John 9:34

9:34 Discipline such as being thrown out of the synagogue was not uncommon. It brought social isolation that might require the man’s departure from the village. Such serious persecution was precisely what Jesus predicted for his followers (15:18-27; 16:2).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Joh 9:34. Ἐν ἁμαρτίαις, in sins) They upbraid him with his former blindness: Joh 9:2, “Who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?”—καὶ σύ) and yet dost thou.—διδάσκεις, teach) Indeed his words, from Joh 9:30-33, form an excellent sermon.—ἐξέβαλον αὐτόν, they cast him out) as being a Christian: Joh 9:22, “The Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that He was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.” That act of theirs tended to his great good: but they themselves betray thereby the hatred of the truth, with which they are actuated.—ἔξω, out) from that place in which they were met together.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh_9:34. Thou wert born with thy whole nature laden with sin, so that nothing in thee is pure from sins; but thou art entirely, through and through, a born reprobate.[50] They entertain the same prejudice regarding sinfulness before birth (not of the parents) to which the disciples had previously given expression (Joh_9:2), and make here a spiteful application thereof. Comp. on ὍΛΟς, Joh_13:10. The notion of heightened original sin (Hengstenberg, after Psa_51:7) is not appropriate to the connection, as the inference from being born blind implies ἁμαρτίας committed before birth.

Note the contemptuous emphasis of the ΣΎ … ΣΎ.

ΔΙΔΆΣΚ. ἩΜ.] The emphasis rests here, not on ΔΙΔΆΣΚ., but on ἩΜᾶς: dost thou comport thyself as our teacher?

ἐξέβαλ. αὐτ. ἔξω] not a designation of excommunication (Olshausen, De Wette, Tholuck, Baeumlein, and many older commentators), as no sitting of the Sanhedrim had taken place; and, besides, how indefinite a mode of designating the matter would it be! although ἐκβάλλειν is frequently used by Thucydides, Xenophon, and others to denote exile. Comp. also 3 John, Joh_9:10. As the context suggests nothing else, and as there is not a hint of a sentence of excommunication, which might perhaps have been pronounced a few days later in the synagogue (Ewald), we must simply explain: they cast him out. Significant enough as the final result of the hostile and passionate discussion. Comp. Chrysostom, Nonnus, and Theophylact, who, however, transfers the scene to the temple. The remark of Maldonatus is correct: ex loco, in quo erant. Comp. Bengel, Dem. 1366. 11; Act_7:58.

[50] Nonnus: σύγγονος ἀμπλακίησιν ἐμαιώθης ὅλος ἀνήρ.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 9:34 . Ἐν ἁμαρτίαις … ἔξω . “In sins thou wast wholly born, and dost thou teach us?” They refer his blindness to sin, and reproach him with his calamity. Sin, they say, was branded on the whole man; he was manifestly a reprobate. Yet we, the pure and godly, are to be taught by such a man! ἐξέβαλον αὐτὸν ἔξω , “they cast him out,” not merely from the chamber, but from communion. This is implied both in Joh 9:35 and all that Jesus says of the shepherds in the following paragraph.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thou art naught even from the cradle, and as we use to say, there is nothing in thee but sin.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 34. Thou wast altogether born in sins] Thou hast not only been a vile wretch in some other pre-existent state, but thy parents also have been grossly iniquitous; therefore thou and they are punished by this blindness: Thou wast altogether born in sins-thou art no other than a sinful lump of deformity, and utterly unfit to have any connection with those who worship God.

And they cast him out.] They immediately excommunicated him, as the margin properly reads-drove him from their assembly with disdain, and forbade his farther appearing in the worship of God. Thus a simple man, guided by the Spirit of truth, and continuing steady in his testimony, utterly confounded the most eminent Jewish doctors. When they had no longer either reason or argument to oppose to him, as a proof of their discomfiture and a monument of their reproach and shame, they had recourse to the secular arm, and thus silenced by political power a person whom they had neither reason nor religion to withstand. They have had since many followers in their crimes. A false religion, supported by the state, has, by fire and sword silenced those whose truth in the end annihilated the system of their opponents.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

34. Thou wast altogether born in sins They alluded, I doubt not, to his blindness; as proud men are wont to teaze those who have any distress or calamity; and, therefore, they continually insult him, as if he had come out of his mother’s womb, bearing the mark of his sins For all the scribes were convinced in their hearts, that souls, after having finished one life, entered into new bodies, and there suffered the punishment of their former crimes. Hence they conclude that he who was born blind was, at that very time, covered and polluted by his sins.

