Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

John 9:1

John 9:1. And as he passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. There is nothing to connect this chapter with the last, in regard to time or place. The closing words of the eighth chapter as they stand in the ordinary text, ‘and so passed by,' would indeed suggest a very intimate connection. with the verse before us; but those words are certainly not genuine. The light, too, which the present chapter casts on the accessories of the event related in it is very scanty. The day to which the narrative refers was a sabbath (John 9:14): the blind man (who was of Jewish birth; see John 9:34) had been wont to sit and beg from passers-by (John 9:8). We naturally think, perhaps, of the lame man who was brought from day to day and laid by the gates of the temple (Acts 3), and are ready to assume that the same neighbourhood must be thought of here; but there is nothing in the text either for or against such an opinion. The two points which John brings before us are simply that the case of the afflicted man was (in itself) hopeless, and that the Saviour saw him as He passed by. The obvious purpose of this latter statement is to direct our thoughts to the spontaneous compassion of Jesus. The man said nothing, did nothing, to awaken His pity, nor did the question of the disciples in John 9:2 first call His attention to the case. He feels and acts Himself; and the interest of the disciples does not precede but follow that shown by their Master.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

John 9:1

Old Testament

New Testament