The Sabbath School

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 22, 1881

The Sabbath School.

LESSON FOR PACIFIC COAST. DEC. 31.

The Blind Man Healed—His Confession.—John 9:1-34.

LESSON COMMENTS.

The following comments on this most interesting and instructive chapter, are taken from "Clarke's Commentary." The account of this miracle and its attendant circumstances, furnishes a very profitable lesson. It should be carefully studied. In connection with this, the chapter in "Geikie's Life of Christ" on this subject will be found of value.

Verse 2. Who did sin, this man, or his parents? The doctrine of the transmigration of souls appears to have been an article in the creed of the Pharisees, and it was pretty general both among the Greeks and the Asiatics. The Pythagoreans believed the souls of men were sent into other bodies for the punishment of some sin which they had committed in a pre-existent state. This seems to have been the foundation of the disciples' question to our Lord. Did this man sin in a pre-existent state that he is punished in this body with blindness? Or, did his parents commit some sin, for which they are thus plagued in their offspring?

Verse 3. Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents. That is, the blindness of this person is not occasioned by any sin of his own, nor of his parents; but has happened in the ordinary course of divine providence; and shall now become the instrument of salvation to his soul, edification to others, and glory to God. Many of the Jews thought that marks on the body were proofs of sin in the soul. From a like persuasion, probably, arose that proverb among our northern neighbors—Mark him, whom God marks.

Verse 11. A man that is called Jesus. The whole of this relation is simple and artless in the highest degree. The blind man had never seen Jesus, but he had heard of his name—he felt that he had put something on his eyes, which he afterward found to be clay—but how this was made, he could not tell; because he could not see Jesus when he did it;—therefore he does not say, he made clay of spittle—but simply, he made clay, and spread it upon my eyes. Where a multitude of incidents must necessarily come into review, imposture and falsehood generally commit themselves, as it is termed; but however numerous the circumstances may be in a relation of fact, simple truth is never embarrassed.

Verse 17. He is a prophet. They had intended to lay snares for the poor man, that getting him to acknowledge Christ for the Messiah, they might put him out of the synagogue, verse 22, or put him to death; that such a witness to the divine power of Christ, might not appear against them. But as the mercy of God had given him his sight, so the wisdom of God taught him how to escape the snares laid for his ruin. "On all thy glory there shall be a defense," says the prophet Isa. 4:5. When God gives any particular mercy or grace, he sends power to preserve it, and wisdom to improve it. The man said, He is a prophet. Now, according to a Jewish maxim, a prophet must dispense with the observation of the Sabbath. See Grotius. If they allow that Jesus was a prophet, then, even in their sense, he might break the law of the Sabbath, and yet be guiltless; or if they did not allow him to be a prophet, they must account for the miracle some other way than by the power of God; as from Satan or his agents no good can proceed:—to do this it was impossible. So the wisdom of God taught the poor man to give them such an answer, as put them into a complete dilemma, from which they could not possibly extricate themselves.

Verse 22. Put out of the synagogue. That is excommunicated—separated from all religious connection with those who worship God. This was the lesser kind of excommunication among the Jews, and was termed nidui. The cherem or anathema, was not used against the followers of Christ, till after the resurrection.