Who did sin, this man, or his parents.....born blind ?

Question

Does the disciples question in John 9:1-3 suggest they believed it was possible to sin before birth, ie: past life ?

Answer 1

No. I suppose they thought it was possible to be punished concurrent to the committing of the sin (in his life time). Either way, Jesus was correcting their understanding of it.

Answer 2

In this passage, Jesus is presented with a dilemma. A man was born blind. His disciples asked him what caused the man's blindness. Was it his own sin or someone else's? The text leaves out the details of their thinking, but presumably they were thinking that he couldn't have caused it himself because he was blind before he sinned. They could also point to God's statement to Moses that the sins of fathers would be visited on the children (Exodus 34:7), yet they also had to take into account that Ezekiel seems to deny that it's the punishment of sins that gets inherited (Ezekiel 18).

The dilemma is thus as follows. Ezekiel shows why it cannot be the man's parents' fault, but we also know it can't be his. How does this square with the obvious truth that blindness is not God's intent for creation, and thus it must be causes by sin somehow? Jesus goes between the horns of their dilemma and says what amounts to be the main claim of the book of Job. Neither the man nor his parents sinned in such a way as to cause this man's blindness. "This happened so that the word of God might be displayed in his life." (John 9:3b, NIV) He doesn't further specify with words what purpose that would be, but he proceeds to heal the man, showing at least part of that purpose through his deed.

Answer 3

When God gave the Mosaic Covenant to the Jewish people, He made it COMPLETELY plain that they would be blessed for obediance and cursed for disobediance. Because of this, theologians consider the Mosaic Covenant to be "conditional." (We later read at Jeremiah 3 and Hosea that the covenant was broken by the Jewish people, requiring the New Covenant brought by Jesus and promised at Jeremiah 31:31-34).

Deut. 28 lists the specific blessings and curses that would be visited upon the people, depending upon their level of obdience. With regard to your question, Deut. 28:28-29 reads:

28 The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. 29 And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.

This curse certainly could be symbolic (i.e. a blind person is one who can see with the eyes, but cannot see God's truth with the spirit). But because of this curse, it was widely believed by the Jews that a blind person had either sinned or that he had inherited the punishment for a sin committed by his parents or other family member. With this in mind, it's easier to understand the disciples' question. Jesus' response was that NEITHER the parents NOR the man had sinned -- this was an affliction given to the man to prompt him to salvation.

Healing of the blind as a way of illustrating faith was prophesied at places such as Isaiah 29:18 and Isaiah 61:1-2 in the Septuagint, which is quoted by Jesus at Luke 4:18.

Answer 4

John 9:3 Jesus answered, "Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.

Answer 5

No...Jesus was CORRECTING a widely-held but mistaken belief. Look at the context!!

Jesus said that it was for the Glory of God.

Why don't people just look at the context?? It's really quite simple.

Answer 6

i agree with father k

Answer 7

that is the most ludicrous thing i've ever heard