Charles Ellicott Commentary John 9:27

"He answered them, I told you even now, and ye did not hear; wherefore would ye hear it again? would ye also become his disciples?" — John 9:27 (ASV)

I have told you already, and you did not hear.—The man becomes weary of this cross-questioning, the purpose of which is sufficiently clear to him. His first answer was in the fewest possible words (John 9:15, compared with John 9:7), and even these he will not repeat. There is some difficulty about the meaning of the word “hear” in the two clauses of this verse.

When the man says “You did not hear,” we naturally understand “did not heed;” but when he goes on to say, “Why would you hear it again?” the word clearly has its ordinary sense of hearing. The same word occurs in the two clauses in the Greek, just as it does in the English, and we are scarcely justified in giving it two distinct meanings. If we were to read both clauses as questions, we should avoid this difficulty, and get a sense which would suit the evident feeling of the man. He is impatient, and expresses this in a series of rapid questions: “I have told you already, and did you not hear? Why would you hear it again? Will you also be His disciples?”

Will you also be his disciples?—The words refer, probably, to some who are His disciples, not to the man himself as being, or being ready to become, a disciple. This is a further stage of his spiritual education which is to follow, but has not yet arrived (John 9:35–38). The man must have known of the existence of a band of disciples, who indeed in his presence had questioned their Master concerning him (John 9:2), and it is not unlikely that while the parents were being questioned, the son may have learned more concerning the work of Christ.

The question puts the irony in the severest form, “Surely you also do not wish to become His disciples?” It may have been designed, or may only have been as an arrow drawn at a venture; but there must have been among those of whom it was asked, men who tried in vain to encase themselves in the armor of authority, which would repel his shaft and silence him. It must have gone through the joints of the harness and pierced to the hearts of men like Nicodemus, who were half-disciples without the “courage of their convictions.” Here was the blind beggar making an open avowal of that which the Pharisees and rulers dared only to confess by night (John 3:2).