Eyes that cannot see
John 9:39-41; John 12:37-41; Romans 11:7-10; 2 Corinthians 4:3-6; 2 Peter 1:5-9; 1 John 2:9-11.
What leads up to it
These are the verses where blindness stands for unbelief or a hardened heart. John 9 ends with Jesus turning the healing of a blind man into a judgment on the sighted men who questioned him. John 12 and Romans 11 quote Isaiah on eyes that cannot see. Paul in 2 Corinthians speaks of minds blinded by "the god of this age." Peter and John use blindness for a believer who has stopped growing or who hates his brother.
What it says
To be spiritually blind is to have eyes and not see what is in front of you: the signs Jesus did, the light of the gospel, the brother you hate. Some of these verses say God Himself blinds, as judgment on people who would not believe; others say the devil does; Peter says a Christian can do it to himself by neglect. In every case the blindness is a refusal before it is a condition.
What the picture assumes about the blind
The figure assumes that not seeing is a failure. Physical blindness is not a failure of anything; spiritual blindness, in these verses, is always a failure of will. The two uses share a word and nothing else. John 9 says exactly this: the man who was born unable to see is not the one who is blind at the end of the chapter.
Who is called blind
John 9:39 to 41 is the hinge of the whole subject. Jesus says He came "so that the blind may see and those who see may become blind." The Pharisees ask, "Are we blind too?" and He answers that if they were blind they would not be guilty, but because they claim to see, their guilt remains. The man born blind is never called spiritually blind. The men with working eyes are. Across these six passages the word falls on unbelievers, hardened Israel, the perishing, the neglectful and the hateful, and never once on a person who cannot see.
From Brian
Open for Brian: What this passage says to someone who lives without sight.
Other voices
Open: other blind people and their families will be asked the same question, and their answers will appear here with their permission.
The place and the time
What the old books and the archaeologists can add. Each paragraph names its source.
Edersheim, on John 9:41, draws the line this page turns on: the Pharisees' blindness "was not the calamity of blindness" but a blindness in which they were guilty. He also places the whole chapter at the Temple entrance, where beggars sat, and records that the blind were regarded as specially entitled to charity. Henry calls verse 39 "a metaphor borrowed from the miracle" just performed.
Source: Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (1883), Book IV, chapter IX; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706-1721), on John 9.
On "if you were blind you would have no sin," Henry gives two readings: real ignorance would have lessened their guilt, or, had they known they were blind, they would have accepted Christ as guide. His conclusion is a sentence for this whole section: "those are most blind who will not see."
Source: Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706-1721), on John 9.
The hard verse is John 12:39, "they could not believe." Henry, with Chrysostom and Augustine, reads "could not" as "would not," while allowing that God's hand confirms a blindness people have chosen. Edersheim says the same: it was not decreed beforehand regardless of conduct, but came after a long history of resistance. On Romans 11 Henry adds that they "had the faculties" but not the use of them: "the same sun softens wax and hardens clay."
Source: Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706-1721), on John 12 and Romans 11; Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (1883), Book V, chapter III.
For the letters, the commentators are brief and consistent. Paul's "god of this age has blinded the minds" is the understanding darkened by ignorance, error and prejudice. John's hater who "does not know where he is going" has a mind in the dark. Peter's man "nearsighted to the point of blindness" sees this world and dotes on it with no sense of the next; "blind, that is," Henry writes, "as to spiritual and heavenly things." The 1915 encyclopedia notices the grammar: the Bible tends to use the verb, to blind, for the figure, and the noun and adjective for the condition.
Source: Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706-1721), on 2 Corinthians 4, 1 John 2 and 2 Peter 1; International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), entry "Blindness."
Henry set the two kinds side by side on Matthew 9:27, where two blind men call Jesus Son of David while the leaders refuse to: "They who, by the providence of God, are deprived of bodily sight, may yet, by the grace of God, have the eyes of their understanding so enlightened" as to see great things. Of the man in John 9 asking who the Son of God is, he says the chief comfort of eyesight is its usefulness to faith. The second remark assumes what a blind reader may not grant; the first is the point.
Source: Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706-1721), on Matthew 9 and John 9.
The passage
John 9:39-41
39 Then Jesus declared, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind may see and those who see may become blind.”
40 Some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard this, and they asked Him, “Are we blind too?”
41 “If you were blind,” Jesus replied, “you would not be guilty of sin. But since you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”
John 12:37-41
37 Although Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still did not believe in Him.
38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: “Lord, who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
39 For this reason they were unable to believe. For again, Isaiah says:
40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they cannot see with their eyes, and understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.”
41 Isaiah said these things because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about Him.
Romans 11:7-10
7 What then? What Israel was seeking, it failed to obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened,
8 as it is written: “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear, to this very day.”
9 And David says: “May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution to them.
10 May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever.”
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.
4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
5 For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:5-9
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge;
6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;
7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.
8 For if you possess these qualities and continue to grow in them, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 But whoever lacks these traits is nearsighted to the point of blindness, having forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
1 John 2:9-11
9 If anyone claims to be in the light but hates his brother, he is still in the darkness.
10 Whoever loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no cause of stumbling in him.
11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.