Read John 9 here (text coming …) or at Bible Gateway.
Joh 9:1-41 Chiastic Structure:
“As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Joh 9:5
The man born blind, when he was healed of his blindness, also saw Jesus, the light of the world. The Pharisees, however, who were seeing, did not see Jesus as the light of the world. They saw with their natural eyes, but blind with their spiritual eyes.
Scripture is making a Comparison and Contrast between the blind and the seeing, which the final paragraph throws into stark relief:
And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that they who do not see might see; and that they who see might be made blind.” And some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, “Are we blind also?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see;’ therefore your sin remains.” Joh 9:39-41
The Pharisees said in essence to the man born blind, ‘We see, and you do not,’ and they cast him out of the synagogue. The Greek word, “to see,” (Strong’s G991, βλέπω) means not only to see with the natural eyes, but also to perceive with spiritual eyes, to comprehend or understand. Because they believed themselves to be seeing, that is, to have greater insight or understanding than others, they were blinded. A blind man does not perceive light, and the Pharisees could not perceive Jesus the light of the world.
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