John 9:7

Go, wash in the pool of Siloam,— Concerning these waters, the evangelist observes, that their name Siloam, or according to the Hebrew orthography, Shiloah, signifies a thing that is sent. This remark, Grotius, Dr. Clarke, and others, think was designed to insinuate that Christ's command to the blind man was symbolical, teaching him, that he owed his cure to the Messiah, one of whose names was Shiloh, the sent of God.—The waters here mentioned, came from a spring that was in the rocks of mount Zion, and were gathered into two great basons: the lower called the pool of fleeces, and the upper Shiloah, Nehemiah 3:15 because the waters which filled it were sent to them by the goodness of God, from the bowels of the earth; for in Judea, springs of water, being very rare, were esteemed peculiar blessings. Hence the waters of Shiloah were made by the prophet a type of David's descendants, and, among the rest, of Messiah; Isaiah 8:6. Christ's benefits are fitly represented by the image of water; for his blood purifies the soul from the foulest stains of sin, just as water cleanses the body from its defilements. Moreover, his doctrine imparts wisdom, and affords refreshment to the spirit, like that which cool draughts of water impart to one who is ready to faint away with thirst and heat. But, beside the emblematical reason mentioned by the evangelist, Jesus might order the blind man to go and wash in the pool of Siloam, because there were generally great numbers of people there, who, seeing the man led thither blind, having his eyes bedawbed with clay, must have gathered round him to inquire into the cause of so strange an appearance. These having examined the man, and found that he was stone-blind, they could not but be prodigiously struck by his relation, when, after washing in the pool, they saw the new facultyinstantly imparted to him: especially if his relation was confirmed by the person who led him, as in all probability it would be. For it is reasonable to suppose, that his conductor was one of those who stood by when Jesus anointed his eyes, and ordered him to wash them in Siloam. Accordingly, when he went away, and washed, and came seeing, that is, walked by the assistance of his own eyes, without being led, the miracle was earnestly and accurately inquired into by all his acquaintance, and so universally known, that it became the general topic of conversation at Jerusalem, as the evangelist informs us, John 9:8. Nay, it was accurately examined by the literati or doctors there; for the man was brought before them; they looked at his eyes; they inquired what had been done to them; they sent for his parents, to know from them whether he had been really born blind; and they excommunicated the man, because he would not join them in saying that Jesus, who had cured him, was an impostor. The expression at the end of this verse, He came seeing, with eyes so remarkably strengthened that they could immediately bear the light, is a great heightening of the miracle. Perhaps this man had been taught by the example of Naaman, not to despise the most improbable means, when prescribed in the view of a miracle: but the miracle implied a divine energy and interference in every respect.