156. Iesus heals the blind man on Sabbath
When he had made the midday prayer, Iesus, as he went out of the temple, found one blind from his mother's womb. His disciples asked him saying:
'Master, who sinned in this man, his father or his mother, that he was born blind?'
Iesus answered:
'Neither his father nor his mother sinned in him, but God created him so, for a testimony of the Gospel.'
And having called the blind man up to him he spat on the ground and made clay and placed it upon the eyes of the blind man and said to him:
'Go to the pool (of Siloam) and wash thee!'
The blind man went, and having washed received light; whereupon, as he returned home, many who met him said:
'If this man were blind I should say for certam that it was he who was wont to sit at the beautiful gate of the temple.'
Others said:
'It is he, but how hath he received light?'
And they accosted him saying:
'Art thou the blind man that was wont to sit at the beautiful gate of the temple?'
He answered:
'I am he—and wherefore?'
They said:
'Now how didst thou receive thy sight?'
He answered:
'A man made clay, spitting on the ground, and this clay he placed upon mine eyes and said to me: "Go and wash thee in the pool (of Siloam)." I went and washed, and now I see: blessed be the God (of Israel!)'
When the man born blind was come again to the beautiful gate (of the temple) all Jerusalem was filled with the matter. Wherefore he was brought unto the chief of the priests, who was conferring with the priests and the Pharisees against Iesus.
The high-priest asked him, saying:
'Man, wast thou born blind?'
'Yea,'
he replied.
'Now give glory of God,'
said the high-priest,
'and tell us what prophet hath appeared to thee in a dream and given thee light. Was it our father Abraham, or Moses (the servant of God) or some other prophet? For others could not do such a thing.
The man born blind replied:
'Neither Abraham nor Moses, nor any prophet have I seen in a dream and been healed by him, but as I sat at the gate (of the temple) a man made me come near to him and, having made clay (of earth) with his spittle, put some of that clay upon mine eyes and sent me to the pool (of Siloam) to wash; whereupon I went, and washed me, and returned with the light of mine eyes.'
The high-priest asked him the name of that man.
The man born blind answered:
'He told me not his name, but a man who saw him called me and said: "Go and wash thee as that man hath said, for he is Iesus (the Nazarene) a prophet and an holy one of the God of Israel."'
Then said the high-priest:
'Did he heal thee perchance to-day, that is, the Sabbath?'
The blind man answered:
'To-day he healed me.'
Said the high-priest:
'Behold now, how that this fellow is a sinner, seeing he keepeth not the Sabbath!'