36. Respondit ille, et dixit: Quis est, Domine, ut credam in eum?36. He answered, and said: Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?

36. Probably the man recognised the voice of his benefactor, whom he had not seen until now, and he at once shows himself prepared to do what he understands Christ's question to suggest. He believed that Christ who had cured him, and whom he regarded as a prophet, would not deceive him as to who was really the Son of God. Lord (Gr. κύριε) ought rather to be rendered “Sir.” It is a term of respect, but does not at all imply that the man already recognised Christ to be his Lord and God, as is clear from the context.

37. Et dixit ei Iesus: Et vidisti eum, et qui loquitur tecum, ipse est.37. And Jesus said to him: Thou hast both seen him; and it is he that talketh with thee.

37. Thou hast both seen. The meaning is: Thou seest Him, the Greek perfect having here the force of a present. See 1 John iii. 6. Christ's reference to the man's seeing, was doubtless designed to stimulate his gratitude, and help him to faith.

38. At ille ait: Credo Domine. Et procidens adoravit eum.38. And he said: I believe, Lord. And falling down he adored him.

38. He adored Christ as God. Though the word προσεκύνησεν, which is here rendered “adored,” does not, in our opinion, necessarily imply supreme worship in the Greek of either the Old or New Testament,[71] still the context here determines it to that meaning. For Christ had just declared Himself to be the Son of God, and it is as such the man worships Him.

39. Et dixit Iesus: In iudicium ego in hunc mundum veni: ut qui non vident videant, et qui vident caeci fiant.39. And Jesus said: For judgment I am come into this world, that they who see not, may see: and they who see, may become blind.

39. For judgment I am come into this world. The blind man had recovered sight in two senses—bodily and spiritual—and Christ, as the occasion naturally suggested, now goes on to speak of spiritual blindness. Christ's words here are not contradictory of iii. 17 or viii. 15, because here there is question of a different judgment. In those passages there is question of the judgment of condemnation, for which Christ did not come at His first coming; here there is question of the judgment of discernment (κρίμα, not κρίσις), and for this He had come at His first coming. The sense of the present passage then is: I am come to separate the good from the bad; to make known who love God, and who do not; to show and to effect that those who have been regarded as spiritually blind, and who, indeed, in many cases, have been so, may have the eyes of their souls opened to the light of truth, while those who have been thought, and who think themselves, to see (such as you Pharisees), may be shown to be indeed spiritually blind, and may really become more blind, by being involved in deeper darkness through their own unbelief. This latter effect—that they should become more blind—was not directly intended by Christ, but it was foreseen and permitted, and this is enough to justify Christ's expression: “That they who see may become [pg 175] blind.” Compare Rom. v. 20: “Now the law entered in that sin might abound.”

40. Et audierunt quidam ex pharisaeis qui cum ipso erant et dixerunt ei: Numquid et nos caeci sumus?40. And some of the Pharisees, who were with him, heard; and they said unto him: Are we also blind?
41. Dixit eis Iesus: Si caeci essetis, non haberetis peccatum: nunc vero dicitis: Quia videmus. Peccatum vestrum manet.41. Jesus said to them: If you were blind, you should not have sin: but now you say: We see. Your sin remaineth.

40, 41. The Pharisees ask: Are we also blind? and Jesus replies: If you were blind, you should not have sin; that is to say, if you were blind through invincible ignorance, or, as we prefer to hold, if you were blind in your own estimation, if you recognised your spiritual blindness, you should not have sin, because I would wipe it out; but now that you say you see, and rely upon yourselves, your sin remaineth.