This undeserved censure ought to instruct us to be exceedingly cautious, not always to estimate the sins of any person by the chastisements of God; for, as we have already seen, God has various ends to accomplish, by inflicting calamities on men. But not only do those hypocrites insult the wretched man; they likewise reject disdainfully his warnings, though they are holy and good; as indeed it very frequently happens that one cannot endure to be taught by him whom he despises. Now, since we ought always to hear God, by whomsoever he may talk to us, let us learn not to despise any man, that God may find us always mild and submissive, even though he employ a person altogether mean and despicable to instruct us. For there is not a more dangerous plague than when pride stops our ears, so that we do not deign to hear those who warn us for our profit; and it frequently happens that God purposely selects vile and worthless persons to instruct and warn us, in order to subdue our pride.

And they cast him out. Though it is possible that those haughty Rabbis cast him, with violence, out of the temple, yet I think that the Evangelist has a different meaning, that they excommunicated him; and thus the casting of him out would have the semblance of law. This agrees better also with what follows; for if they had only cast him out in a disdainful and furious manner, it would not have been of so great importance as to make it probable that the report of it would reach Christ.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(34) Thou wast altogether born in sins.—Their reproach now takes the most malignant form, and shrinks not from casting in his teeth the calamity of his birth as the mark of special sin. “Thou didst come into the world,” these words mean, “bearing the curse of God upon thy face. Thou hast said that God heareth not sinners. Thy life in its first moments bore the marks of some fearful crime.”

And dost thou teach us?—i.e., “Dost thou, marked more than is the common lot of man by sin, teach us, who are the authorised teachers and expositors of the truth?” For any one to have doubted their authority would have seemed out of question; but here was one who had been a beggar, one of the “people of the earth,” untrained in the Law, and therefore cursed (comp. Note on Joh_7:49), and, more than this, altogether born in sin, who was actually teaching them!

And they cast him out.—These words are generally taken to mean excommunication, as in the margin, and it is certain that they may have this sense. (Comp. 3Jn_1:10.) Having this meaning before them, our translators did not, however, think it the better one, and their view seems to be borne out by the general impression which we get from the narrative. The man with all his boldness has not technically fallen under the ban they had threatened, for he has not “confessed that He was Christ” (Joh_9:22). A decree of the Sanhedrin would have been necessary, and this must have been formally pronounced. Now, we feel that in a detailed narrative such as we have here, all this would hardly be told in a single short sentence. It seems to be rather that their anger has now passed all bounds. They cannot refute the truth which, in his honest, homely way, he has put before them. They can only heap reproaches upon him, and thrust him by force out of their presence.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

34. Thou wast altogether born in sins] ‘In sins (first for emphasis) every part of thy nature (comp. Joh_13:10) has been steeped from thy birth; thou wast born a reprobate.’ They hold the same belief as the disciples, that sin before birth is possible, and maliciously exclude not only the alternative stated by Christ (Joh_9:3) but even the one stated by the disciples (Joh_9:2), that his parents might have sinned. Their passion blinds them to their inconsistency. They had been contending that no miracle had been wrought; now they throw his calamity in his face as proof of his sin.

