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John 9:24

ESV So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.”
NIV A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. 'Give glory to God by telling the truth,' they said. 'We know this man is a sinner.'
NASB So for a second time they summoned the man who had been blind, and said to him, 'Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.'
CSB So a second time they summoned the man who had been blind and told him, "Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner."
NLT So for the second time they called in the man who had been blind and told him, 'God should get the glory for this, because we know this man Jesus is a sinner.'
KJV Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner.

What does John 9:24 mean?

This is the second time that local religious leaders have questioned a man whom Jesus healed of lifelong blindness (John 9:1–7). The man's initial claims were brushed off as impossible, since the scribes and Pharisees had already decided that Jesus was a fraud (John 5:39–40). The investigators then turned to the man's parents, hoping to debunk some part of the story. Instead, they confirmed that this man had, in fact, been born blind. The parents, fearing backlash from the religious leaders (John 9:22), had said very little and reminded everyone that their son was old enough to speak for himself.

The command "give glory to God" here is a way of demanding that a person speak the truth. Typically, using it implies that the other person needs to confess some sin or deception (Joshua 7:19; 1 Samuel 6:5). In modern speech, this is somewhat like a judge telling a defendant, "come, now, tell the truth…" The religious leaders further prove their prejudice by stating "we know…" Jesus is a sinner. This echoes their initial rejection of the miracle: they refused to accept it because they had already decided that Jesus didn't agree with their traditions (John 9:16). By hinting that the man is lying, and claiming to "know" that Jesus is false, the scribes and Pharisees are trying to intimidate the formerly-blind man into changing his story.

This effort will backfire spectacularly. In the following verses, the healed man will produce a profound summary of saving faith, and his simple, common-sense approach to facts will embarrass the hard-headed, willfully ignorant religious leaders.
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