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Bible Dictionaries
Blindness
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or Only once does this term refer to the absence of physical sight (Acts 13:11), yet even there moral blindness is symbolized (cf. also the case of St. Paul, Acts 9:8 ff; Acts 20:11, a temporary condition due to suggestion, or to sudden severe nervous tension which soon gave place to normal sight). All the other references to blindness (Romans 2:19, 2 Corinthians 4:4, 2 Peter 1:9, 1 John 2:11, Revelation 3:17) are metaphysical and indicate a moral condition. Apart from the general fitness of such a figure to signify a moral condition, a special reason for its use by St. Paul is found in his experience before and after his conversion.-1. Blindness is alleged as a simple fact without explanation (2 Peter 1:9, Revelation 3:17).-2. It is referred to the character and influence of the world, from which some of those who have joined themselves to the Christian community have not yet emerged-they still remain in the darkness in which they were before (1 John 2:11).-3. The god of this world, or Satan, who is supposed to have power over the course of affairs in the present ace, is assigned as the cause of this condition (cf. Ephesians 6:12, Ascension of Isaiah, ed. Charles, 1900, pp. 11, 24, where Beliar = the ruler of this world).-4. To God is attributed in part the activity which results in moral blindness (Acts 28:26, Romans 11:8; Romans 11:10). This conception belongs to the circle of Jewish religious ideas-the prophetic doctrine of the absoluteness of God, the Pharisaic teaching of Divine predestination. Both of these lay in the background of St. Paul’s thought (cf. Isaiah 6:9-10, Psalms 69:23, Romans 9:20 ff.), yet other elements also entered into and modified it. From the point of view of the Divine absoluteness, the Apostle did not doubt that God had the unquestioned right to be the sole cause of blindness in one or of Eight in another-a prerogative which, however, He refrained from exercising. Hence a somewhat different explanation wag to be sought for the blindness of Israel. That God had rejected the Jews as a whole was for the Apostle abundantly evident. Yet this did not contradict God’s election and promise. Israel’s guilt had, indeed, for the time being, annulled these; still, this was only one side of the reality. God’s rejection of Israel was neither without purpose nor was it irrevocable. God’s purpose was universal, embracing Gentiles as well as Jews, and if it appeared to pass from the Jews to the Gentiles, this was not the whole truth, nor was it final. For, firstly, some Jews had always remained faithful to the election, and secondly, the blindness of the remainder was only temporary-until the ‘fullness of the Gentiles,’ when all Israel, beholding the salvation of the Gentiles, should once more turn to God. The blindness is marked by two features. It is conceived of as pertaining not to individuals, but to the community; and it is one stage in the unfolding of a vast theodicy. The latter fact does not, however, relieve the community of either responsibility or guilt. Whether all the community living in the interim, that is, previous to the removal of the social blindness, will share in the recognition and acceptance of the election, is not considered by the Apostle. In the other passages of the Authorized Version the Greek words which are translated ‘blinded’ (Romans 11:7, 2 Corinthians 3:14) and ‘blindness’ (Romans 11:25, Ephesians 4:18) are replaced in the Revised Version by their proper equivalents ‘hardened’ and ‘hardness,’ which express also insensibility to the truth of the gospel.
Literature.-Article ‘Blindness’ in Dict. of Christ and the Gospels ; Sanday-Headlam, Romans 5 (International Critical Commentary , 1902); J. Armitage Robinson, Ephesians, 1903, p. 264ff.; B. F. Westcott, Ephesians, 1906, p. 66; Journal of Theological Studies iii. [1901-02] 81.
C. A. Beckwith.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Blindness'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/b/blindness.html. 1906-1918.
