Translation commentary on John 9:29

One of the basic Jewish doctrines was that God had spoken directly to Moses. John here uses a bit of satire. The Pharisees now admit that they do not know where Jesus comes from, even though in 7.27 they claimed to know his origin. Jesus has come from God, as the healing of the blind man ought to indicate, but the Pharisees are blind to this truth.

We know that God spoke to Moses is equivalent in some languages to “we are sure that God spoke to Moses.”

For the phrase as for that fellow, it may be necessary to introduce the name of Jesus, for example, “as for that man Jesus.” As in verse 28, that fellow is most probably derogatory.

Where he comes from must be related to the hometown of Jesus; for example, “we do not even know where his hometown is” or “we are not even sure of the town where he was born.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on John 9:29

9:29a

We know that God spoke to Moses: The pronoun We is best translated as exclusive here. The Jewish leaders continued to contrast themselves with the man whom Jesus healed. It is true that the man also believed that God spoke to Moses, but the Jewish leaders ignored this. They emphasized that they themselves believed that Moses’ law was God’s message to them.

Here are other ways to translate this clause:

We are sure that God spoke to Moses. (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
We know that God gave his word/message to Moses.
-or-
We know this about Moses, that long ago God spoke to him ⌊giving him the law⌋ .

9:29b

but: The word but indicates a contrast. The contrast is between Moses, who they knew heard from God, and Jesus, who they knew little about.

we do not know where this man is from: The Jewish leaders certainly did not think that Jesus came from God. In spite of the miraculous signs that he had done, they did not believe that he was from God. So here they must have meant that they did not know what place on earth that he came from. Here is another way to translate this clause:

We do not know where this man comes from! (NET Bible Bible)

we: The pronoun we continues to be exclusive and refers to the Jewish leaders who were opposed to Jesus.

this man: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as this man is more literally “this one.” The Greek text emphasizes that word to contrast Jesus with Moses. They thought that Moses was far better than Jesus. The religious leaders did not honor Jesus but scorned him. Use an expression that implies the speakers did not respect the person they referred to. For example:

this fellow (New International Version)
-or-
this ⌊other⌋ person

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