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Unbelieving Jews were Blind


Unbelieving Jews were Blind


Excerpt


The subsequent evaluation of Jesus confirmed this distinction between seeing and not seeing in the comparison made between the believing man and the unbelieving Jews. Blindness is here to be interpreted on two levels (John 9:39). On the one hand, the Pharisees who had by physical standards been able to see were by spiritual standards revealed to be blind. On the other hand, the former blind man who had come to see physically in fact also became the model of spiritual perception. Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees’ question concerning their state (John 9:40) was thus for the evangelist self-evident. Accordingly, Jesus confirmed the continuation of their pitiful state of both blindness and guilt. The judgment on the blind state of the Pharisees here in John was not very different from Jesus’ judgment on the hypocritical Pharisees of Matt 23:16–19, who were condemned as pathetic, blind guides.


Borchert, Gerald L. John 1–11. Vol. 25A. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996. Print. The New American Commentary.

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