Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

It was the Sabbath - Some of the ancient rabbins taught, and they have been followed by some moderns, not much better skilled in physic than themselves, that the saliva is a cure for several disorders of the eyes; but the former held this to be contrary to the law, if applied on the Sabbath. See Lightfoot's Hor. Talm.

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible

Now it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. Again therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight. And he said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and I see.

Now it was the sabbath ... is written here in anticipation of the objection that would be stated in John 9:16. Of course, the Pharisees had already heard the full story, but they moved here to establish the facts through the testimony of the subject himself. Although the name of Jesus dominated that hearing, neither the healed man nor the examiners mentioned it, suggesting that they had forbidden any mention of the Lord's name.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay,.... Which was reckoned a violation of the sabbath, John 9:16, and was one reason why they had the man to the Pharisees to be examined, and why they were desirous of knowing where Jesus was:

and opened his eyes; by putting on the clay, and sending him to wash in the Pool of Siloam: nor did the miracle, nor the good done to the man, excuse with them, what they thought a breach of the sabbath.

People's New Testament

It was the sabbath day. Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. We have found in the case of the miracle at the pool of Bethesda how they were angered by any apparent violation of the day.

Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament

Now it was the sabbath (ην δε σαββατον — ēn de sabbaton). Literally, “Now it was a sabbath” (no article). To the Pharisees this fact was a far more important matter than whether or how the thing was done. See notes in Volume 1 and notes in Volume 2 for discussions of the minute Sabbath regulations of the rabbis.

Vincent's Word Studies

It was the Sabbath day when ( ἦν δὲ σάββατον ὅτε )

The best texts read, instead of ὅτε when ἐν ᾗ ἡμέρᾳ onwhich day. Literally, it was a Sabbath on the day on which.

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.

Anointing the eyes — With any kind of medicine on the Sabbath, was particularly forbidden by the tradition of the elders.

The Fourfold Gospel

1. Now it was the sabbath. Such conduct on the Sabbath raised legal questions of which the Pharisees were also recognized judges.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

А была суббота. Христос осознанно выбрал субботний день, собираясь дать иудеям повод для соблазна. Он уже достаточно испытал в случае с расслабленным, что даже такое дело вызывает их клевету. Итак, почему Христос не избежал то, что можно было легко избежать? Потому что злоба врагов должна была еще ярче явить силу Божию. Субботний день, подобно брошенному камню, должен был обострить их реакцию на чудо. Что же достигли иудеи из столь упорного и нервного исследования? То, что подлинность чуда засияла еще ярче. Кроме того, этот пример учит нас следовать за Христом, презирая всех врагов Его Евангелия. И совершенно безумствуют те, кто пытается примирить Христа с миром. Они осуждают любые поводы для соблазна, хотя Христос намеренно и охотно раздражал в этом случае нечестивых. Итак, надо придерживаться предписанного Им же правила: слепые, вожди других слепых, достойны всякого презрения (Мф.15:14).

Frédéric Louis Godet - Commentary on Selected Books

Ver. 14. Keil remarks that the expression is not for, but now ( δέ). There is therefore no indication here of the reason for which they brought him; it is an incidental remark, explanatory of what follows.

The words: He made clay are skillfully added in order to make prominent the anti-Sabbatic work in the miracle. Renan says of Jesus: "He openly violated the Sabbath." We have already seen that there is nothing of this (vol. I., p. 461). In this case, as in that of chap. 5, Jesus had trampled under foot, not the Mosaic Sabbath, but its Pharisaic caricature. The word πάλιν, again, alludes to John 9:10. This expression, as well as the repeated and in this John 9:15, indicates a certain impatience on the part of the blind man, whom these questions weary. He already penetrates their designs. Thus, also, is the somewhat abrupt brevity of his reply explained. The division which manifested itself in the public, is reproduced in this limited circle. Some, starting from the inviolability of the Sabbath ordinance, deny to Jesus, as a transgressor of this ordinance, any divine mission; from this results logically the denial of the miracle. Others, starting from the fact of the miracle, infer the holy character of Jesus, and thus implicitly deny the infraction of the Sabbath. Everything depends on the choice of the premise, and the choice depends here, as always, on moral freedom. It is at the point of departure that the friends of the light and those of darkness separate; the rest is only a matter of logic. We must not translate ἁμαρτωλός by sinner. The defenders of Jesus do not dream of affirming His perfect holiness; the termination ωλος expresses abundance, custom; thus: a man without principles, a violator of the Sabbath, a publican. The question addressed to the blind man in John 9:17, has as its aim to wrest from him a word which may furnish a pretext for suspecting his veracity. As for him, he recognizes in the miracle, according to the received opinion John 3:2, the sign of a divine mission, and he frankly declares it.

