John 9:18

John 9:18. The Jews therefore did not believe concerning him that he had been blind, and received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight. The change from ‘the Pharisees' to ‘the Jews' is very striking, and must have special significance. Nor is it difficult to find an explanation. The Pharisees (see the note on chap. John 7:32) were united in zeal for the law and in watchfulness over the rites and usages of Israel, but not in hostility to Jesus: we have just seen that the testimony regarding the miracle has divided them into two camps. It is of a hostile body only that the Evangelist is speaking in this verse. But there is probably another reason for the change of expression. ‘The Jews' is not with John a designation of all the enemies of Jesus; it denotes the representatives of Jewish thought and action, the leaders of the people, who, alas! were leaders in the persecution of our Lord. The use of the word here, then, leads us to the thought that the dispute had passed into a different stage. So serious had the case become that the rulers themselves engaged in it: more than this, we have now done with inquiry in any true sense, and persecution has taken its place.