Thursday, January 12, 2023

Sean M. McDonough on healing of the blind man in John 9

  

The healing of the man born blind in John 9  likewise has obvious similarities to the healing miracles in the Synoptics and thus carries the same formative theological content. But John makes the overtones of re-creation unmistakable in his detailed recitation of the event. He sets up the reader for this with Jesus’ declaration in 8:12, ‘I am the light of the world,’ such that the healing of the blind man in chapter 9 becomes the proof of this assertion (note the reiteration of the statement in 9:5). The allusion to Genesis 1 is of paramount importance or us. Strictly speaking, the identification of Jesus with the light does not necessitate that he is the creator. There are a number of exegetical and theological steps which need to be traversed before that conclusion can be drawn. . . . There is, however, an underappreciated allusion to creation in the mud used to heal the blind man. Few modern commentators have Jesus in the role of creator. (Adv. Haer. 5.15.2) The chief problem is that the creation of Adam in Genesis 2 uses ‘dust’ (χους/עָפָר) rather than ‘mud’ (John 9:6: πηλος/חֹמֶר). But a look at the use of πηλος in both biblical and extra-biblical literature shows that it would have been readily understandable as the stuff our of which humanity was made. As far back as Aristophanes humanity could be described as πηλος. (Birds, 686). In the Bible, πηλος is the ‘clay’ in the repeated assertion that God as creator is the potter, with humanity being the clay (Isa. 29:16; 45:9; Jer. 18:6; Sir. 33:18; Rom. 9:21; cf. Job 10:9; 33:6). The lexical analysis supports Irenaeus: John portrays Jesus as standing firmly in the place of the creator God, fashioning from the earth new eyes for the man born blind bringing his portion of the creation to its intended fullness. (Sean M. McDonough, Christ as Creator: Origins of a New Testament Doctrine [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009], 34, 35)