John 9:16-18 - He is a prophet

9:16,17

Some of the Pharisees were convinced that their Sabbath laws had been broken and that was the end of the matter. He was guilty and could not be from God. Before we are too ready to condemn the Pharisees we should remember that the Old Testament does place a great emphasis on the Sabbath, not just in the Ten Commandments, but also in a number of the Prophets. Others put more weight on the miracles, thinking that it was impossible for a “sinner” to do such wonders. Deut 13:1-5 does warn that being “right” or doing signs and wonders is not in itself sufficient to prove the authenticity of a prophet. They then turned to the man and asked what he thought. This was a rather odd thing for them to do, as the Pharisees did not have a high opinion of the views of the ordinary people. It was probably because of the division among them that the Pharisees turned to the man, who declared that Jesus was a prophet.

9:18

The religious leaders are continuing to try and find a way out of the division among them. So they try to make out that the miracle was not such a great miracle after all. They claimed the man had not actually been born blind. However, this notion was shown to be complete nonsense when they called the parents in, who confirmed that he had indeed been born blind.