The First Examination of the Man
John 9:13-18
They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind.…


I. AN IMPORTANT ADMISSION. The Pharisees recognized that the man saw (ver. 13). If therefore he had been previously blind, there must have been a miracle.

II. AN IRRELEVANT QUESTION. They wished to know how the man had received his sight (ver. 15), when all that they had to determine was whether he had received his sight.

III. A STRAIGHTFORWARD ANSWER. The man having nothing to conceal, gave a simple recitation of what had taken place (ver 15).

IV. A PALPABLE EVASION. Some of the Pharisees attempted to avoid giving judgment as to the miracle by pronouncing on a question that was not before them, viz., the character of Christ, whom they declared could not be "from God," because He kept not the Sabbath (ver. 16).

V. A SOUND CONCLUSION. Others reasoned that the miracle had been proved, and decided that the worker of such a "sign" could not be a sinner, and therefore could not have really violated the Sabbath law (ver. 16).

VI. A SAFE DEDUCTION. The healed man inferred, as Nicodemus had done (John 3:2), that the Physician who had cured him was a prophet (ver. 17).

VII. A DISINGENUOUS PROCEDURE. The matter seemed settled and the miracle made out; but the hostile party, unwilling to allow a verdict so favourable for Jesus to go forth, determined to hold the man an impostor, or at least to suspend their judgment until they had heard the man's parents.

(T. Whitelaw, D. D.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind.

WEB: They brought him who had been blind to the Pharisees.




Power of Prejudice
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