Born Blind, Now Seeing
They replied, “You were born in utter sin, and you are instructing us?” And they threw him out. John 9:34 · Berean Standard Bible
The leaders can't answer his argument, so they attack him personally: 'You were born in total sin, and you're lecturing us?' Then they throw him out.
When they can't win with logic, they use power. They fall back on the very assumption Jesus rejected—that the man's blindness was caused by sin.
The Pharisees insult the man and formally expel him from the synagogue.
This is the cost of speaking truth to power. The man loses his community, his place of worship, everything—simply for telling the truth about what happened to him.
Unable to counter the man's argument, the Pharisees resort to ad hominem attack—'en hamartiais su egennēthēs holos' (you were born entirely in sins)—and excommunicate him.
Their accusation revives the very theology Jesus rejected in 9:2-3: that the man's blindness was punishment for sin. 'Exebalon auton exō' (they threw him out) likely refers to formal synagogue expulsion (aposynagōgos).
The Pharisees denounce the man's character and expel him from the synagogue community.
Defeated in argument, the Pharisees exercise raw institutional power: they cannot refute the man's logic, so they silence him through excommunication—proving his point about their spiritual blindness.
32Never before has anyone heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.
33If this man were not from God, He could do no such thing.”
34They replied, “You were born in utter sin, and you are instructing us?” And they threw him out.
35When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, He found the man and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man ?”
36“Who is He, Sir?” he replied. “Tell me so that I may believe in Him.”
Read all of John 9 — A man blind from birth receives sight, and the Pharisees interrogate him relentlessly. His simple testimony dismantles their theology piece by piece.
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