle. They interrogate them angrily, but with the utmost cunning. They do not say, “Is this your son, who was once blind?” but instead, who ye say was born blind. The implication is that the parents spread the story that he was blind, when in fact he was not. O wretched Pharisees, what father would spread such a lie about his own child? From two sides the Pharisees hedge in the parents and press them to repudiate their son: they make an insinuation, who ye say was born blind; then they demand, How then doth he now see? The Pharisees pretend that the very fact the blind man could see is evidence that the parents were lying earlier when they said he was born blind. “Either he cannot see now, or he was never blind. But obviously he sees now—so you are liars!”
