30. Respondit ille homo, et dixit eis: In hoc enim mirabile est quia vos nescitis unde sit, et aperuit meos oculos:30. The man answered, and said to them: Why herein is a wonderful thing that you know not from whence he is, and he hath opened my eyes.

30. You is emphatic; you the teachers of God's people!

31. Scimus autem quia peccatores Deus non audit: sed si quis Dei cultor est, et voluntatem eius facit, hunc exaudit.31. Now we know that God doth not hear sinners: but if a man be a server of God, and doth his will, him he heareth.

31. Now we know that God doth not hear sinners. These are the words of the blind man, and we are not bound to hold that they state what is true: that they were spoken by the man, the inspired Evangelist tells us; and the fact that they were spoken is all that is covered by inspiration. But the words are generally true in the sense in which the context proves they were used. For God does not generally hear sinners so as to work miracles at their will; and this is what the words mean. That God never hears the prayers of sinners, is not stated here, and is not true.

32. A saeculo non est auditum quia quis aperuit oculos caeci nati.32. From the beginning of the world it hath not been heard, that any man hath opened the eyes of one born blind.
33. Nisi esset hic a Deo, non poterat facere quidquam.33. Unless this man were of God, he could not do anything.

33. Anything; that is to say, such as the miracle performed upon me.

34. Responderunt, et dixerunt ei: In peccatis natus es totus, et tu doces nos? Et eiecerunt eum foras.34. They answered, and said to him: Thou wast wholly born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.

34. Thou wast wholly born in sins, ὅλος (totus); that is to say, altogether, entirely, as thy blindness proves. And dost thou, steeped from thy birth in sin and ignorance, presume to teach us, the sainted [pg 173] doctors of the Law? And they cast him out. Some take the sense to be, that they excommunicated him, but the obvious meaning is, that they drove him from their presence, wherever it was that they were assembled.

35. Audivit Iesus quia eiecerunt eum foras: et cum invenisset eum, dixit ei: Tu credis in Filium Dei?35. Jesus heard that they had cast him out: and when he had found him, he said to him: Dost thou believe in the Son of God?

35. Christ as God knew, of course, that the man had been expelled by the Pharisees; but He waited till He heard it as man, and then went to seek for and reward the poor fellow, who had so intrepidly defended Him before them. Instead of Son of God, some manuscripts of great authority read Son of Man; but it is more probable that the former is the correct reading. We may here remark how Christ, who had cured the blindness of the body without requiring faith now asks for faith in Himself before He will dispel the deeper darkness of the soul. “Qui fecit te sine te, non justificat te sine te; fecit nescientem, justificat volentem” (St. Aug., Serm. 15, de verbis Apost.).