John 9:34

They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(34) Thou wast altogether born in sins.—Their reproach now takes the most malignant form, and shrinks not from casting in his teeth the calamity of his birth as the mark of special sin. “Thou didst come into the world,” these words mean, “bearing the curse of God upon thy face. Thou hast said that God heareth not sinners. Thy life in its first moments bore the marks of some fearful crime.”

And dost thou teach us?—i.e., “Dost thou, marked more than is the common lot of man by sin, teach us, who are the authorised teachers and expositors of the truth?” For any one to have doubted their authority would have seemed out of question; but here was one who had been a beggar, one of the “people of the earth,” untrained in the Law, and therefore cursed (comp. Note on John 7:49), and, more than this, altogether born in sin, who was actually teaching them!

And they cast him out.—These words are generally taken to mean excommunication, as in the margin, and it is certain that they may have this sense. (Comp. 3John 1:10.) Having this meaning before them, our translators did not, however, think it the better one, and their view seems to be borne out by the general impression which we get from the narrative. The man with all his boldness has not technically fallen under the ban they had threatened, for he has not “confessed that He was Christ” (John 9:22). A decree of the Sanhedrin would have been necessary, and this must have been formally pronounced. Now, we feel that in a detailed narrative such as we have here, all this would hardly be told in a single short sentence. It seems to be rather that their anger has now passed all bounds. They cannot refute the truth which, in his honest, homely way, he has put before them. They can only heap reproaches upon him, and thrust him by force out of their presence.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:24-34 As Christ's mercies are most valued by those who have felt the want of them, that have been blind, and now see; so the most powerful and lasting affections to Christ, arise from actual knowledge of him. In the work of grace in the soul, though we cannot tell when, and how, and by what steps the blessed change was wrought, yet we may take the comfort, if we can say, through grace, Whereas I was blind, now I see. I did live a worldly, sensual life, but, thanks be to God, it is now otherwise with me, Eph 5:8. The unbelief of those who enjoy the means of knowledge and conviction, is indeed marvellous. All who have felt the power and grace of the Lord Jesus, wonder at the wilfulness of others who reject him. He argues strongly against them, not only that Jesus was not a sinner, but that he was of God. We may each of us know by this, whether we are of God or not. What do we? What do we for God? What do we for our souls? What do we more than others?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Wast born in sins - That is, thou wast born in a state of blindness a state which proved that either thou or thy parents had sinned, and that this was the punishment for it. See John 9:2. Thou wast cursed by God with blindness for crime, and yet thou dost set up for a religious teacher! When people have no arguments, they attempt to supply their place by revilings. When they are pressed by argument, they reproach their adversaries with crime, and especially with being blind, perverse, heretical, disposed to speculation, and regardless of the authority of God. And especially do they consider it great presumption that one of an inferior age or rank should presume to advance an argument in opposition to prevailing opinions.

They cast him out - Out of the synagogue. They excommunicated him. See the notes at John 9:22.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

31. they cast him out—judicially, no doubt, as well in fact. The allusion to his being "born in sins" seems a tacit admission of his being blind from birth—the very thing they had been so unwilling to own. But rage and enmity to truth are seldom consistent in their outbreaks. The friends of this excommunicated youth, crowding around him with their sympathy, would probably express surprise that One who could work such a cure should be unable to protect his patient from the persecution it had raised against him, or should possess the power without using it. Nor would it be strange if such thoughts should arise in the youth's own mind. But if they did, it is certain, from what follows, that they made no lodgment there, conscious as he was that "whereas he was blind, now he saw," and satisfied that if his Benefactor "were not of God, He could do nothing" (Joh 9:33). There was a word for him too, which, if whispered in his ear from the oracles of God, would seem expressly designed to describe his case, and prepare him for the coming interview with his gracious Friend. "Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at His word. Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for My name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified; BUT He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed" (Isa 66:5). But how was He engaged to whom such noble testimony had been given, and for whom such persecution had been borne? Uttering, perhaps, in secret, "with strong crying and tears," the words of the prophetic psalm, "Let not them that wait on Thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake; let none that seek Thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel; because for Thy sake I have borne reproach … and the reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen upon me" (Ps 69:6, 7, 9).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The Pharisees seeing that they could by no arts bring this poor blind man to their lure, either to deny, or speak any thing in abatement of the miracle which Christ had wrought upon him; nor yet to agree with them, that Christ was a great sinner; fall at last to a downright railing; they tell him, he was

altogether born in sins. So were all of them. David had taught them, that there was none righteous, no not one; and confessed concerning himself, Psalm 51:5, that he was conceived in iniquity, and that in sin his mother had brought him forth. They had learned from Job, that none can bring a clean thing out of that which is unclean; nothing can be clean that is born of a woman, Job 14:4. Their meaning therefore in this phrase must be something more; and possibly the adjective olov, which signifieth whole, (we translate it as if it were olwv, altogether) doth import thus much. They do not only tell this man that he was born in sin, but that he was whole or altogether born in sin, that is, under the guilt of sin: nor do they mean only the common corruption and contagion of human nature, derived from the loss of God’s image in man upon the fall of Adam, but some notorious sin. If any say, How could they think that he was guilty of any such thing before he was born?

