John 9: open debate need not divide humankind

 John 9: open debate need not divide humankind

Guide: CJB New Testament emphasis in bold (CJB online) or OJB Old Testament, text I emphasize in green; NIV in magenta; footnotes to CJB in superscript sky blue; Nomads* discussion in yellow; and my comments in gray. I may use endnotes to cite outside literature or extensive comment.  

*Participative Sunday-school-class at UBC led by Ken Tipton. Ken seems to consider answers in a continuous search for ineluctable truth. My evolving statement about Genesis 1:26-28 is at the end of this post.

Chief concerns and possible insights:

1.        John 9, more than any chapter Nomads has studied in my time, convinces me that “what we believe” preserves, quoting Ken, “the blinding consequence of not knowing what we do not know”.

2.        Pursuing Yeshua’s civic influence and Biblical debate, I accept Yeshua the light, Jesus the miracle worker, and Christ the blood sacrifice and the Genesis 1:26-28 power, authority, and responsibility to pursue necessary goodness in my way of living.

3.        It is important to consider that Israelites who accepted only Moses’s law (like Samaritans), wait for a prophet (Yahweh’s Levite emissary), whereas Judeans (non-Levites) expect an anointed, Davidic king and priest (also in the order of Melchizedek).

a.      Sibling clans: Levites vs Judites

b.     Moses a Levite

c.      Melchizedek blessed Abrahm (Genesis 18:18-19 OJB), great grandfather to Levi and Judah.

d.     Yeshua on par with Melchizedek, or higher than a prophet like Moses. See genealogy chart, attached.

4.        I won’t join a synagogue. Frustrations in 1994 inspired me to withdraw from the Baptist brotherhood (privately un-dividing my appreciation to humankind).

a.      I discovered Genesis 1:26-28 (humankind is to rule on earth) then returned to UBC to share, in friendship and non-atheism. See 3 attached letters regarding 1994.

Working considerations:

1.      V2 It is right to challenge parents if children are disadvantaged.

a.      Humankind has avoided incest (see V34) for over 30 millennia; https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/prehistoric-humans-are-likely-to-have-formed-mating-networks-to-avoid-inbreeding . “[R]esearchers speculate that an early, systematic approach to preventing inbreeding may have helped anatomically modern humans to thrive, compared with other hominins.”

b.     “Prehistory” seems to mean: before writing and grammar empowered reporting.

                                                             i.      DNA, archeology, and paleontology empower discovery.

c.      Ignoring discovery so as to preserve “what we believe” is not necessary.

d.     I think I saw an incest-family at the park this week – in the year 2025.

2.      V3 The God is not weak enough to intentionally abuse individuals with infirmity. I don’t trust John’s writing.

3.      V5 civic citizens can accept the miracle stories, the sacrificial blood, and The God yet pursue and practice the light Yeshua shared during his life.

4.      V6-12 Hearsay built public and civil doubt the healed man could not resolve.

5.      V13-17 The Pharisees say Yeshua is a sinner for working on the Sabbath and press the healed man for the opinion Yeshua is a prophet, an emissary to Yahweh.

6.      V18-25 Judean elites pressed the parents, who deferred to the healed man, in order to avoid being implicated as thinking Yeshua was Israel’s Messiah.

a.      They might be banned from the synagogue.

b.     The healed man acquiesced that Yeshua could be a sinner.

7.      V26-34 The elites pressed the healed man as to how Yeshua achieved the healing. He challenged their interest, and they responded by saying they were disciples of Moses (why not David, too?) and did not know Yeshua’s origins. They called him the offspring of forbidden sex and threw him out.

8.      V35-41 Yeshua re-entered the discussion and established that the healed man accepted him, then stated that he “came into this world” to allow contenders to identify themselves.

