John 9:17

They say unto the blind man— He is so named after having received his sight, agreeable to the scripture phraseology. Thus Matthew 10:3. Matthew is called the publican, after he had left off that employment; and Matthew 26:6. Simon is called the leper, after he was cured. The next clause should be rendered, What sayest thou of him, since he hath opened, or for having opened thine eyes? This question was proposed to the man, not so much to know his opinion, as to divert the members of the sanhedrim from carrying on their altercation any further. The man's answer, that Christ was a prophet, contained not only a testimony of his being endued with a power of working miracles, but likewise that he had a right to dispense with the strict observation of the sabbath; because a prophet, according to their own traditions, was supposed to be invested with such a power.