Confronting of the blind man with his parents:

John Trapp Complete Commentary

14 And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.

Ver. 14. It was the sabbath day] And our Saviour knew it would be as ill resented as that other miracle on the sabbath day done, John 5:9, for which they sought to kill him. Men be they pleased or displeased, duty must be discharged. Tenenda regula, caecos ac duces caecorum negligendos esse.

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible

John 9:14. And opened his eyes.— This phrase shews that the man's blindness proceeded not from any fault or defect in the organs of vision, but from his entire want of those organs: his eyelids were grown together, or contracted, as is the case of those who are born without eyes. Hence Jesus is said to have opened the man's eyes, to intimate, that in this miracle he made, rather than recovered, his organs of vision. Dr. Lightfoot has shewn, that anointing the eyes on the sabbath-day with any kind of medicine, was forbidden to the Jews by the tradition of the elders. It was certainlya malicious intention to expose Jesus to the rage of the sanhedrim (who are meant by the Pharisees), John 9:13; John 9:15, &c., which occasioned them to bring the blind man before them.

Greek Testament Critical Exegetical Commentary

14.] Lightf. cites from a Rabbinical treatise on the Sabbath, “sputum etiam super palpebras poni prohibitum.” But the making the clay, as a servile work, seems to be here prominently mentioned.

Meyer notices,—and it is interesting, as a minute mark of accuracy,—that the man only relates what he himself, as being blind, had felt: he says nothing of the spittle.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

It was observed before, that Christ made choice of the sabbath day, as the day wherein he did many of his mighty works. It was on the sabbath day that he cured the impotent man who lay at the pool of Bethesda, John 5:10; and upon the sabbath day that he cured him who had the withered hand, Matthew 12:10; and now again upon the sabbath day that he cured him who was born blind. Possibly he chose that day, because that was a day wherein he ordinarily preached that heavenly doctrine, which he confirmed by these miraculous works; or, perhaps, that he might take occasion from thence to instruct the Jews, if they would have received instruction, in the true doctrine of the sabbath, that they might not superstitiously think that it was not lawful to do acts of mercy on the sabbath day: certain it is, that himself maketh that improvement of it, Matthew 12:1-8. Or to show them, that he was the Lord of the sabbath; and that, as his Father by his works of providence worketh on the sabbath day, so did he, being equal with his Father: by which argument he before defended himself for the cure of the impotent man on the sabbath day, John 5:17.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

14.Sabbath day—The Evangelist here prepares us for the ground upon which the Pharisees will seek to invalidate the miracle.

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

‘Now it was the Sabbath on the day that Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.’

The day of the healing was the Sabbath, and according to the teaching of the Rabbis all healing, apart from emergency work, was forbidden. And healing blindness was not seen as an emergency work. It could be done any day of the week. The Pharisees were thus concerned, and they were even more so when they learned that Jesus had actually moulded clay on the Sabbath.

This was certainly breaking their carefully worked out rules. They did not consider the wonder of what was happening. Their rules and regulations meant more to many of them than the wonder of God at work. It was this which showed them to be essentially blind. So instead of sharing in the general amazement at the miracle, and recognising God at work in a new way, something which might have meant them rethinking their position, they looked at the minor details with critical eyes and ignored the main lesson. They did not consider the amazing fact that a man who was blind from birth had wonderfully received his sight. They asked rather whether the making of clay to give sight to a man blind from birth could be justified, whether the making of clay for this reason on the Sabbath was allowable within the Law. And their view was rather that inessential healing should not take place on the Sabbath. Thus the man was a lawbreaker. They overlooked the essential difference between natural healing, and healing by the power of God.

