8. Soon the town was buzzing. His relatives and those who year after year had seen him as a blind man begging were saying, “Why, isn’t this the man we knew, who sat here and begged?”
9. Others said, “It’s him all right!”But others objected, “It’s not the same man at all. It just looks like him.”He said, “It’s me, the very one.”
10. They said, “How did your eyes get opened?”
11. “A man named Jesus made a paste and rubbed it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ I did what he said. When I washed, I saw.”
12. “So where is he?”“I don’t know.”
13-15. They marched the man to the Pharisees. This day when Jesus made the paste and healed his blindness was the Sabbath. The Pharisees grilled him again on how he had come to see. He said, “He put a clay paste on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.”
16. Some of the Pharisees said, “Obviously, this man can’t be from God. He doesn’t keep the Sabbath.”Others countered, “How can a bad man do miraculous, God-revealing things like this?” There was a split in their ranks.
17. They came back at the blind man, “You’re the expert. He opened your eyes. What do you say about him?”He said, “He is a prophet.”
18-19. The Jews didn’t believe it, didn’t believe the man was blind to begin with. So they called the parents of the man now bright-eyed with sight. They asked them, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? So how is it that he now sees?”
20-23. His parents said, “We know he is our son, and we know he was born blind. But we don’t know how he came to see—haven’t a clue about who opened his eyes. Why don’t you ask him? He’s a grown man and can speak for himself.” (His parents were talking like this because they were intimidated by the Jewish leaders, who had already decided that anyone who took a stand that this was the Messiah would be kicked out of the meeting place. That’s why his parents said, “Ask him. He’s a grown man.”)
24. They called the man back a second time—the man who had been blind—and told him, “Give credit to God. We know this man is an impostor.”