John 9:11

He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) A man that is called Jesus.—Some of the better MSS. read, “The Man that is called Jesus,” implying that He would be known to the blind man and his friends. They can hardly have failed to hear of His teaching at the feast.

Made clay, and anointed mine eyes.—He gives the details in order, omitting the spitting on the ground, which he had not seen.

And I received sight.—The Greek word means exactly, “to see again.” The power, though given in this instance for the first time, was usually a restored power, and this is expressed in the word. This man uses the ordinary language of men, though, in strictness it was not applicable to his own case. This use of the word is, moreover, justified by other examples.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:8-12 Those whose eyes are opened, and whose hearts are cleansed by grace, being known to be the same person, but widely different in character, live as monuments to the Redeemer's glory, and recommend his grace to all who desire the same precious salvation. It is good to observe the way and method of God's works, and they will appear the more wonderful. Apply this spiritually. In the work of grace wrought upon the soul we see the change, but we see not the hand that makes it: the way of the Spirit is like that of the wind, which thou hearest the sound of, but canst not tell whence it comes, nor whither it goes.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The neighbours ... - This man seems to have been one who attracted considerable attention. The number of persons totally blind in any community is very small, and it is possible that this was the only blind beggar in Jerusalem. The case was one, therefore, likely to attract attention, and one where there could be no imposture, as he was generally known.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8-15. The neighbours therefore … said, Is not this he that sat and begged—Here are a number of details to identify the newly seeing with the long-known blind beggar.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

By one that was called Jesus; probably he had heard some of the people mention him by that name; and he describeth to them the manner how he did it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He answered and said, a man that is called Jesus,.... Whom he had as yet little knowledge of, only by some means or another he had learned his name;

made clay and anointed mine eyes, &c. See Gill on John 9:6, John 9:7.

Geneva Study Bible

He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. A man that is called Jesus] This looks as if he had heard little of the fame of Jesus. But the better reading gives, ‘The man that is called Jesus,’ which points the other way.

made clay] He does not say how, for this he had not seen. The rest he tells in order. Omit the words ‘the pool of.’

I received sight] The Greek may mean either ‘I looked up,’ as in Mark 6:41; Mark 7:34; Mark 16:4, &c.; or ‘I recovered sight,’ as Matthew 11:5; Mark 10:51-52, &c. ‘I looked up’ does not suit John 9:15; John 9:18, where the word occurs again: and though ‘I recovered sight’ is not strictly accurate of a man born blind, yet it is admissible, as sight is natural to man.

Note the gradual development of faith in the man’s soul, and compare it with that of the Samaritan woman (see on John 4:19) and of Martha (see on John 11:21). Here he merely knows Jesus’ name and the miracle; in John 9:17 he thinks Him ‘a Prophet;’ in John 9:33 He is ‘of God;’ in John 9:39 He is ‘the Son of God.’ What writer of fiction in the second century could have executed such a study in psychology?

Bengel's Gnomen

John 9:11. Ἄνθρωπος λεγόμενος Ἰησοῦς, a man who is called Jesus) The article is not added, but the participle. Comp. ch. John 11:54, “Into a city called Ephraim,” Ἐφραὶμ λεγομένην πόλιν. The blind man had not known the celebrity of Jesus.—ἀνέβλεψα, I received [or recovered] sight) He had not had the power of seeing ever before; but yet that power is natural to man; on this account he says, I recovered sight [the strict sense of ἀνέβλεψα].

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - He - the man there singled out - answered (and said), The Man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, Go to the Siloam, and wash. So I went, and when I washed I received my sight. Nothing more as yet than the name of his Benefactor has broken upon him. The name is full of significance to him - the "Savior,': the "Healer;" but he knows nothing of his Messianic claims, nor of his Divine authority. He began, where all disciples must, with the Man. The manner of man soon wakes within him loftier questionings and a better explanation. At present the process seems magical, altogether inexplicable. Clay and Siloam water do not cure birth-blindness, he is in a maze, as well he might be. The ἀνέβλεψα should be rendered, according to Meyer, "I looked up" (see Mark 16:4). It cannot be so translated in vers. 15 and 18. Doubtless it strictly means, "I received sight again;" but there is something in Grotius's explanation, "No one is incorrectly said to receive that which, though he be deprived of it, belongs to human nature as a whole" (see Westcott). The eyes were there, but unused. Meyer quotes from Pausanias the similar use of ἀναβλέπειν, in reference to the recovery or obtaining of sight by a man born blind. John 9:11

Vincent's Word Studies

To the pool of Siloam

The best texts read simply, Go to Siloam.

Received sight (ἀνέβλεψα)

Originally, to look up, as Matthew 14:19; Mark 16:4, and so some render it here; but better, I recovered sight.