John 9-10~ Day 39~ The word "we" caught my eye.

So, how are you liking the reading of John?  I find it quite different from the other three gospels.  It's good...but to be honest, some of the wording confuses me!
Like, what does this mean?,
"We must do the works of him who sent me while it is still day.  The night is coming when no one can work." (9:4)
The context is that Jesus is about to heal the blind man.  Why does he say "we"? Why would darkness come if Jesus is with us and he is the light, therefor we are the light (Matt. 5:14)?  What does he mean?

Well, I had to do some digging...

I use some old commentaries and I found something interesting.  The verse can be read "I must do the works of him...", in several translations (King James, Darby, TYN, WEB & WBF).  Why would that be?  Why would translations vary like that?  After all, that one little word "we" changes the meaning significantly!
Well, it turns out that old translators felt that they needed to match the pronouns, so they altered "we" to "I" to make it agree with the "me".  Now most scholars are translating it to the original writing of "we" and are not worried about making the pronouns match. Therefore, you know what that means??   Jesus is including us in his comment of having to do the work of God.  We are supposed to do the work of God as well!

Ok, I get that, but what does he mean about the darkness?  I read one commentary that said, "night is coming" refers to the physical death each person will go through.  Jesus is referring to his own, as well as to ours by using the word "we".

So, as Meyer's stated in his commentary, the verse can be read like this, "It is we who are destined by God to work His works as long as we live, and until death puts an end to our activity."

I love how Jesus weaves instructions for believers right into a scene where he is proving that he is the Messiah!  In a way, he is multi-tasking!!  It's easy to miss those little nuggets if we are just looking at the big picture.  I'm glad that little "we" stood out to me today!

What stood out to you?


Rapster J said…
Oooh, that's good, Anita!
I was also struck by the detailed scenario about the blind man this time. The parents and all. Why the mud, when He had healed with just a word previously? To again cause a showdown with the Pharisees about the Sabbath, to illustrate His divinity and authority. And probably, to insure His march to the cross as is God's will.
Never thought of the mud that way, but I would agree with all of that!

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