John 9:24 - Printer Friendly

ESV: So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.”

NIV: A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. 'Give glory to God by telling the truth,' they said. 'We know this man is a sinner.'

NASB: So for a second time they summoned the man who had been blind, and said to him, 'Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.'

CSB: So a second time they summoned the man who had been blind and told him, "Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner."

NLT: So for the second time they called in the man who had been blind and told him, 'God should get the glory for this, because we know this man Jesus is a sinner.'

KJV: Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner.

NKJV: So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, “Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner.”

This is the second time that local religious leaders have questioned a man whom Jesus healed of lifelong blindness (John 9:1–7). The man's initial claims were brushed off as impossible, since the scribes and Pharisees had already decided that Jesus was a fraud (John 5:39–40). The investigators then turned to the man's parents, hoping to debunk some part of the story. Instead, they confirmed that this man had, in fact, been born blind. The parents, fearing backlash from the religious leaders (John 9:22), had said very little and reminded everyone that their son was old enough to speak for himself.

The command "give glory to God" here is a way of demanding that a person speak the truth. Typically, using it implies that the other person needs to confess some sin or deception (Joshua 7:19; 1 Samuel 6:5). In modern speech, this is somewhat like a judge telling a defendant, "come, now, tell the truth…" The religious leaders further prove their prejudice by stating "we know…" Jesus is a sinner. This echoes their initial rejection of the miracle: they refused to accept it because they had already decided that Jesus didn't agree with their traditions (John 9:16). By hinting that the man is lying, and claiming to "know" that Jesus is false, the scribes and Pharisees are trying to intimidate the formerly-blind man into changing his story.

This effort will backfire spectacularly. In the following verses, the healed man will produce a profound summary of saving faith, and his simple, common-sense approach to facts will embarrass the hard-headed, willfully ignorant religious leaders.

John 9:13–34 describes the Pharisees' reaction to Jesus' healing of a man born blind. Rather than being swayed by an obvious sign of divine power, they look for excuses and criticisms. Seeking to discredit the miracle, they interrogate the man's parents, who timidly defer back to their son. The healed man knows nothing more than this: ''though I was blind, now I see.'' His matter-of-fact responses to the Pharisees highlight their obvious prejudice. As a result, they excommunicate the healed man from the synagogue. Jesus will meet with the man in the next passage to give more context for the miracle.

Jesus encounters a man who has been blind his entire life. In typical fashion for that era, the disciples assume this condition is due to some specific sin--either the man's sin or his parents' sin. Jesus challenges this idea, and heals the man. His restoration leads to interrogation, as the Pharisees try to discredit Jesus' miraculous work. The healed man's simple, straightforward perspective embarrasses the religious leaders, who excommunicate him in frustration. Jesus is able to meet with the man, explaining more about His identity and the purpose of His ministry. Jesus also reminds the Pharisees that those who ought to know better, spiritually, will be held more accountable as a result.

Jesus has begun to actively confront the false teachings of local religious leaders. His most recent debate included a heated exchange with the Pharisees, where Jesus claimed to have existed before Abraham. This resulted in an attempted stoning for blasphemy. Here, Jesus continues to antagonize religious hypocrites by healing a man who was born blind. The ensuing ruckus further exposes Jerusalem's religious leaders as shallow, prejudiced, and false. This event launches Jesus into another lengthy discussion of His ministry, recorded in chapter 10, including several crucial teachings on His role as Shepherd.

The gospel of John was written by the disciple John, decades later than the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The author assumes that a reader is already familiar with the content of these other works. So, John presents a different perspective, with a greater emphasis on meaning. John uses seven miracles—which he calls “signs”—in order to prove that Jesus is, in fact, God incarnate. Some of the most well-known verses in all of the Bible are found here. None is more famous than the one-sentence summary of the gospel found in John 3:16.