Matthew Henry on John 9:13-34
One would have expected that such a miracle as Christ wrought upon the blind man would have settled his reputation, and silenced and shamed all opposition, but it had the contrary effect; instead of being embraced as a prophet for it, he is prosecuted as a criminal.
I. Here is the information that was given in to the Pharisees concerning this matter: They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind, Joh 9:13. They brought him to the great sanhedrim, which consisted chiefly of Pharisees, at least the Pharisees in the sanhedrim were most active against Christ. 1. Some think that those who brought this man to the Pharisees did it with a good design, to show them that this Jesus, whom…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on John 9:18
the Jews did not believe . . . he had been born blind . . . till they called the parents of him that had received his sight--Foiled by the testimony of the young man himself, they hope to throw doubt on the fact by close questioning his parents, who, perceiving the snare laid for them, ingeniously escape it by testifying simply to the identity of their son, and his birth-blindness, leaving it to himself, as a competent witness, to speak as to the cure. They prevaricated, however, in saying they "knew not who had opened his eyes," for "they feared the Jews," who had come to an understanding (probably after what is recorded, Joh 7:50, &c.; but by this time well known), that whoever owned Him a…
Read the whole note in the consoleAdam Clarke on John 9:22
Put out of the synagogue - That is, excommunicated - separated from all religious connection with those who worshipped God. This was the lesser kind of excommunication among the Jews and was termed nidui. The cherem, or anathema, was not used against the followers of Christ till after the resurrection.
John Gill on John 9:22
These words spake his parents,.... these were the answers they returned to the three questions put to them: and the reason why they answered in the manner they did to the third, was,
because they feared the Jews; the Jewish sanhedrim, otherwise they were Jews themselves:
for the Jews had agreed already; the sanhedrim had made a decree, either at this time, upon this account, or some time before,
that if any man did confess that he was Christ; that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah,
he should be put out of the synagogue; which was not that sort of excommunication which they called "Niddui", a separation from civil society for the space of four cubits, and which held but thirty days, if t…