The text, CJB:

9 As Yeshua passed along, he saw a man blind from birth. ² His talmidim disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned — this man or his parents — to cause him to be born blind?” ³ Yeshua answered, “His blindness is due neither to his sin nor to that of his parents; it happened so that God’s power might be seen at work in him. [I doubt John’s writing, because I do not accept that The God needs to use persons to demonstrate omnipotence: The God is not that weak. Also, the likely topic in this debate is incest, known to cause anomalies such as deafness and blindness. See https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/prehistoric-humans-are-likely-to-have-formed-mating-networks-to-avoid-inbreeding . Also, see V34.] ⁴ As long as it is day, we must keep doing the work of the One [Yeshua did not include the God’s spirit and thus did not suggest a triune One.] who sent me; the night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵ While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” [That is, I am reliable civic influence to this generation. Nomads keep Yeshua’s civic influence alive when we apply his teachings in our times. We can neither mimic miracles nor sacrifice body and blood, We pray for strength and wisdom to get through hard time such as illness and death, but not change water into wine or raise a corpse; see https://atheistscholar.org/lecture/miracles-debunked/ , for example.]

⁶ Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, put the mud on the man’s eyes, ⁷ and said to him, “Go, wash off in the Pool of Shiloach! Siloam” (The name means “sent.”) So he went and washed and came away seeing.

⁸ His neighbors and those who previously had seen him begging said, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?” ⁹ Some said, “Yes, he’s the one”; while others said, “No, but he looks like him.” However, he himself said, “I’m the one.” [Uncertainty? or can we believe the witness to a miracle? Has deceiptful healing claim occurred during our lifetimes?] ¹⁰ “How were your eyes opened?” they asked him. ¹¹ He answered, “The man called Yeshua Jesus made mud, put it on my eyes, and told me, ‘Go to Shiloach and wash!’ So I went; and as soon as I had washed, I could see.” [The God maintains order, and wet soil that heals blindness is disorder. The believer is free to choose order or disorder, and I choose order, rejecting John’s writing in support of miracles. I choose Yeshua’s civic influence rather than Jesus’s miracles or Christ’s blood. I will not again profess something I don’t trust.] ¹² They said to him, “Where is he?” and he replied, “I don’t know.”

¹³ They took the man who had been blind to the P’rushim. Pharisees ¹⁴ Now the day on which Yeshua had made the mud and opened his eyes was Shabbat. Sabbath ¹⁵ So the P’rushim asked him again how he had become able to see; and he told them, “He put mud on my eyes, then I washed, and now I can see.” ¹⁶ At this, some of the P’rushim said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep Shabbat.” [Pharisees were sticklers to Moses’ law. I doubt the blind man would relate to this leap to theology.] But others said, “How could a man who is a sinner do miracles like these?” And there was a split among them. ¹⁷ So once more they spoke to the blind man: “Since you’re the one whose eyes he opened, what do you say about him?” He replied: “He is a prophet.” [A prophet in this context is someone chosen to represent Yahweh to the Israelites. See Wikipedia, “. . . Yahweh] is associated with Seir, Edom, Paran and Teman, and later with Canaan. The early Israelites engaged in polytheistic practices that were common across ancient Semitic religion, as their worship included a variety of Canaanite gods and goddesses, such as El, Asherah, and Baal.”]

¹⁸ The Judeans, however, were unwilling to believe that he had formerly been blind, but now could see, until they had summoned the man’s parents. ¹⁹ They asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?” ²⁰ His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind; ²¹ but how it is that he can see now, we don’t know; nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him — he’s old enough, he can speak for himself!” ²² The parents said this because they were afraid of the Judeans the Jewish leaders, for the Judeans had already agreed that anyone who acknowledged Yeshua as the Messiah [See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messiah for a Jewish perspective.] would be banned from the synagogue. [I do not join a synagogue, in order to prevent my civic integrity from being called heresy. I  I might join a synagogue/church that appreciates people who accept the power, authority, and responsibility to pursue necessary goodness on earth.] ²³ This is why his parents said, “He’s old enough, ask him.” [Note: Anyone who does not join the synagogue cannot be banned from the synagogue. Similarly, I do not join UBC, because I do not again want to respond to the opinion that I am a heretic. I genuinely want fellow citizens to think as I do: that Genesis 1:26-28 conveys our duty to humankind rather than to one of the 45,000 brands of Judaism or Christianity.]

