assing him: "Master, whose fault was it that this man was born blind?
Was it because he has sinned, or did his parents sin?"
For the Jews thought that when any evil came, it was caused by some
one's sin. But Jesus said:
"This man was born blind, not because of his parents' sin, nor because
of his own, but so that God might show his power in him. We must do
God's work while it is day, for the night is coming when no man can
work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
When Jesus had said this, he spat on the ground, and mixed up the
spittle with earth, making a little lump of clay. This clay Jesus spread
on the eyes of the blind man; and then he said to him: "Go wash in the
pool of Siloam."
The pool of Siloam was a large cistern, or, reservoir, on the southeast
of Jerusalem, outside the wall, where the valley of Gihon and the valley
of Kedron come together. To go to this pool, the blind man, with two
great blotches of mud on his face, must walk through the streets of the
city, out of the gate, and into the valley. He went, and felt his way
down the steps into the pool of Siloam. There he washed, and then at
once his life-long blindness passed away, and he could see.
When the man came back to the part of the city where he lived, his
neighbors could scarcely believe that he was the same man. They said:
"Is not this the man who used to sit on the street begging?"
"This must be the same man," said some; but others said: "No, it is some
one who looks like him."
But the man said, "I am the very same man who was blind!"
"Why, how did this come to pass?" they asked. "How were your eyes
opened?"
"The man, named Jesus," he answered, "mixed clay, and put it on my eyes,
and said to me, 'Go to the pool of Siloam and wash,' and I went and
washed, and then I could see."
"Where is this man?" they asked him.
"I do not know," said the man.
Some of the Pharisees, the men who made a show of always obeying the
law, asked the man how he had been made to see. He said to them, as he
had said before:
"A man put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and my sight came to me."
Some of the Pharisees said:
"The man who did this is not a man of God, because he does not keep the
Sabbath. He makes clay, and puts it on men's eyes, working on the
Sabbath day. He is a sinner!"
Others said, "How can a man who is a sinner do such wonderful works?"
And thus the people were divided in what they thought of Jes
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