Dost thou teach us?] ‘Dost thou, the born reprobate, teach us, the authorized teachers?’

they cast him out] Or, they put him forth: see on Joh_10:4. This probably does not mean excommunication. (1) The expression is too vague. (2) There could not well have been time to get a sentence of excommunication passed. (3) The man had not incurred the threatened penalty; he had not ‘confessed that He was Christ’ (Joh_9:22). Provoked by his impracticability and sturdy adherence to his own view they ignominiously dismiss him—turn him out of doors, if (as the ‘out’ seems to imply) they were meeting within walls.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jesus heard that they had cast him out,.... this being perhaps the first instance, of putting in execution the act they had made, Joh 9:22, and was a stretching of that act; which only threatened with an ejection, in case any should confess Jesus to be the Messiah; which this man had not done as yet, only had said he was a prophet, and that he was of God; it made a very great noise in the city, and the report of it was soon spread over it; and it became the talk of everyone, and so Jesus, as man, came to hear of it; though he, as God, knew it the very instant it was done, and needed not any to make report of it to him:

and when he had found him: not by chance, meeting him at an unawares, but seeking him; and knowing where he was, went to the very place, and found him in this piteous condition, abandoned by all mankind: this is an emblem of Christ's seeking after his chosen ones, both in redemption, and in the effectual calling, who are like sheep going astray, and never come to, and lay hold on Christ, till he comes first, seeks after, and apprehends them: he sends his ministers and his Gospel after them, where they are, and his Spirit into their hearts; yea, he comes himself, and enters there, and dwells in them by faith: he knows where they are, as he did Matthew the publican, Zacchaeus, and the woman of Samaria; and even though they are at the ends of the earth; and he goes and looks them up, and finds them; and he finds them in a deplorable condition, in a desert, in a waste howling wilderness, hopeless and helpless, poor and miserable, and blind and naked; in a pit wherein is no water; in the mire and clay of sin; in the paw of Satan, and under the power of darkness.

He said unto him, dost thou believe on the Son of God? the Persic version adds, "who hath healed thee": this supposes that there was a Son of God, or a divine person known by the Jews under this character, and that the expected Messiah would appear as such; and that, as such, he is the object of faith, and therefore, as such, must be God, since a creature, though ever so much dignified, or with whatsoever office invested, is not the object of faith, trust, and confidence, with respect to everlasting life and happiness: and it may be observed, that whenever Christ finds any of his people, he brings them to believe in him as the Son of God for righteousness and life: he himself is the author of faith in them, as well as the object of it; and no doubt power went along with these words, creating faith in this man: this was a most proper and pertinent question put to him in his present case, and suggests, that if he believed in the Son of God, it was no matter in what situation he was among men: since he would then appear to be a Son of God himself by adopting grace, and so an heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ; would receive the remission of his sins, openly justified in the court of conscience, as well of God, and be everlastingly saved: and this question is put by Christ, not as though he was ignorant, whether he believed in him or not; for he knew from the beginning, who would, and who would not believe in him: he that knew whether Peter loved him or not, knew whether this man believed in him or not; but this he said to draw forth the principle of faith, which was wrought in him, into act and exercise, and to direct it to its proper object. And this effect it had, as appears by what follows.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

34 They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.

Ver. 24. Thou wast altogether born in sins] Because born blind: so they upbraid him with his misery, as if therefore a notorious offender. This is harsh and rash judgment.

And dost thou teach us?] Oh, take heed of that. But a mortified man will yield to learn of anybody: "a little child shall lead him," Isa 11:6. Learned Apollos was better instructed by a couple of poor tentmakers, Act 18:26.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wast born in sins - That is, thou wast born in a state of blindness a state which proved that either thou or thy parents had sinned, and that this was the punishment for it. See Joh 9:2. Thou wast cursed by God with blindness for crime, and yet thou dost set up for a religious teacher! When people have no arguments, they attempt to supply their place by revilings. When they are pressed by argument, they reproach their adversaries with crime, and especially with being blind, perverse, heretical, disposed to speculation, and regardless of the authority of God. And especially do they consider it great presumption that one of an inferior age or rank should presume to advance an argument in opposition to prevailing opinions.

