783
ἥμαρτεν, οὗτος ἢ οἱ γονεῖς αὐτοῦ, °iva τυφλὸς γεννηθῇ;”. 3. Απ-ς Burton,
εκρίθη ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς, ““Οὔτε οὗτος ἤμαρτεν οὔτε οἱ γονεῖς αὐτοῦ: GAN’
218.
ἵνα "φανερωθῇ τὰ ἔργα τοῦ Θεοῦ «ἐν αὐτῷ. 4. ἐμὲ} δεῖ ἐργάζεσθαι ἆ ος 8
τὰ ἔργα τοῦ πέμψαντός µε "ἕως ἡμέρα ἐστίν: ἔρχεται νὺξ, ὅτε e Burton,
οὐδεὶς δύναται ἐργάζεσθαι. κόσμου.”
5. ὅταν ἐν τῷ κόσµω ὦ, t .
. xlvi δ.
Αρ 3 A 328. - PGs εἰμι τοῦ f Lk. xi. 34.
6. Ταῦτα εἰπὼν, ἕπτυσε "χαμαὶ, καὶ ἐποίησε πηλὸν ἐκ g xviii. 6.
τοῦ πτύσµατος, καὶ ἐπέχρισε3 τὸν πηλὸν ἐπὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τοῦ τυφλοῦ, 7. καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ, ''Ὕπαγε νίψαι cis τὴν κολυµβήθραν τοῦ
Σιλωὰμι” ὃ ἑρμηνεύεται, ἀπεσταλμένος.
καὶ ἦλθε βλέπων.
ἀπῆλθεν οὖν καὶ ἐνίψατο,
1 ημας in SBD, adopted by recent editors.
Σεπεθηκεν ἵπ BC. W.H.R. add avrov with SABL and delete τον τυφλον, which may have been introduced to make the sense clearer.
imitation of a construction which really expresses purpose ’’ (Burton, Moods, 218, 219).—Ver. 3. Both alternatives are rejected by Jesus, Οὔτε . . . αὐτοῦ. And another solution is suggested, ἵνα ... αυτῷ. Evil furthers the work of God in the world. It is in conquering and abolishing evil He is manifested. The question for us is not where suffering has come from, but what we are to do with it. Ver. 4. The law which is binding on all men Jesus enounces.—épé δεῖ ἐργάζεσθαι Work, active measures to remove suffering, are more incumbent on men than resentful speculation as to the source of suffering. As to God’s con- nection with evil, the practical man need only concern himself with this, that God seeks to abolish it. The time for doing so is limited, it is ἕως qyépa ἐστίν, ‘so long as it is day,” that is, as the next clause shows, so long as life lasts. [On ἕως in N.T. see Burton, Moods, 321-330.]—€pxetar νύξ, suggested by the threats (vii. 59, etc.) and by the presence of the blind man,—vVer. 5. ὅταν . . . κόσμου. We should have expected ἕως and not ὅταν, and the Vulgate renders ‘“‘quamdiu”. But the ‘‘when”’ seems to be used to suggest a time when He should not be in the world: ‘“‘when I am in the world, I am the Light of the World,” as He immedi- ately illustrated by the cure of the blind man.—Ver. 6. Tatra εἰπὼν, {.6., “in this connection,” ἕπτυσε yapal... “He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle,” ‘‘ quia aqua ad manum non erat,’’ says Grotius; but that spittle was considered efficacious Lightfoot proves by an amusing anecdote and
νο. 6
Wetstein by several citations. Tacitus (Hist., iv. 81) relates that the blind man who sought a cure from Vespasian begged “ut . . . oculorum orbes dignaretur respergere oris excremento”’. Probably the idea was that the saliva was of the very substance of the person. Tylor (Prim. Culture, ii. 400) is of opinion the Roman Catholic priest’s touching with his spittle the ears and nostrils of the infant at baptism is a survival of the custom in Pagan Rome in accordance with which the nurse touched with spittle the lips and forehead of the week-old child. Virtue was also attributed to clay in diseases of the eye. A physician of the time of Caracalla prescribes ‘“‘turgentes oculos vili circumline coeno ”, That Jesus supposed some virtue lay in the application of the clay is contradicted by the fact that in other cases of blind- ness He did not use it. See Mk. x. 46. But if He applied the clay to encourage the man to believe, as is the likely solu- tion, the question of accommodation arises (see Liicke). The whole process of which the man was the subject was apparently intended to deepen his faith, —Ver. 7. The application of the clay was not enough. Jesus further said: Ὕπαγε . +» ἀπεσταλμένος. Elsner shows that “wash into,” νίψαι eis, is not an un- common construction. But ver. 11, which gives the same command in a different form, shows that the man understood that eis followed ὕπαγε and not νίψαι. The pool of Siloam, supplied from the Virgin’s fountain (Is. viii. 6), lay at the south-east corner of Jerusalem in the Kidron Valley. On the opposite side of the valley lies a village Silwan