Page 105 - Gospel of John_teachers lesson_cp 1-10_Neat

(John 9:14-15) – The Pharisee repeat the same line of questioning initiated by the neighbors
and the son presents the same detailed testimony.
(John 9:16-17) – Quite different from the neighbors, the Pharisee’s respond harshly,
immediately charging the man’s healer to be ungodly because he violated the sabbath. As they
did a year earlier the Pharisees overlooked the work of the sabbath because of their attention
on working on the sabbath.
This time the disposition created a division among the Jewish leaders. In memory of the caucus
on the same matter a year earlier, some of them reviewing the similarity did not find
consensus. For the first time a contingent of Pharisees vocalized their concern about
misjudging the credentials of the Messiah. They could not rationalize the claims of Jesus being
ungodly and yet capable of miracles that only a man of God could do. To condemn the man
and condone the man’s work would attribute a sinner with the power to perform miracles.
Other Jews wanted to maintain their formal position believing Jesus to be an enemy to their
faith and would discard any evidence pushing a contrary viewpoint no matter how true.

John 9:17- They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him,
that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a prophet.
John 9:18- But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been
blind, and received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had
received his sight.

John 9:19- And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was
born blind? how then doth he now see?

John 9:20- His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our
son, and that he was born blind:

John 9:21- But by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath
opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for
himself.
John 9:22- These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews:
for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was
Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.
John 9:23- Therefore said his parents, He is of age; ask him.

Lesson Notes:

(John 9:17) – The son was asked to give an opinion on the religious stature of the man that
healed him, he replies rehearsing the commonly held opinion saying that he is a prophet.
(John 9:18-19) – Hearing the son’s reply, the faction strongly against the Messiah present their
disbelief of the son’s claim to have been blind. The parents are called into question and asked
to validate the son’s identity and the family claim of his birth defect. The also push to hear
their testimony about his new-found sight.

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