The chapter
Simply A man born blind is given his sight, and almost the whole chapter is what happens afterwards. He is questioned by his neighbours, then by the Pharisees, then his parents are questioned, then he is questioned again. He will not change his account. In the end he is thrown out of the synagogue, and Jesus goes and finds him.
Context This is the most tightly built chapter in the Gospel, and it is built on two movements going opposite ways. The man's account of Jesus rises in four steps: a man called Jesus at verse 11, a prophet at verse 17, someone who must be from God at verse 33, and Lord, I believe at verse 38. The questioners move the other way: divided at verse 16, certain he is a sinner at verse 24, admitting at verse 29 that they do not know where he comes from, and out of arguments at verse 34, where they insult him and throw him out. The man who cannot see is the one who ends up seeing, which is what verse 39 says out loud.
Verses 1-12
Simply The disciples see a man blind from birth and ask whose sin caused it, his or his parents'. Jesus says neither. He spits on the ground, makes mud, puts it on the man's eyes and sends him to wash in the pool of Siloam. He comes back seeing. The neighbours cannot agree whether it is even the same man, and he has to tell them it is.
Context The question at verse 2 assumes that suffering has to be somebody's fault, and the answer refuses both of the options offered rather than choosing between them. The healing itself is described in three plain actions and no words of power, and the man is sent away to wash before anything happens, so he does not see Jesus do it and cannot describe him afterwards. That is why he answers I do not know at verse 12, and it is what makes the rest of the chapter possible: the only witness is someone who never saw the man he is defending.
Verses 13-23
Simply He is taken to the Pharisees, and only now does the text say it was a Sabbath. They are split: some say a man who breaks the Sabbath cannot be from God, others ask how a sinner could do such things. Asked what he thinks, the man says Jesus is a prophet. They refuse to believe he was ever blind until they fetch his parents, who confirm he is their son and was born blind, and then say to ask him, because they are afraid.
Context Verse 14 holds the Sabbath back until after the healing is told, so the reader meets the miracle before the offence, which is the reverse of chapter 5. Verse 22 is the only place in this chapter that explains a motive rather than reporting a speech: the parents are afraid, because an agreement was already in place that anyone confessing him as Christ would be put out of the synagogue. Their answer at verse 21 is exact and evasive at the same time. They confirm the two things they can be held to, that he is their son and that he was born blind, and refuse the third.
Verses 24-34
Simply They call him back and tell him to give glory to God, because they know Jesus is a sinner. He answers that he does not know about that, but he knows he was blind and now sees. When they ask him to tell it again he asks whether they want to become disciples too. They insult him, say they are disciples of Moses, and admit they do not know where Jesus comes from. He points out how strange that is, given his eyes. They throw him out.
Context Verse 25 is the sentence the whole chapter turns on, and its force is that it concedes the argument it cannot win and holds the one thing it can: he does not claim to know whether Jesus is a sinner, only that he was blind and now sees. Verse 29 is worth setting beside chapter 7. There the crowd argued that the Christ's origin would be unknown to everyone, so a man whose home town was known could not be him; here the same not knowing is used the other way, as a reason to reject him. The man notices the problem before the reader does and says so at verse 30. The last word of the exchange is not an argument but an expulsion.
Verses 35-41
Simply Jesus hears that they have thrown him out, goes and finds him, and asks whether he believes. The man asks who it is, so that he can. Jesus says he is speaking to him now. The man says he believes, and worships him. Then Jesus says he came so that those who do not see would see and those who see would go blind, and the Pharisees standing there ask whether he means them.
Context Verse 35 does not read the same in every edition here. Twelve of the thirteen have Jesus ask whether the man believes in the Son of God; one asks whether he believes in the Son of Man, and that one is the Petrus Canisiusvertaling, the Dutch edition. The two titles are not interchangeable in this Gospel, so a Dutch reader is being asked a slightly different question from everyone else. This file reports the difference and does not rule on which reading is older, because that is a manuscript question this corpus cannot settle. The last exchange is the chapter's point in one move: the Pharisees ask are we also blind, and the answer they get turns their own claim to see into the thing that condemns them.