They cast him out - Out of the synagogue. They excommunicated him. See the notes at Joh 9:22.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Pharisees seeing that they could by no arts bring this poor blind man to their lure, either to deny, or speak any thing in abatement of the miracle which Christ had wrought upon him; nor yet to agree with them, that Christ was a great sinner; fall at last to a downright railing; they tell him, he was

altogether born in sins. So were all of them. David had taught them, that there was none righteous, no not one; and confessed concerning himself, Psa 51:5, that he was conceived in iniquity, and that in sin his mother had brought him forth. They had learned from Job, that none can bring a clean thing out of that which is unclean; nothing can be clean that is born of a woman, Job 14:4. Their meaning therefore in this phrase must be something more; and possibly the adjective ολος, which signifieth whole, (we translate it as if it were ολως, altogether) doth import thus much. They do not only tell this man that he was born in sin, but that he was whole or altogether born in sin, that is, under the guilt of sin: nor do they mean only the common corruption and contagion of human nature, derived from the loss of God’s image in man upon the fall of Adam, but some notorious sin. If any say, How could they think that he was guilty of any such thing before he was born?

Answer. It was the opinion of Pythagoras, one of the heathen philosophers, that when men and women died their souls went into other bodies that were then born, and in those bodies often suffered punishment for those enormous acts which they had been guilty of in former bodies. It is apparent that the Jews were some of them tainted with this notion, from Herod’s saying, Mat 14:2; Mar 6:14, when, after the beheading of John the Baptist, he heard what great works Christ did, that John the Baptist was risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works did show forth themselves in him; by which the best interpreters think, that Herod meant no more than that John the Baptist’s soul was gone into another body, according to their notion borrowed from the heathens; for it had been easy for Herod by search to have found whether John the Baptist’s body was risen from the dead.

So it is thought that the Pharisees here saying,

Thou wast altogether born in sins, meant that his soul was a sordid, filthy soul, which in another body had committed vile and abominable things; and for those sins God set a mark upon him, even in his birth, and he was horn blind. Or perhaps this phrase signified no more than a term of reviling; of which no great account can be given, as passionate men in the madness of their passions oft throw out words of reproach, of which neither themselves nor others can give any just and reasonable account.

And dost thou teach us? Thou that art such a marked villain from thy mother’s womb, or that art such an ignorant idiot, dost thou think thyself fit to instruct us about true and false prophets, who are of God, and who are not? Surely we are to be thy teachers, and not thou ours.

And they cast him out: some think that casting out here signifieth no more than a turning him out of the place where they were; as the word signifieth, Act 7:58; 13:50. Others think its here to be understood of a judicial excommunication, or casting him out of communion with the Jewish church; which latter seemeth more probable, because of the notice or it brought to our Saviour, and the notice which he took of this poor man, upon this occasion. If it had been only a turning him out of the place where they were met, it is not probable that it would have made such a noise.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

34. Altogether—In body and in soul; in body, as thy birth of blindness shows; in soul, as thy sustaining this Jesus shows. By this they do not assert that he had sinned before birth or in a previous body. In the spirit of Hindoo caste, they pronounce him of more base and depraved nature than their own. He is of a vile, unholy flesh and blood.

