152. Opinions of the People About This and Investigation by the Pharisees. Jn. 9:8–34

The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying: Is not this the man who used to sit and beg? Some said: It is he. Others said: No, but he is like him. He kept saying: I am the man. They asked him: How then were your eyes opened? He answered: The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight. They said to him: Where is he? He said: I do not know.

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them: He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see. Some of the Pharisees said: This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath. Others said: How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs? And there was a division among them. They said to the blind man again: What do you say about him, since he opened your eyes? He said: He is a prophet.

Then the Jews did not believe that he had been blind and gained his sight, until they summoned the parents of the man who had received his sight. And they asked them: “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he see now?” His parents answered them: “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes, we do not know. He is of age; ask him; let him speak for himself.” Thus his parents answered, because they feared the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who should confess him to be the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said: “He is of age; ask him.”

So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him: “Give glory to God; we know that this Man is a sinner.” He answered: “Whether he is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I know, that I was blind, and now I see.” Again they asked him: “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered: “I have already told you, and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? Or do you also want to become his disciples?” They reviled him and said: “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses; but as for this fellow, we do not know where he comes from.” The man who had received his sight answered them: “Why, this is a marvel, that you do not know where he comes from, yet he has opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners; but if anyone is a worshipper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the beginning of time has it been heard that anyone has opened the eyes of someone born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

They answered him: “You were altogether born in sin, and do you teach us?” And they cast him out.