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¹ As He passed by, He saw a man who had been blind from his birth.² So His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned--this man or his parents--that he was born blind?"³ "Neither he nor his parents sinned," answered Jesus, "but he was born blind in order that God's mercy might be openly shown in him.⁴ We must do the works of Him who sent me while there is daylight. Night is coming on, when no one can work.⁵ When I am in the world, I am the Light of the world."⁶ After thus speaking, He spat on the ground, and then, kneading the dust and spittle into clay, He smeared the clay over the man's eyes and said to him,⁷ "Go and wash in the pool of Siloam" --the name means `Sent.' So he went and washed his eyes, and returned able to see.

⁸ His neighbours, therefore, and the other people to whom he had been a familiar object because he was a beggar, began asking, "Is not this the man who used to sit and beg?"⁹ "Yes it is," replied some of them. "No it is not," said others, "but he is like him." His own statement was, "I am the man."¹⁰ "How then were your eyes opened?" they asked.¹¹ "He whose name is Jesus," he answered, "made clay and smeared my eyes with it, and then told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and obtained sight."¹² "Where is he?" they inquired, but the man did not know.

¹³ They brought him to the Pharisees--the man who had been blind.¹⁴ Now the day on which Jesus made the clay and opened the man's eyes was the Sabbath.¹⁵ So the Pharisees renewed their questioning as to how he had obtained his sight. "He put clay on my eyes," he replied, "and I washed, and now I can see."¹⁶ This led some of the Pharisees to say, "That man has not come from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath." "How is it possible for a bad man to do such miracles?" argued others.¹⁷ And there was a division among them. So again they asked the once blind man, "What is your account of him? --for he opened your eyes." "He is a Prophet," he replied.¹⁸ The Jews, however, did not believe the statement concerning him--that he had been blind and had obtained his sight--until they called his parents and asked them,¹⁹ "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How is it then that he can now see?"²⁰ "We know," replied the parents, "that this is our son and that he was born blind;²¹ but how it is that he can now see or who has opened his eyes we do not know. Ask him himself; he is of full age; he himself will give his own account of it."²² Such was their answer, because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already settled among themselves that if any one should acknowledge Jesus as the Christ, he should be excluded from the synagogue.²³ That was why his parents said, "He is of full age: ask him himself."²⁴ A second time therefore they called the man who had been blind, and said, "Give God the praise: we know that that man is a sinner."²⁵ "Whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know," he replied; "one thing I know--that I was once blind and that now I can see."²⁶ "What did he do to you?" they asked; "how did he open your eyes?"²⁷ "I have told you already," he replied, "and you did not listen to me. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also mean to be disciples of his?"²⁸ Then they railed at him, and said, "You are that man's disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.²⁹ We know that God spoke to Moses; but as for this fellow we do not know where he comes from."³⁰ "Why, this is marvellous!" the man replied; "you do not know where he comes from, and yet he has opened my eyes!³¹ We know that God does not listen to bad people, but that if any one is a God-fearing man and obeys Him, to him He listens.³² From the beginning of the world such a thing was never heard of as that any one should open the eyes of a man blind from his birth.³³ Had that man not come from God, he could have done nothing."³⁴ "You," they replied, "were wholly begotten and born in sin, and do *you* teach *us*?" And they put him out of the synagogue.

³⁵ Jesus heard that they had done this. So having found him, He asked him, "Do you believe in the Son of God?"³⁶ "Who is He, Sir?" replied the man. "Tell me, so that I may believe in Him."³⁷ "You have seen Him," said Jesus; "and not only so: He is now speaking to you."³⁸ "I believe, Sir," he said. And he threw himself at His feet.

³⁹ "I came into this world," said Jesus, "to judge men, that those who do not see may see, and that those who do see may become blind."⁴⁰ These words were heard by those of the Pharisees who were present, and they asked Him, "Are *we* also blind?"⁴¹ "If you were blind," answered Jesus, "you would have no sin; but as a matter of fact you boast that you see. So your sin remains!"