Answer. It was the opinion of Pythagoras, one of the heathen philosophers, that when men and women died their souls went into other bodies that were then born, and in those bodies often suffered punishment for those enormous acts which they had been guilty of in former bodies. It is apparent that the Jews were some of them tainted with this notion, from Herod’s saying, Matthew 14:2 Mark 6:14, when, after the beheading of John the Baptist, he heard what great works Christ did, that John the Baptist was risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works did show forth themselves in him; by which the best interpreters think, that Herod meant no more than that John the Baptist’s soul was gone into another body, according to their notion borrowed from the heathens; for it had been easy for Herod by search to have found whether John the Baptist’s body was risen from the dead.

So it is thought that the Pharisees here saying,

Thou wast altogether born in sins, meant that his soul was a sordid, filthy soul, which in another body had committed vile and abominable things; and for those sins God set a mark upon him, even in his birth, and he was horn blind. Or perhaps this phrase signified no more than a term of reviling; of which no great account can be given, as passionate men in the madness of their passions oft throw out words of reproach, of which neither themselves nor others can give any just and reasonable account.

And dost thou teach us? Thou that art such a marked villain from thy mother’s womb, or that art such an ignorant idiot, dost thou think thyself fit to instruct us about true and false prophets, who are of God, and who are not? Surely we are to be thy teachers, and not thou ours.

And they cast him out: some think that casting out here signifieth no more than a turning him out of the place where they were; as the word signifieth, Acts 7:58 13:50. Others think its here to be understood of a judicial excommunication, or casting him out of communion with the Jewish church; which latter seemeth more probable, because of the notice or it brought to our Saviour, and the notice which he took of this poor man, upon this occasion. If it had been only a turning him out of the place where they were met, it is not probable that it would have made such a noise.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

They answered and said unto him,.... Being nettled, and stung at what he said, and not able to confute his reasoning; and it is amazing that a man that could never read the Scriptures, who had had no education, was not only blind, but a beggar from his youth, should be able to reason in so strong and nervous a manner, and should have that boldness and presence of mind, and freedom of speech before the whole sanhedrim. Certainly it was God that gave him a mouth and wisdom which these learned doctors could not resist, and therefore they reply in the following manner,

thou wast altogether born in sins; meaning not in original sin, as all mankind are, for this might have been retorted on themselves; but having imbibed the Pythagorean notion of a transmigration of souls into other bodies, and of sinning in a pre-existent state, or a notion of infants sinning actually in the womb, and so punished with blindness, lameness, or some deformity or another for it, they reproach this man, calling him vile miscreant, saying, thou vile, sinful creature, who came into the world covered with sin, with the visible marks of having sinned, either in another body, or in the womb before birth, and therefore wast born blind:

and dost thou teach us, holy, wise, and learned men! which breathes out the true pharisaical spirit they were possessed of, and which appeared in their ancestors before them; see Isaiah 65:5.

And they cast him out; not merely out of the place where the sanhedrim sat, or out of the temple; this would have been no great matter, nor have made any great noise in the city, or have been taken notice of by Christ, or moved his compassion towards him; nor merely out of any particular synagogue, or was the excommunication called "Niddui", which was a separation for thirty days, and for the space of four cubits only; but was what they call "Cherem", which was a cutting him off from the whole congregation of Israel; See Gill on John 9:22; an anathematizing him, and a devoting him to ruin and destruction: and now in part was fulfilled, Isaiah 66:5, for this was done in pretence of zeal, for the honour and glory of God; and Christ appeared to the joy and comfort of this man, and to the shame and confusion of those that cast him out, as the following verses show.

Geneva Study Bible

They answered and said unto him, {f} Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.

(f) You are wicked even from your cradle, and as we used to say, there is nothing in you but sin.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

John 9:34. Thou wert born with thy whole nature laden with sin, so that nothing in thee is pure from sins; but thou art entirely, through and through, a born reprobate.[50] They entertain the same prejudice regarding sinfulness before birth (not of the parents) to which the disciples had previously given expression (John 9:2), and make here a spiteful application thereof. Comp. on ὍΛΟς, John 13:10. The notion of “heightened original sin” (Hengstenberg, after Psalm 51:7) is not appropriate to the connection, as the inference from being born blind implies ἁμαρτίας committed before birth.

Note the contemptuous emphasis of the ΣΎ … ΣΎ.

ΔΙΔΆΣΚ. ἩΜ.] The emphasis rests here, not on ΔΙΔΆΣΚ., but on ἩΜᾶς: dost thou comport thyself as our teacher?

