John 9:10

John 9:10, in plain English

The people want to know how it happened—how were his eyes opened after a lifetime of blindness?

Why it's here

This is the first of many times the man will be asked to explain his healing. Everyone wants details about this impossible thing.

Who's speaking

The neighbors ask the healed man directly how he received his sight.

Where it sits in the story

You can hear the urgency in their voices. Something miraculous has happened right in their neighborhood, and they need to understand it.

The scholarly reading

The crowd demands an explanation of the mechanism of healing, asking 'pōs' (how)—the first of several interrogations in this chapter that focus on the means rather than the meaning of the sign.

Language and setting

This question initiates a series of increasingly hostile inquiries. The focus on 'how' rather than 'who' reveals a pattern of missing the theological significance of Jesus' works.

Voice

The neighbors and onlookers pose their first direct question to the healed man about the process of his healing.

Significance

The community's curiosity leads them to interrogate the healed man, beginning a chain of questioning that will escalate from neighbors to Pharisees to the Sanhedrin.

8At this, his neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging began to ask, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?”

9Some claimed that he was, but others said, “No, he just looks like him.”

10“How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.

11He answered, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and anointed my eyes, and He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and received my sight.”

12“Where is He?” they asked.

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.