²⁴ So a second time they called the man who had been blind; and they said to him, “Swear to God that you will tell the truth! We know that this man is a sinner.” ²⁵ He answered, “Whether he’s a sinner or not I don’t know. One thing I do know: I was blind, now I see.” ²⁶ So they said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” ²⁷ “I already told you,” he answered, “and you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Maybe you too want to become his talmidim?” ²⁸ Then they railed at him. “You may be his talmid,” they said, “but we are talmidim of Moshe! [Moses’ message to Israel is in Deuteronomy. If you think the message stops with the Penateuch, you are Samaritan (Northern kingdom). If you think it continues through the Tanach, you are Judean. If you think it is still being developed, you are Orthodox Jew.] ²⁹ We know that God has spoken to Moshe, but as for this fellow — we don’t know where he’s from!” [Recall V17 “He is a prophet.” From Deuteronomy 18:15, “Adonai will raise up for you a prophet like me from among yourselves, from your own kinsmen [Levies]. Then in Deut 34:10, “Since that time there has not arisen in Isra’el a prophet like Moshe, whom Adonai knew face to face.” Again, this is Samaritan belief, not Judean, which believes the Davidic Convenant.]

³⁰ “What a strange thing,” the man answered, “that you don’t know where he’s from — considering that he opened my eyes! ³¹ We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners; but if anyone fears God and does his will, God does listen to him. [If your prayer is not effective, ] [Suddenly, the blind man is a theist! I don’t trust John’s writing.] ³² In all history no one has ever heard of someone’s opening the eyes of a man born blind. ³³ If this man were not from God, he couldn’t do a thing!” 

³⁴ “Why, you mamzer!” [offspring from forbidden sex, such as incest] they retorted, “Are you lecturing us?” And they threw him out.

³⁵ Yeshua heard that they had thrown the man out. He found him and said, “Do you trust in the Son of Man?” ³⁶ “Sir,” he answered, “tell me who he is, so that I can trust in him.” ³⁷ Yeshua said to him, “You have seen him. In fact, he’s the one speaking with you now.” ³⁸ “Lord, I trust believe!” he said, and he kneeled down in front of him. [In a parallel dialogue, in John 4, John has Jesus tell the woman at the well that the messiah she expects is before her. Since she is a Samaritan, she does not subscribe to Jewish literature beyond the Pentateuch, so the messiah she refers to is not of the house of David but of Levi.]

 

³⁹ Yeshua said, “It is to judge that I came into this world, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.” ⁴⁰ Some of the P’rushim nearby heard this and said to him, “So we’re blind too, are we?” ⁴¹ Yeshua answered them, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin. But since you still say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains. [To me, this equates to:  Since you Judeans claim to know or represent The God, you are not civic – do not accept the power, authority, and responsibility for order on earth.]

[Genesis 1:26-28, a first simplification from previous presentations:

I read to consider and apply perhaps 5500 year old Sumerian political philosophy. The polytheistic Sumerians are religiously referenced by Semite scribes of 3900 years ago, in Genesis 1:26-28; in my paraphrase:  Female-and-male-human-being may and can choose to both independently and collaboratively constrain political democracy on earth: on earth, civic humankind has the power and authority to pursue necessary goodness and constrain the bad. Civic citizens may and can use the rule of law to develop statutory justice. 

Political and religious philosopher Yeshua* affirmed Genesis 1:26-28, contributing ideas in each Matthew 18:18 (no peace-power above humankind), Matthew 19:3-8 (mutual spousal loyalty), Matthew 5:48 (pursue your personal perfection, which also affirms Deuteronomy 18:13), 19:4-6 (don’t divide/lessen goodness), and in other direct dialogue, such as “go and sin no more”.

Discussion

I think Genesis 1:26-28 informs humankind to flourish in necessary goodness rather than accommodate badness and allow evil. Quoting below,

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. See notes, below.

Acceptance of the power, authority, and responsibility to rule on earth is human being (verb). Reliable human-beings pursue necessary goodness to actual reality.

Since monotheism is a human construct, I use the phrase, “The God, whatever it may be”, to express objection to any doctrinal God yet reserve humility to ineluctable evidence and remaining unknowns.]

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