Cast him out— Excommunicated him. Not only thrust him bodily from the court-room, but from the synagogue and temple, and from all worship therein. A second grade of excommunication additionally confiscated his property. A third, by cutting him off from Israel, gave him over to heathenism and hell. Persecuted and outcast, the man is firm. Perhaps his very life of deprivation and mendicancy enabled him, while the more luxurious sacrificed their conscience rather than their prosperity, to bear his outcast condition with firmness. But thus cast out for Christ, he is soon received by Christ. And happier therein is he than the court that condemned, or the moral cowards who, frightened by his lot, renounce the truth of Jesus.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vanquished by this logic of simple fact and plain inference, the authorities have no other weapon to use but invective and persecution. They answered and said to him, Thou wast altogether born in sins; through and through a born reprobate. They take up the superstitious idea which seems (ver. 2) to have been floating in the mind of the disciples. From sins of parents or from thine own sins in thy mother"s womb, thou earnest into the world with the brand of thy infamy upon thee. Thus they admit the change that has come over him by reverting to the peculiar depravity which had been stamped upon his brow, according to their narrow interpretation of Divine providence. And dost thou presume to teach us? the chosen, the learned, the approved ministers of God? Dost thou, with all this heritage and mark of separation from God, dare to instruct the chief pastors and teachers of Israel? They did not stop with cruel words, but in their bitterness of spirit they thrust him forth; they violently expelled him from the synagogue where they were then seated (so Meyer, Maldonatus, Bengel, and many others). We are not told that there and then they excommunicated, or unsynagogued, him. It is probable that this ban followed, with the usual terrible formalities. He had practically confessed that the highest claims which Jesus had ever made about himself were true, and he made himself liable to the curse already pronounced (ver. 22). This marvelous narrative, with its lifelike detail, is not made the text of a discourse. It remains forever the startling vindication of our Lord"s own word, that he was Light to the world and Eyesight too, and was able to supply both the objective condition and subjective change by which the nature of man could alone receive the light of life. From ver. 8 to ver. 34 is almost the only passage in the Gospel, with the exception of the passage, Joh_3:22-36, in which we are not standing in the actual presence of the Lord, or are not listening to his judgments on men and things, and to his revelations of the mystery of his own Person. The narrative so far stands by itself, and gives us an insight into the life which was being enacted in Jerusalem contemporaneously with the Divine self-revelation of Jesus.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Born in sin - And therefore, they supposed, born blind. They cast him out - Of the synagogue; excommunicated him.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Jesus reveals Himself:

v. 34. They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in Sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.

v. 35. Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?

v. 36. He answered and said, Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?

v. 37. And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee.

v. 38. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped Him.

The former blind man’s frankness enraged the Pharisees beyond measure. They now cast the popular belief into his face, telling him that his blindness was due to sin, and reproaching him with his calamity. That is the manner of unbelievers. When they are no longer able to contradict plain facts, they have recourse to vile insinuations and malicious blasphemies. And the Pharisees, in addition to their other insult, cast him out of the room where they had their sessions and took the first steps to put him out of the congregation as well. They willfully, deliberately closed their eyes against the plain facts that were before their eyes; they denied their reality; they throttled their own conscience. All their actions were a product of hypocrisy of the rankest kind, blasphemy without parallel. Jesus, who had carefully watched the case of the former blind man, soon found out that the Jewish rulers had begun the process of excommunication against him. He therefore took occasion to look him up and reassure him in a most wonderful way. The question of Jesus, whether he believed in the Son of God, was intended to work this faith in the man’s heart, for such is the nature of the Word of God at all times. The healed man was a believing Israelite; his faith was placed in the coming Messiah, of whom he knew that He was the Son of God. When he was therefore assured of the identity of the Son of God with the great Healer who was speaking to him, he gladly confessed his faith and showed it by his outward act of devotion, by bending his knee in worshipful prayer; he worshiped Jesus as God. Note: Jesus never loses sight of those in whom He has taken a personal interest. The solicitude of His saving mercy ever attends those that have received His benefits.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Observe here, 1. A special instance of Pharisaical pride; they account this poor man a vile person, whom heaven had marked by his native blindness for some extraordinary wickedness. How prone are we to judge them the greatest sinners, whom we observe to be the greatest sufferers!

Observe, 2. From reviling they proceed to excommunicating; They cast him out; that is, out of the communion of the Jewish church. O happy man! who having lost a synagogue, has found heaven! Behold this blind man, and admire him for a resolute confessor, stoutly defending the gracious author of his cure, against the cavils of the Pharisees, and maintaining the innocence and honour of so blessed a benefactor.

Observe, 3. Our Saviour’s regard to this blind man, whom the Pharisees had set at nought and excommunicated: He finds him out, reveals himself more fully to him, and directs him to believe in him.

Where observe, That the miracle which Christ had wrought upon the blind man, did not convert him, and work faith in him, till Christ revealed himself unto him, and enabled him to discern the truth of what he revealed.

Learn hence, That miracles confirm faith, but miracles alone can work faith. The blind man had experienced a miracle wrought upon him, yet remains an unbeliever, till Christ said, I am he.

