could easily restore one of those faculties, even sight, when He thought fit. He that healed these blind eyes with clay was the same Being who originally formed man out of the clay.
Ecolampadius thinks that the spittle was the emblem of Christ's Divinity, and the clay of His humanity, and that the union of the two represented the union of the two natures in Christ's person, whereby healing came to a sin-sick world. To say the least, this seems fanciful.
Barradius suggests that our Lord actually formed new eyes for the man, as He at first formed man's body out of the dust. This, however, seems needlessly improbable.
Poole thinks that our Lord used spittle to make clay, simply because there was no water nigh at hand to make it with.
Wordsworth observes that Christ's manner of working the miracle was " tenderness to the Jews. They would see the clay on the man's eyes, and see him going to Siloam."
He also observes, " Cod loves to effect His greatest works by means tending under ordinary circumstances to produce the very opposite of what is to be done. God walls the sea with sand. God clears the air with storms. God warms the earth with snow. So in the world of grace. He brings water in the desert, not from the soft earth, but the flinty rock. He heals the sting of the serpent of fire by the serpent of brass. He overthrows the wall of Jericho by ram's horns. He slays a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass. He cures salt water with salt. He fells the giant with a sling and stone. And thus does the Son of God work in the Gospel. He cures the blind man by that which seemed likely to increase his blindness, by anointing his eyes with clay. He exalts us to heaven by the stumbling-block of the cross."
7. — And said. ..Go, to ash... Siloam.'] The direction here given to the blind man would remind any pious Jew of Elisha's directions to Naaman, " Go, wash in Jordan." (2 Kings v. 10.) The water of this pool had no inherent healing efficacy any more than other water. But the command was a test of faith, and in obeying, the blind man found what he wanted. It is the great principle which runs through Scripture,— " Believe and obey, and all will be right."
The pool of Siloam was a well-known reservoir, or artificial pond, in a valley close to Jerusalem, remarkable for a supply of water from an intermittent spring. It is pointed out in the present day, and there seems no reason to doubt that it is the same pool that was so called eighteen hundred years ago. It is first mentioned in Nehemiah iii. 15, and afterwards in Isaiah viii. 6.
Lightfoot asserts that the pool of Bethesda and the pool of Siloam were both supplied from one spring. 7