John 9:30-34

9:30 The man replied,¹ “This is a remarkable thing,² that you don’t know where he comes from, and yet he caused me to see!³ 9:31 We know that God doesn’t listen to⁴ sinners, but if anyone is devout⁵ and does his will, God⁶ listens to⁷ him.⁸ 9:32 Never before⁹ has anyone heard of someone causing a man born blind to see.¹⁰ 9:33 If this man¹¹ were not from God, he could do nothing.” 9:34 They replied,¹² “You were born completely in sinfulness,¹³ and yet you presume to teach us?”¹⁴ So they threw him out.

John 9:40

9:40 Some of the Pharisees¹⁵ who were with him heard this¹⁶ and asked him,¹⁷ “We are not blind too, are we?”¹⁸

¹tn Grk “The man answered and said to them.” This has been simplified in the translation to “The man replied.”

²tn Grk “For in this is a remarkable thing.”

³tn Grk “and he opened my eyes” (an idiom referring to restoration of sight).

⁴tn Grk “God does not hear.”

⁵tn Or “godly.”

⁶tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷tn Or “hears.”

⁸tn Grk “this one.”

⁹tn Or “Never from the beginning of time,” Grk “From eternity.”

¹⁰tn Grk “someone opening the eyes of a man born blind” (“opening the eyes” is an idiom referring to restoration of sight).

¹¹tn Grk “this one.”

¹²tn Grk “They answered and said to him.” This has been simplified in the translation to “They replied.”

¹³tn Or “From birth you have been evil.” The implication of this insult, in the context of John 9, is that the man whom Jesus caused to see had not previously adhered rigorously to all the conventional requirements of the OT law as interpreted by the Pharisees. Thus he had no right to instruct them about who Jesus was.

¹⁴tn Grk “and are you teaching us?”

¹⁵sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.

¹⁶tn Grk “heard these things.”

¹⁷tn Grk “and said to him.”

¹⁸tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “are we?”).