39. *For judgment I am come into this world.* The blind man had recovered sight in two senses—bodily and spiritual—and Christ, as the occasion naturally suggested, now goes on to speak of spiritual blindness. Christ’s words here are not contradictory of iii. 17 or viii. 15, because here there is question of a different judgment. In those passages there is question of the judgment of _condemnation_, for which Christ did not come at His first coming; here there is question of the judgment of _discernment_ (κρίμα, not κρίσις), and for this He had come at His first coming. The sense of the present passage then is: I am come to separate the good from the bad; to make known who love God, and who do not; to show and to effect that those who have been regarded as spiritually blind, and who, indeed, in many cases, have been so, may have the eyes of their souls opened to the light of truth, while those who have been thought, and who think themselves, to see (such as you Pharisees), may be shown to be indeed spiritually blind, and may really _become more blind_, by being involved in deeper darkness through their own unbelief. This latter effect—that they should become more blind—was not directly intended by Christ, but it was foreseen and permitted, and this is enough to justify Christ’s expression: “That they who see may become blind.” Compare Rom. v. 20: “Now the law entered in that sin might abound.” 40. Et audierunt quidam ex 40. And some of the Pharisees, pharisaeis qui cum ipso erant who were with him, heard; and et dixerunt ei: Numquid et nos they said unto him: Are we caeci sumus? also blind? 41. Dixit eis Iesus: Si caeci 41. Jesus said to them: If you essetis, non haberetis were blind, you should not peccatum: nunc vero dicitis: have sin: but now you say: We Quia videmus. Peccatum vestrum see. Your sin remaineth. manet. 40, 41. The Pharisees ask: *Are we also blind?* and Jesus replies: *If you were blind, you should not have sin*; that is to say, if you were blind through invincible ignorance, or, as we prefer to hold, if you were blind _in your own estimation_, if you _recognised_ your spiritual blindness, you should not have sin, because I would wipe it out; but now that you _say_ you see, and rely upon yourselves, your sin remaineth. CHAPTER X. 1‐5. *The parable (or rather allegory, see below on verse 1), of the door of the sheepfold.* 6. *The Pharisees understood not the parable.* 7‐10. *Christ, therefore, applies it.* 11‐18. *The parable of the Good Shepherd.* 19‐21. *There was a difference of opinion among the Pharisees regarding Christ.* 22‐30. *On another occasion the Pharisees ask Him to tell them plainly if He is the Christ; to whom He replies that He is, and the Son of God, one in nature with His Father.* 31. *Thereupon they took up stones to stone Him.*