Join us Sunday for Worship at 10:30am

X Close Menu

"Who Sinned?" (John 9:1-5)

December 10, 2017 Speaker: Bob DeWaay Series: Hermeneutics - Study of Scripture

Scripture: John 9:1-5

As we begin our reading of John 9, we highlight some key phrases and questions including “who sinned.” This question sets up much of what follows. Also under discussion is the key hermeneutic issue of who determines the meaning of the Bible, the author, the text or the reader? The answer in the case of the Bible is “the Holy Spirit inspired author.” We cannot trust the subjective feelings of the reader. The Greek term for “blind” is used 50 times in the NT and 16 of them are in John’s gospel, mostly in chapter 9. We explore John’s use of the Greek term dei which usually denotes “divine necessity” and so is rightly translated “must.” There have been those in recent history who teach that those who are sick are also guilty of unbelief. This is false and we point out that as Christians we must have an eternal perspective if we are to see things as God has revealed them. In class we go to a passage in John 5 where a lame man was healed and similar issues arise. The class was given the assignment to look for similar issues in the two narratives that may help as we study John 9.