The Gospel According to John (American Standard Version, 1901) · 16 of 37 · tr. American Standard Version (1901)
8:48-9:14
[8:48] The Jews answered and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a demon?
[8:49] Jesus answered, I have not a demon; but I honor my Father, and ye dishonor me.
[8:50] But I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth.
[8:51] Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my word, he shall never see death.
[8:52] The Jews said unto him, Now we know that thou hast a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my word, he shall never taste of death.
[8:53] Art thou greater than our father Abraham, who died? and the prophets died: whom makest thou thyself?
[8:54] Jesus answered, If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing: it is my Father that glorifieth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God;
[8:55] and ye have not known him: but I know him; and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be like unto you, a liar: but I know him, and keep his word.
[8:56] Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad.
[8:57] The Jews therefore said unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
[8:58] Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was born, I am.
[8:59] They took up stones therefore to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple.
[9:1] And as he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth.
[9:2] And his disciples asked him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind?
[9:3] Jesus answered, Neither did this man sin, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
[9:4] We must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
[9:5] When I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
[9:6] When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and anointed his eyes with the clay,
[9:7] and said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which is by interpretation, Sent). He went away therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
[9:8] The neighbors therefore, and they that saw him aforetime, that he was a beggar, said, Is not this he that sat and begged?
[9:9] Others said, It is he: others said, No, but he is like him. He said, I am he.
[9:10] They said therefore unto him, How then were thine eyes opened?
[9:11] He answered, The man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to Siloam, and wash: so I went away and washed, and I received sight.
[9:12] And they said unto him, Where is he? He saith, I know not.
[9:13] They bring to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind.
[9:14] Now it was the sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.
A binding agreement or relationship between the divine and a people or individual, establishing mutual obligations.
The reference to Abraham (8:52-56) invokes the covenantal relationship between God and the patriarch, which Jesus reinterprets by claiming to be the fulfillment that Abraham anticipated and rejoiced to see.
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
The Father is described as unknown to the Jews ('ye have not known him,' 8:55), and Jesus himself 'hid himself' from those seeking to stone him (8:59), enacting divine concealment.
The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.
Jesus explicitly declares 'When I am in the world, I am the light of the world' (9:5), and the healing of the blind man (restoring sight) serves as the narrative enactment of divine light overcoming darkness.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The blindness of the man is attributed not to sin but to the providential purpose that 'the works of God should be made manifest in him' (9:3), presenting divine ordering of human affairs toward intelligible ends.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
Jesus claims unmediated, direct knowledge of the Father ('I know him, and keep his word' 8:55), contrasting his own experiential knowledge with the Jews' ignorance, framing salvation as rooted in this direct divine knowledge rather than in lineage or ritual.
The doctrine that the divine or a spiritual principle takes on a specific, bounded material or bodily form — descending from an unconditioned state into individual, corporeal existence — as a discrete act rather than a diffuse pervading presence. The Christian Word made flesh, the Hindu avatara, the Egyptian pharaoh as living Horus, the Vajrayana tulku. Distinct from divine_immanence (the general claim that the divine pervades all of creation diffusely, not a specific embodiment-event) and separation_from_source (the felt exile FROM origin, the opposite motion) in describing a specific, individuated descent INTO a particular body or form.
Jesus speaks of his embodied, time-bound presence ('When I am in the world,' 9:5; 'while it is day,' 9:4) as a discrete descent of the divine into a specific bounded existence, contrasting his pre-existence ('Before Abraham was, I am,' 8:58) with his current corporeal mission.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
Jesus repeatedly emphasizes the power of 'my word' and 'his word' as the medium through which divine life and knowledge are transmitted (8:51, 8:55), positioning the spoken Word as the operative principle between the transcendent Father and the material world.
Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.
The declaration 'Before Abraham was, I am' (8:58) functions as a paradoxical identity claim that destabilizes the Jews' chronological framework and provokes a violent response, using apparent contradiction to reveal a deeper ontological truth.
The phenomenon where spiritual messengers or healers are rejected by their own community due to familiarity or lack of awe.
The entire passage is structured around the Jews' rejection of Jesus—accusing him of having a demon, questioning his authority over Abraham, and attempting to stone him (8:59)—the canonical pattern of the spiritual messenger rejected by his own community.
The doctrine and practice that spoken or sung word carries causal-magical force — that uttering names, formulas, songs, or incantations alters reality directly rather than merely communicating about it. Vainamoinen's runo-songs that move mountains and command iron, Norse galdr, Vedic mantra, Shinto kotodama, the magician's barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri, Iamblichean arcane signatures and inexplicable symbols, biblical creation-by-word. Distinct from sacred_names (the ontological power of names themselves) and prayer (address to the divine); word_power_incantation is the magical-causal efficacy of the spoken word as such.
Jesus's spoken command to the blind man ('Go, wash in the pool of Siloam') directly produces a physical transformation—restored sight—demonstrating that the spoken word carries causal-magical force that alters reality rather than merely communicating about it.