The Proskynesis of Jesus in the New Testament by Ray M. Lozano;

Author:Ray M. Lozano;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780567688170
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK

B. The Προσκύνησις of Jesus by the formerly blind man

The only other use of προσκυνέω appears in the dramatic conclusion to the story of the healing of the man born blind, who confesses his belief in Jesus and renders προσκύνησις to him (ὁ δὲ ἔϕη· πιστεύω, κύριε· καὶ προσεκύνησεν αὐτῷ [9:38]).31 When Jesus heals the man born blind (9:1–7), it not only piques the interest of those who knew the formerly blind man (9:8–12) but also gets the attention of the Pharisees (9:13–34), some of whom take offense to Jesus’s healing since it was done on the Sabbath (9:14, 16). They interrogate the formerly blind man (9:13–17, 24–34) as well as his parents (9:18–23). While the latter are reluctant to give any information as to how their blind-born son now sees, the former is much more bold. Also by contrast, as is often noted, while the Pharisees are progressively shown to be ignorant and “blind” in their estimation of Jesus, the formerly blind man progressively “sees” more clearly as he offers his own evaluation of Jesus.32 Thus, the Pharisees move downward from being divided over Jesus (9:16), to doubting that the blind man was ever blind at all (9:18), to being more united in their conviction that Jesus is a sinner (9:24), to questioning, and thereby showing themselves ignorant of, Jesus’s origin (9:29). The formerly blind man, on the other hand, moves upward from acknowledging Jesus as his healer (9:11, 15, 30), to acknowledging him as a prophet (9:17), to being a disciple of Jesus (9:27–28), to acknowledging that Jesus is from God (9:33). When the exchange between the Pharisees and the formerly blind man over the person of Jesus and his act of healing comes to a close, with the healed man emerging as one who has “schooled” the religious teachers,33 the Pharisees resort to casting out the formerly blind man (9:34).34

Je sus will soon vindicate him from the judgments of the Pharisees as he now returns to the scene, having been entirely absent during the lengthy interrogation, and pronounces his own judgment that he has come “that those who do not see may see” (e.g., the formerly blind man) “and those who see may become blind” (e.g., these Pharisees) (9:39). It is not the formerly blind man but these Pharisees who are “blind” and whose sin remains (9:40–41; cf. 9:34). But before this happens, when Jesus finds the formerly blind man, having heard of his expulsion, he asks him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” (9:35).35 It is not entirely clear at first what is meant in this call to believe in Jesus as “the Son of Man.” The designation appears thirteen times in John and is linked with Jesus’s descent and ascent (3:13; 6:62), his being “lifted up” (ὑψόω) in the dual sense of crucifixion and exaltation (3:14; 8:28; 12:34 [2x]), his glorification (12:23; 13:31), and his roles in judgment (5:27) and salvation (6:27, 53).36 The reference to coming for judgment in 9:39 is noteworthy,

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