Charles Ellicott Commentary John 9:9

"Others said, It is he: others said, No, but he is like him. He said, I am [he]." — John 9:9 (ASV)

He is like him.—The more probable reading is, No; but he is like him. It is not that these speakers agree with some hesitation with those who assert the identity. They counter this with their own opinion, that it is a case of resemblance only. He himself settles the question by declaring that he is the same person.

The verse, and indeed the whole narrative, is one of the many striking instances of the natural form that a narrative takes when written by someone personally acquainted with all the facts. We may suppose that St. John recorded this from the lips of the man himself. We can still see the whole picture—the man returning, observed by one or two neighbours, who spread the story; the excitement of their curiosity; the question whether he is really the same; some, struck by the points of identity in the features, declaring that he is; others, struck by the features of the opened eyes lighting up the whole face, declaring that he is not; the simple declaration of the man himself, which is at once accepted as decisive—all this passes before us just as it occurred.