Yahuchanan Nine

  

1 As Y’shua walking among the people, one day, he encountered a man who was blind from birth. 

2 Curious about the law, Y’shua’s disciples asked him, saying, “Rebbe, where did this blindness—this manifestation of error—originate? Was it the fault of this man, or of his parents, that he was born blind?”

3 Y’shua answered, “The man is not blind because he or his parents caused this infirmity through error of their own—by sinning, by missing the mark. He was born into blindness so that the works of HaShem should be manifested within him by the restoration of his sight.

4 “I must perform the works of him that sent me while it is yet day. Night comes, when no man can work. 

5 “So long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.”

6 When he had relayed this teaching, Y’shua spat upon the ground and made clay with the spittle; then, he applied the poultice of clay to the eyes of the blind man,

7 Saying to him, “Go, wash in the Pool of Shaliach jlc” (“the waters unto which I send you”). The man made his way to the pool, therefore, and washed; and when he returned, he was able to see: the change in him was greater than mere restoration of eyesight. He had been transformed by the gift of vision, also.
8 Therefore, he man’s neighbors and those who had known him when he was blind wondered, “Is this he that sat and begged?” 

9 Some said it was he, while others held that this was a man who only favored the blind man they had known.  Answering the controversy, the man admitted, “I’m he who was blind.”
10 Touching upon the core of their doubts, they demanded of him, “How were your eyes opened?”
11 He answered, “A man that is called Y’shua made clay and anointed my eyes; and he said to me, ‘Go to the Pool of Shaliach and wash.’ So I went there, and I washed, and I received gifts of sight.“
12 Then they asked of him if he knew where the man that healed him might be found. He said plainly, “I don’t know.

 

13 Busybodies among them wouldn’t give up, and they hauled the man before the Separatists, expecting answers; 

14For it had been on Shabbos that Y’shua had made the poultice of clay to open the man’s eyes. This legality had to be addressed!

15 In their turn, the Separatists asked the blind man how he had received his sight. Frustrated by their determination to raise controversy, the man answered, “He put clay on my eyes; I washed; I see.” 
16 Some of the Separatists maintained that the man who had performed this ritual could not have been a man of HaShem, because he hadn’t observed Shabbos. Some were unsure, however; and they wondered by what means a man in obvious violation of Torah could perform such signs. Divisions were being raised among them; 
17 So they turned, again, to the blind man and challenged him, “What do you say of the man that opened your eyes?” The man responded, “He’s a prophet.”
18 Truth be told, many of the Yehudim had not believed the man truly had been blind from birth and had recently received his sight; so they had also called his parents to appear before them; 
19 And, staring at them, they asked, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? If that is so, how is it, then, that he now sees?” 

20 The parents evaded by saying, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 

21 “But we don’t know by what means he is now able to see. Neither do we know who it is that opened his eyes! He is of age! Ask him, and he shall speak for himself!”

22 The parents answered in this manner because they feared the Yehudim, who had already agreed among themselves that if any man acknowledged Y’shua as the mashiyach, he should be put out of the shul. 

23 The parents had answered, “He is of age; ask him,” because they hoped to avoid humiliation.
24 Then the rulers called back the man that had been born blind; and they charged him, saying, “Give HaShem the praise, and not this man; for we know him to be a sinner.” 
25 Dumbfounded at their bias, the man whose vision had been restored answered, “Whether he’s a sinner or not, I don’t know. I know one thing: that, whereas I was blind before, now I see!”
26 Dissatisfied, they asked, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 
27 Confused, the man answered them, “I told you already, and you didn’t listen to what I said! Why!? Do you want to hear it again!? Do you also want to be his disciples?”

28 Then they reviled him, saying, ‘You may be his disciple; but we’re the disciples of Moshe! 

29 “We know that HaShem spoke unto Moshe; but as for this fellow? We don’t know where he’s coming from!”
30 The man exclaimed, “Well! This is a marvellous thing! You say that you don’t know where the man is coming from, and yet he has opened my eyes! 
31 “Friends, we know that HaShem will not listen to the pleas of sinners; but if a man worships HaShem and does his will, HaShem will hear that man. 
32 “Since the world began, it has never been heard that any man opened the eyes of one who was born blind. 
33 “If this man were not of HaShem, he could do nothing.”

34  The Separatists lost their composure: “You were absolutely born in sin! And you try to teach us!?” They kicked him out. 
35  Y’shua heard that they had expelled the man from his shul; so when he saw him again, he asked, Do you believe on the Son of HaShem? “
36 The man entreated him, “Who is he,

Rebbe, that I might believe on him?”
37 And Y’shua replied, “You’ve not only seen him, but it is he that talks with you.” 

38 And the man whose vision was restored said, “Rebbe Y’shua, I believe;” and he worshipped Yahushua.
39 Then, Yahushua declared, “For judgment I have come into this world: that they who are blind may see, and that they who say they see might be made blind.”

40 The Separatists had trailed the blind man, and they had overheard every nuance of the exchange; so they mocked Y’shua, jesting, ”Are we blind also, then?
 41 Y’shua answered them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but because you maintain that you see, your sin remains.”