Observe, 4. How readily the man receives the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, upon the fore-mentioned revelation of himself unto him: he instantly said, Lord, I believe; and in testimony thereof, worships him; that is, as God incarnate, as God manifested in the flesh.

Thence learn, That true knowledge of the Son of God will beget faith in him: and true faith in him will be productive of homage and adoration, of obedience and subjection to him. He that knows Christ aright, will believe, and he that believes, will worship and obey: He said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

34. They cast him out. If they could not answer his arguments they could excommunicate him. This they did. Observe that this miracle was officially investigated by the enemies of Christ, and they were compelled to admit it. The judicial investigation showed that he was born blind, that he was cured, and that Jesus gave him sight.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

34. ἐν ἁμαρτ. σύ. Emphatic: ‘In sins wast thou born altogether; thou art a born reprobate; and thou, dost thou teach us?’

ὅλος. ‘Every part of thy nature (comp. Joh 13:10) has been steeped in sins from thy birth.’ They hold the same belief as the disciples, that sin before birth is possible, and maliciously exclude not only the alternative stated by Christ (Joh 9:3) but even the one stated by the disciples (Joh 9:2), that his parents might have sinned. Their passion blinds them to their inconsistency. They had contended that no miracle had been wrought; now they throw his calamity in his face as proof of his sin.

Godet points out the analogy between these Jews and modern impugners of miracles. The Jews argued: God cannot help a Sabbath-breaker; therefore the miracle attributed to Jesus is a fiction. The opponents of the miraculous argue: The supernatural cannot exist; therefore the miracles attributed to Jesus and others are fictions. In both cases the logic of reason has to yield to the logic of facts.

ἐξέβαλον. They put him forth: see on Joh 10:4. This probably does not mean excommunication. (1) The expression is too vague. (2) There could not well have been time to get a sentence of excommunication passed. (3) The man had not incurred the threatened penalty; he had not ‘confessed that He was Christ’ (Joh 9:22). Provoked by his sturdy adherence to his own view they ignominiously dismiss him—turn him out of doors, if (as the ‘out’ seems to imply) they were meeting within walls. What follows illustrates Luk 6:22.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

34.] See on ver. 2.

ὅλος, altogether,—deeply and entirely, as thy infirmity proved. “They forget that the two charges,—one that he had never been born blind, and so was an impostor,—the other, that he bore the mark of God’s anger in a blindness that reached back to his birth,—will not agree together.” (Trench, Mirr. 305, edn. 2, note.)

ἐξέβ.] They excommunicated him: see on ver. 22. It cannot merely mean, ‘they cast him out of the court’ (Chrys., Mald., Grot., Fritzsche, Tholuck, Meyer); see next verse, where it would hardly be stated that Jesus heard of it, unless it had been some public formal act.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

34. The Pharisees will not stoop to refute a low person who ventures to argue with them; but the retort ascribed to them is weak, for it admits what they had previously questioned (v. 19), viz. that the blindness was congenital, and assigns as a reason for it the man’s prenatal sin (cf. v. 2).

ἐν ἁμαρτίαις (the emphatic words beginning the sentence) σὺ ἐγεννήθης ὃλος. Cf. Psa 51:5; and for ὅλος cf. 13:10.

σὺ διδάσκεις ἡμᾶς; Every word is scornfully emphatic.

καὶ ἐξέβαλον αὐτὸν ἔξω. This does not signify “they excommunicated him” (v. 22), a formal act which could only be done at a formal sitting of the Sanhedrim. It only means “they put him out,” sc. of their presence; cf. note on 6:37, where ἐκβάλλειν ἐκ is shown to be a Johannine phrase.

The Man Who Was Cured Accepts Jesus as the Son of Man (vv. 35-38)

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Altogether [ολος] . Literally, all of thee.

In sins. Standing first in the Greek order, and emphatic, as is also su thou, in both instances. "In sins wast thou born, all of thee; and dost thou teach us?" Teach. Emphatic. Dost thou, thus born in sins, assume the office of teacher ?

Cast him out. From the place where they were conversing. Not excommunicated, which this miscellaneous gathering could not do.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.