PRELIMINARY NOTE.--This miracle is reported only by John. There is nothing peculiar in this, since John alone reports Christ’s Judean ministry, in which it occurred. The place was Jerusalem; the time is uncertain; it was on a Sabbath (ver. 14), in the fall of A. D. 29 (Vol. I, p. 45), between the feast of Tabernacles in October (ch. 7:2) and the feast of Dedication in December (ch. 10:22). Some identify it with the last day of the former feast (ch. 7:37), which was a Sabbath, supposing ch. 7:53 to 8:11 to be an interpolation. It is not probable that it occurred at the time which seems to be indicated by its place in the report furnished by the Evangelists. That Christ stopped on escaping from a mob who threatened to stone him, in order to work this miracle, is not probable; that under such circumstances his disciples should have asked him the abstruse question of ver. 2 is still more improbable. I put it therefore at some other time in his Judean ministry, which lasted a little over two months. See ch. 7, Prel. Note. In studying this chapter the student will do well to observe its natural division into three parts: (1) the miracle (verses 1-7); (2) the investigation (verses 8-33); (3) the result (verses 34-38). 1 And as _Jesus_ passed by, he saw a man which was blind from _his_ birth. =1. And passing by, he saw a man blind from birth.= To the ordinary reader the connection of this verse with the last verse of the preceding chapter indicates that this miracle was wrought as Jesus passed from the temple driven by the mob. But the latter clause of that verse is of doubtful authenticity. The phrase “passing by” appears to be used here simply to indicate that the miracle of mercy was called forth by the occasion, not by the blind man’s petition nor by any previously formed purpose. “It was he who saw the blind man, not the blind man who came to him; and so earnestly did he look upon him that even his disciples perceived it.”--(_Chrysostom._) Compare this case with that in Luke 18:35-43. There the blind man appeals to Christ, here Christ heals without being appealed to. There, in the stillness of the country, the noise of the multitude awakens the attention of the blind man. Here, in the crowded city, there is nothing to announce to the blind man a healer until Christ speaks to him. There, therefore, he awaits the petition; here he does not. Congenital blindness is incurable by modern science. How it was known to the Evangelist that this man was blind from his birth has been questioned. The man appears, from the following narrative, to have been a well-known mendicant. Perhaps he proclaimed the nature and extent of his misfortune as a means of awakening charity. 2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?