31. Scimus autem quia 31. Now we know that God doth peccatores Deus non audit: sed not hear sinners: but if a man si quis Dei cultor est, et be a server of God, and doth voluntatem eius facit, hunc his will, him he heareth. exaudit. 31. *Now we know that God doth not hear sinners.* These are the words of the blind man, and we are not bound to hold that they state what is true: that they were spoken by the man, the inspired Evangelist tells us; and the _fact_ that they were spoken is all that is covered by inspiration. But the words are generally true in the sense in which the context proves they were used. For God does not generally hear sinners so as to work miracles at their will; and this is what the words mean. That God never hears the prayers of sinners, is not stated here, and is not true. 32. A saeculo non est auditum 32. From the beginning of the quia quis aperuit oculos caeci world it hath not been heard, nati. that any man hath opened the eyes of one born blind. 33. Nisi esset hic a Deo, non 33. Unless this man were of poterat facere quidquam. God, he could not do anything. 33. *Anything*; that is to say, such as the miracle performed upon me. 34. Responderunt, et dixerunt 34. They answered, and said to ei: In peccatis natus es him: Thou wast wholly born in totus, et tu doces nos? Et sins, and dost thou teach us? eiecerunt eum foras. And they cast him out. 34. *Thou wast wholly born in sins*, ὅλος (_totus_); that is to say, altogether, entirely, as thy blindness proves. And dost thou, steeped from thy birth in sin and ignorance, presume to teach us, the sainted doctors of the Law? *And they cast him out.* Some take the sense to be, that they excommunicated him, but the obvious meaning is, that they drove him from their presence, wherever it was that they were assembled. 35. Audivit Iesus quia 35. Jesus heard that they had eiecerunt eum foras: et cum cast him out: and when he had invenisset eum, dixit ei: Tu found him, he said to him: credis in Filium Dei? Dost thou believe in the Son of God? 35. Christ as God knew, of course, that the man had been expelled by the Pharisees; but He waited till He heard it as man, and then went to seek for and reward the poor fellow, who had so intrepidly defended Him before them. Instead of *Son of God*, some manuscripts of great authority read _Son of Man_; but it is more probable that the former is the correct reading. We may here remark how Christ, who had cured the blindness of the body without requiring faith now asks for faith in Himself before He will dispel the deeper darkness of the soul. “Qui fecit te sine te, non justificat te sine te; fecit nescientem, justificat volentem” (St. Aug., Serm. 15, _de verbis Apost._).