John 9
WesleyJohn 9:2
Then said Jesus - Continuing his discourse (from John 7:29) which they had interrupted.
John 9:3
Ye shall seek me - Whom ye now despise. These words are, as it were, the text which is commented upon in this and the following chapter. Where I am - Christ’s so frequently saying while on earth, where I am, when he spake of his being in heaven, intimates his perpetual presence there in his Divine nature: though his going thither was a future thing, with regard to his human nature.
John 9:4
Will he go to the dispersed among the Greeks - The Jews scattered abroad in heathen nations, Greece particularly. Or, Will he teach the Greeks? - The heathens themselves.
John 9:6
On the last, the great day of the feast - On this day there was the greatest concourse of people, and they were then wont to fetch water from the fountain of Siloam, which the priests poured out on the great altar, singing one to an other, With joy shall ye draw water from the wells of salvation. On this day likewise they commemorated God’s miraculously giving water out of the rock, and offered up solemn prayers for seasonable rains.
John 9:7
He that believeth - This answers to let him come to me. And whosoever doth come to him by faith, his inmost soul shall be filled with living water, with abundance of peace, joy, and love, which shall likewise flow from him to others. As the Scripture hath said - Not expressly in any one particular place. But here is a general reference to all those scriptures which speak of the effusion of the Spirit by the Messiah, under the similitude of pouring out water. Zechariah 14:8.
John 9:8
The Holy Ghost was not yet given - That is, those fruits of the Spirit were not yet given even to true believers, in that full measure.
John 9:9
The prophet - Whom we expect to be the forerunner of the Messiah.
John 9:11
From Bethlehem - And how could they forget that Jesus was born there? Had not Herod given them terrible reason to remember it? Micah 5:2.
John 9:17
Hath any of the rulers - Men of rank or eminence, or of the Pharisees - Men of learning or religion, believed on him?
John 9:18
But this populace, who know not the law - This ignorant rabble; are accursed - Are by that ignorance exposed to the curse of being thus seduced.
John 9:19
Nicodemus, he that came to him by night - Having now a little more courage, being one of them - Being present as a member of the great council, saith to them - Do not we ourselves act as if we knew not the law, if we pass sentence on a man before we hear him?
John 9:21
They answered - By personal reflection; the argument they could not answer, and therefore did not attempt it. Art thou also a Galilean? - One of his party? Out of Galilee ariseth no prophet - They could not but know the contrary. They knew Jonah arose out of Gethhepher; and Nahum from another village in Galilee. Yea, and Thisbe, the town of Elijah, the Tishbite, was in Galilee also. They might likewise have known that Jesus was not born in Galilee, but at Bethlehem, even from the public register there, and from the genealogies of the family of David. They were conscious this poor answer would not bear examination, and so took care to prevent a reply.
John 9:22
And every man went to his own house - So that short plain question of Nicodemus spoiled all their measures, and broke up the council! A word spoken in season, how good it is! Especially when God gives it his blessing.
John 9:24
And every man went to his own house - So that short plain question of Nicodemus spoiled all their measures, and broke up the council! A word spoken in season, how good it is! Especially when God gives it his blessing.
John 9:25
And every man went to his own house - So that short plain question of Nicodemus spoiled all their measures, and broke up the council! A word spoken in season, how good it is! Especially when God gives it his blessing.
John 9:26
And every man went to his own house - So that short plain question of Nicodemus spoiled all their measures, and broke up the council! A word spoken in season, how good it is! Especially when God gives it his blessing.
John 9:27
And every man went to his own house - So that short plain question of Nicodemus spoiled all their measures, and broke up the council! A word spoken in season, how good it is! Especially when God gives it his blessing.
John 9:28
Moses hath commanded us to stone such - If they spoke accurately, this must have been a woman, who, having been betrothed to a husband, had been guilty of this crime before the marriage was completed; for such only Moses commanded to be stoned. He commanded indeed that other adulteresses should be put to death; but the manner of death was not specified. Deuteronomy 22:23.
John 9:29
That they might have to accuse him - Either of usurping the office of a judge, if he condemned her, or of being an enemy to the law, if he acquitted her. Jesus stooping down, wrote with his finger on the ground - God wrote once in the Old Testament; Christ once in the New: perhaps the words which he afterward spoke, when they continued asking him. By this silent action, he, fixed their wandering, hurrying thoughts, in order to awaken their consciences: and, signified that he was not then come to condemn but to save the world.
John 9:30
He that is without sin - He that is not guilty: his own conscience being the judge) either of the same sin, or of some nearly resembling it; let him - as a witness, cast the first stone at her.
John 9:32
Beginning at the eldest - Or the elders. Jesus was left alone - By all those scribes and Pharisees who proposed the question. But many others remained, to whom our Lord directed his discourse presently after.
John 9:33
Hath no man condemned thee? - Hath no judicial sentence been passed upon thee?
John 9:34
Neither do I condemn thee - Neither do I take upon me to pass any such sentence. Let this deliverance lead thee to repentance.
John 9:35
He that followeth me shall in nowise walk in darkness - In ignorance, wickedness, misery: but shall have the light of life - He that closely, humbly, steadily follows me, shall have the Divine light continually shining upon him, diffusing over his soul knowledge, holiness, joy, till he is guided by it to life everlasting.
John 9:36
Thou testifiest of thyself; thy testimony is not valid - They retort upon our Lord his own words, John 5:31; if I testify of myself, my testimony is not valid. He had then added, There is another who testifieth of me. To the same effect he replies here, John 8:14, Though I testify of myself, yet my testimony is valid; for I am inseparably united to the Father. I know - And from firm and certain knowledge proceeds the most unexceptionable testimony: whence I came, and whither I go - To these two heads may be referred all the doctrine concerning Christ. The former is treated of John 8:16, &c, the latter John 8:21, &c. For I know whence I came - That is, For I came from God, both as God and as man. And I know it, though ye do not.
John 9:38
Ye judge after the flesh - As the flesh, that is, corrupt nature dictates. I judge no man - Not thus; not now; not at my first coming.
John 9:39
I am not alone - No more in judging, than in testifying: but I and the Father that sent me - His Father is in him, and he is in the Father, John 14:10,11; and so the Father is no more alone without the Son, than the Son is without the Father, Proverbs 8:22,23,30. His Father and he are not one and another God, but one God, (though distinct persons,) and so inseparable from each other. And though the Son came from the Father, to assume human nature, and perform his office as the Messiah upon earth, as God is sometimes said to come from heaven, for particular manifestations of himself; yet Christ did not leave the Father, nor the Father leave him, any more than God leaves heaven when he is said to come down to the earth.