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable

John now introduced the fact that Jesus had healed the man on a Sabbath because it became the basis for much of the discussion that followed. Most of the Pharisees would have regarded Jesus" action as inappropriate work that violated Sabbath ordinances (cf. John 5:9; John 5:16; John 7:21-24). He had healed a Prayer of Manasseh, made clay, and anointed the man"s eyes.

Schaff's Popular Commentary on the New Testament

John 9:14. Now it was the sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. It is very interesting to compare this verse with the similar words in chap. John 5:9-10. The only offence expressly mentioned there was the carrying of the bed, though there is no doubt that the charge against Jesus related not to this only but also to the performance of the cure (chap. John 7:22). Here the two counts of the accusation are distinctly presented in their separation from each other,—(1) Jesus had made the clay; (2) He had opened the man’s eyes. Another verse of the fifth chapter is likewise necessarily recalled to mind: speaking of the charge of labouring on the sabbath, Jesus said (John 9:17), ‘My Father worketh until now: I also work.’ So here in reference to the same day He says, ‘We must work the works of Him that sent me.’

The Expositor's Greek Testament

John 9:14_{. The reason of this action was that the cure had been wrought on a Sabbath. [“Prohibitum erat sputum oculo illinere Sabbato, sub notione aliquâ medicinali,” Lightfoot.]}

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

And = Now.

the sabbath day = a sabbath. Compare John 5:10.

made the clay. Held then to be a breach of the law

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged

And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.

And [or, 'Now' de (G1161)] it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.

The connection between these two verses, and especially what is mentioned in John 9:16, make it evident that it was our Lord's having performed this cure on the Sabbath day which induced these people to bring the beggar under the notice of the Pharisees; and so far, therefore, it was done in a spirit of at least suspicion of the glorious Healer. On the systematic performance of such miracles on the Sabbath day, see the note at John 5:9.

It is probable that the Pharisees were sitting in council when the following dialogue took place:

The Bible Study New Testament

14. Was a Sabbath. That is, Saturday. Compare John 5:16-17 and notes.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) And it was the sabbath day—i.e., most probably, the last day, that great day of the feast of John 7:37. Nothing has taken place which makes it necessary to suppose any interval, and though the discourses seem long, they would have occupied but a short time in delivery. The whole narrative follows in unbroken order, which makes it difficult to suppose that a week intervened.

When Jesus made the clay.—This is mentioned as a servile work which contravened the Sabbath law. The anointing the eyes with spittle on the Sabbath was specially forbidden by the decrees of the Rabbis. They held that no work of healing might be performed on the Sabbath except in cases of immediate danger.

On the question of our Lord’s relation to the Sabbath day, comp. Notes on John 5:16 et seq., and on Matthew 12:10; Luke 13:11-16; Luke 14:1-5.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

5:9,16; 7:21-23; Matthew 12:1-14; Mark 2:23-28; 3:1-6; Luke 6:1-11; 13:10-17; Luke 14:1

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

14.Now it was the Sabbath. Christ purposely selected the Sabbath-day, which must have given ground of offense to the Jews. He had already found, in the case of the paralytic, that this work was liable to slander. Why then does he not avoid the offense — which he could easily have done — but because the defense malignantly undertaken by men would tend to magnify the power of God? The Sabbath-day serves as a whetstone to sharpen them, to inquire more eagerly into the whole matter. And yet what advantage do they reap from a careful and earnest examination of the question but this, that the truth of the Gospel shines more brightly? We are taught by this example that, if we would follow Christ, we must excite the wrath of the enemies of the Gospel; and that they who endeavor to effect a compromise between the world and Christ, so as to condemn every kind of offenses, are altogether mad, since Christ, on the contrary, knowingly and deliberately provoked wicked men. We ought to attend, therefore, to the rule which he lays down, that they who are blind, and leaders of the blind, (Matthew 15:14,) ought to be disregarded.