ἐξέβαλ. αὐτ. ἔξω] not a designation of excommunication (Olshausen, De Wette, Tholuck, Baeumlein, and many older commentators), as no sitting of the Sanhedrim had taken place; and, besides, how indefinite a mode of designating the matter would it be! although ἐκβάλλειν is frequently used by Thucydides, Xenophon, and others to denote exile. Comp. also 3 John, John 9:10. As the context suggests nothing else, and as there is not a hint of a sentence of excommunication, which might perhaps have been pronounced a few days later in the synagogue (Ewald), we must simply explain: they cast him out. Significant enough as the final result of the hostile and passionate discussion. Comp. Chrysostom, Nonnus, and Theophylact, who, however, transfers the scene to the temple. The remark of Maldonatus is correct: “ex loco, in quo erant.” Comp. Bengel, Dem. 1366. 11; Acts 7:58.

[50] Nonnus: σύγγονος ἀμπλακίησιν ἐμαιώθης ὅλος ἀνήρ.

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 9:34. Ἐν ἁμαρτίαις … ἔξω. “In sins thou wast wholly born, and dost thou teach us?” They refer his blindness to sin, and reproach him with his calamity. Sin, they say, was branded on the whole man; he was manifestly a reprobate. Yet we, the pure and godly, are to be taught by such a man!—ἐξέβαλον αὐτὸν ἔξω, “they cast him out,” not merely from the chamber, but from communion. This is implied both in John 9:35 and all that Jesus says of the shepherds in the following paragraph.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

34. Thou wast altogether born in sins] ‘In sins (first for emphasis) every part of thy nature (comp. John 13:10) has been steeped from thy birth; thou wast born a reprobate.’ They hold the same belief as the disciples, that sin before birth is possible, and maliciously exclude not only the alternative stated by Christ (John 9:3) but even the one stated by the disciples (John 9:2), that his parents might have sinned. Their passion blinds them to their inconsistency. They had been contending that no miracle had been wrought; now they throw his calamity in his face as proof of his sin.

Dost thou teach us?] ‘Dost thou, the born reprobate, teach us, the authorized teachers?’

they cast him out] Or, they put him forth: see on John 10:4. This probably does not mean excommunication. (1) The expression is too vague. (2) There could not well have been time to get a sentence of excommunication passed. (3) The man had not incurred the threatened penalty; he had not ‘confessed that He was Christ’ (John 9:22). Provoked by his impracticability and sturdy adherence to his own view they ignominiously dismiss him—turn him out of doors, if (as the ‘out’ seems to imply) they were meeting within walls.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 9:34. Ἐν ἁμαρτίαις, in sins) They upbraid him with his former blindness: John 9:2, “Who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?”—καὶ σύ) and yet dost thou.—διδάσκεις, teach) Indeed his words, from John 9:30-33, form an excellent sermon.—ἐξέβαλον αὐτόν, they cast him out) as being a Christian: John 9:22, “The Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that He was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.” That act of theirs tended to his great good: but they themselves betray thereby the hatred of the truth, with which they are actuated.—ἔξω, out) from that place in which they were met together.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 34. - Vanquished by this logic of simple fact and plain inference, the authorities have no other weapon to use but invective and persecution. They answered and said to him, Thou wast altogether born in sins; through and through a born reprobate. They take up the superstitious idea which seems (ver. 2) to have been floating in the mind of the disciples. From sins of parents or from thine own sins in thy mother's womb, thou earnest into the world with the brand of thy infamy upon thee. Thus they admit the change that has come over him by reverting to the peculiar depravity which had been stamped upon his brow, according to their narrow interpretation of Divine providence. And dost thou presume to teach us? - the chosen, the learned, the approved ministers of God? Dost thou, with all this heritage and mark of separation from God, dare to instruct the chief pastors and teachers of Israel? They did not stop with cruel words, but in their bitterness of spirit they thrust him forth; they violently expelled him from the synagogue where they were then seated (so Meyer, Maldonatus, Bengel, and many others). We are not told that there and then they excommunicated, or unsynagogued, him. It is probable that this ban followed, with the usual terrible formalities. He had practically confessed that the highest claims which Jesus had ever made about himself were true, and he made himself liable to the curse already pronounced (ver. 22). This marvelous narrative, with its lifelike detail, is not made the text of a discourse. It remains forever the startling vindication of our Lord's own word, that he was Light to the world and Eyesight too, and was able to supply both the objective condition and subjective change by which the nature of man could alone receive the light of life. From ver. 8 to ver. 34 is almost the only passage in the Gospel, with the exception of the passage, John 3:22-36, in which we are not standing in the actual presence of the Lord, or are not listening to his judgments on men and things, and to his revelations of the mystery of his own Person. The narrative so far stands by itself, and gives us an insight into the life which was being enacted in Jerusalem contemporaneously with the Divine self-revelation of Jesus. John 9:34

Vincent's Word Studies

Altogether (ὅλος)

Literally, all of thee.

In sins

Standing first in the Greek order, and emphatic, as is also σὺ thou, in both instances. "In sins wast thou born, all of thee; and dost thou teach us?"

Teach

Emphatic. Dost thou, thus born in sins, assume the office of teacher?

Cast him out

From the place where they were conversing. Not excommunicated, which this miscellaneous gathering could not do.