John 9 infants totally uninformed at birth

[Biblical literature offers 3 hints to the-ineluctable-truth about human opportunity: the mystery of Jesus’ will in Genesis 1:26-28 NIV, John 1:1's claim that Jesus is the-God, and Mathew 5:48's Jesus-message, "Be [as] perfect" as the-God. The living Jesus may have advocated the-good rather than claimed to be “anointed one& king”. Human-beings can& may accept the-good, continually pursue the-good, and continuously practice the-good. If asked how humankind discovered self-interest in the-good, we can& may express appreciation to Jesus. Also, see my Genesis 1 essay about human duty, at the end of this study.

Add the scholarly Bible story, “From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians”, Parts One and Two; FRONTLINE, 1998 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN8FM1NCOSk and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXqFvfCaFwY advocated to me by Barry Baker. We can imagine the public resurrection of the-civic-Jesus each Easter, privately accepting the mystery of Jesus as the word that was present in the beginning.] 

9 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. [By the end of this story, “blind” means totally ignorant. Innocence is characteristic to every human infant at birth. And it takes a quarter-century for a civic culture to offer willing youth comprehension and intention to purse their unique perfection before death.] ² His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

³ “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. [This construct supports the preposterous idea that evil exists for the glory of the-God.] ⁴ As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵ While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” [Light shines on common sense for the-good.]

⁶ After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ⁷ “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

⁸ His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” ⁹ Some claimed that he was.

Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”

But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”

¹⁰ “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.

¹¹ He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”

¹² “Where is this man?” they asked him.

“I don’t know,” he said.

¹³ They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. ¹⁴ Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. ¹⁵ Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”

¹⁶ Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” [People can invent the Sabbath but cannot impose it on the-God.]

But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided.

¹⁷ Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”

The man replied, “He is a prophet.” [Why not a faith healer?]

¹⁸ They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. ¹⁹ “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”

²⁰ “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. ²¹ But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” ²² His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. ²³ That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” [I am reminded of Kahlil Gibran’s short poem, “On Children”, from The Prophet.]

²⁴ A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.” [This statement defies both the-God and the instruction judge not . . . I am glad I do not recommend it and accept I do not know the-ineluctable-truth.]

²⁵ He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

²⁶ Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

²⁷ He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”

²⁸ Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! ²⁹ We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.” [Any claim to know the-God is arrogance when humility is needed.]

³⁰ The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. ³¹ We know that God does not listen to sinners. [More arrogance, now in the words of the healed man: no one knows the-God.] He listens to the godly person who does his will. ³² Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. ³³ If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. [More arrogance yet.]”

³⁴ To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out. [This claim is circular to V. 2.]

³⁵ Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

³⁶ “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”

³⁷ Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

³⁸ Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

³⁹ Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” [For the sake of opposition, John 18:37 has Jesus saying “In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” John 18:37 does not have Jesus crushing error with blindness.]

⁴⁰ Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

⁴¹ Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains. [Not so, according to the-civic-Jesus, if they consider their error, accept it, repent, and make certain they don’t repeat. See Matthew 18:15-17; 21-22. ]

The importance of Genesis 1, a 5,500 year old Mesopotamian political philosophy:

[I apply Genesis-1-NIV perspective to Bible interpretation, NIV because of the phrase “so they may” in V 26. I think Genesis 1:26-28, in the-civic-Jesus-messages (CJM), suggests the following:  Human male unites-to female human-being (noun) and their spouse-hood can& may pursue comprehensive-safety& security to the living species and to the earth (SECURITY). Every person can& may aid SECURITY. Some persons neglect, partially or wholly, mysterious-Jesus-appreciation, Jesus’-peace, and SECURITY-duty.

I call Genesis-1’s message, “responsible-human-independence” or RHI. Some human-beings throughout history practice, facilitate& encourage RHI; for example, Jesus exemplified RHI. From the past, RHI-individuals guide us and consequences from non-RHI-persons warn against error. I think the-civic-Jesus practiced, facilitated& encouraged RHI. “Civic” means reliable in human connections& transactions. Perhaps the authentic Jesus advocated the-good.

But I don’t know the-ineluctable-truth (IDK). “Ineluctable” means: not to be avoided, changed, escaped, neglected, or resisted: I can& may choose either RHI or dependency, for example, religious arrogance. I can& may be derelict.

Persons appreciating contemporary human being (verb), during each generation, develop CJM. In other words, I attribute to CJM the civic-appreciation that human being (verb) applied “before Abraham was born” and since then. Given the question, “Was Jesus a man?”, I respond IDK yet value CJM, and attitude which seems sufficient& complete to my person. I advocate the-civic-Jesus and admit that could be the-good. Yet the-good cannot replace the authentic Jesus.

Perhaps CJM always was the-good human being (verb). That potential was present at the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago. There’s joy in accepting IDK, seeking ineluctable-evidence, and reserving humility to RHI. Joy may facilitate happiness.

It seems the-laws-of-physics& progeny (PHYSICS) constrains the consequences of each person’s choices. Physics’ progeny includes, forces, mathematics, chemistries, biology, psychology, imagination, and their subsets. I choose to accept mysterious-Jesus and pursue Jesus’ “my-peace”, in-order-to commit-to and trust-in PHYSICS. For example, I work for food& shelter rather than accept what a bureaucrat might provide. I work to aid SECURITY rather than pray for an entity to usurp RHI. Make no mistake: if one of my loved ones seems threatened beyond my protection, I pray.

Admitting I could be wrong, I accept that Genesis 1:26-28 NIV urges me to constrain chaos in my way of living, or urges me to the-good suggested by the-civic-Jesus IDK and pursue.]