“They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.”
They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out — the authorities respond with condemnation: 'Thou wast altogether born in sins'—they apply the discourse from 9:2 back to the man himself, dismissing him as a sinner (conflating physical disability with moral failing). 'Dost thou teach us?' expresses outrage: this social outcast presumes to instruct the official interpreters of the law. 'They cast him out' (exebalon auton, threw him out)—they excommunicate him, the very threat mentioned in 9:22. The man's growing faith and witnessing result in expulsion from the community.
Church Fathers on John 9:34
The parents having referred the Pharisees to the healed man himself, they summon him a second time: Then again called they the man that was blind. They do not openly say now, Deny that Christ has healed you, but conceal their object under the presence of religion: Give God the praise, i.e. confess that this man has had nothing to do with the work.
Deny that you have received the benefit. This is not to give God the glory, but rather to blaspheme Him.
The man, that he might neither expose himself to calumny, nor at the same time conceal the truth, answers not that he knew Him to be righteous, but, Whether He is a sinner or no, I know not.
Read all 18 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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