Blindness

Blindness in scripture is at once a bodily affliction, a covenant concern, an instrument of judgment, a prophetic horizon, and a figure for unbelief. It belongs to old men whose eyes have set with age, to armies struck dumb on the road to Samaria, to a king led in fetters to Babylon with the last sight in his eyes a son's death, and to a beggar by the wayside calling out to the son of David. It is also the condition Yahweh diagnoses among his own people — eyes that see and do not perceive — and the condition the Servant comes to undo.

Old Men Who Could Not See

The patriarchal narratives quietly mark blindness as one of the burdens of long life. "When Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son" (Gen 27:1). The same notice opens the story of Eli the priest: "when Eli was laid down in his place (now his eyes had begun to wax dim, so that he could not see)" (1 Sam 3:2); and at the end, "Now Eli was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were set, so that he could not see" (1 Sam 4:15). The prophet Ahijah, when Jeroboam's wife came in disguise, "could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age" (1 Kgs 14:4). Each notice frames a moment of decision — a blessing, a word from Yahweh, an oracle — that turns on what the blind man hears rather than what he sees.

The Mosaic Care for the Blind

The Torah builds a fence around the blind. "You will not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind; but you will fear your God: I am Yahweh" (Lev 19:14). The covenant curse extends the same protection: "Cursed be he who makes the blind to wander out of the way. And all the people will say, Amen" (Deut 27:18). The blind belong to those whom Yahweh personally guards.

Bribery as Blinding

The Torah names one of the practical ways the seeing become blind: a bribe. "And you will take no bribe: for a bribe blinds those who have sight, and perverts the words of the righteous" (Ex 23:8). Deuteronomy makes the same warning to judges: "neither will you take a bribe; for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, and perverts the words of the righteous" (Deut 16:19). Sirach repeats the proverb in poetic form: "Presents and gifts blind the eyes of the wise, And as a muzzle on the mouth turn away reproofs" (Sir 20:29).

Blindness as Judgment

Blindness can also fall as a stroke of judgment. Elisha at Dothan prays it down on the Aramean force: "Strike this people, I pray you, with blindness. And he struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha" (2 Kgs 6:18). The prophet leads them blind into Samaria, and there the prayer reverses: "Yahweh, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And Yahweh opened their eyes, and they saw; and, look, they were in the midst of Samaria" (2 Kgs 6:20). The king of Israel asks whether to strike them, and Elisha refuses: "You will not strike them: would you strike those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master" (2 Kgs 6:22). Inflicted blindness here ends in mercy and a meal.

The Babylonian end of Zedekiah is the harsher form. "And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon" (2 Kgs 25:7). The last sight of the king of Judah is the death of his line; after that, darkness.

The Prophetic Promise of Opened Eyes

Against the inflicted-blindness texts the prophets place a different oracle: a day when blind eyes are opened. "And in that day the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness" (Isa 29:18). "Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped" (Isa 35:5). The Servant is given for this very work: "to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison-house" (Isa 42:7); and "I will bring the blind by a way that they don't know; in paths that they don't know I will lead them; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things I will do, and I will not forsake them" (Isa 42:16). The blind in these oracles are not pitied at a distance; Yahweh leads them by the hand.

The Bethsaida Healing

Mark records a healing whose two stages dramatize the prophetic promise. "And they bring to him a blind man, and urge him to touch him. And he took hold of the blind man by the hand, and brought him out of the village; and when he had spit on his eyes, and laid his hands on him, he asked him, Do you see anything? And he looked up, and said, I see men; for I see [them] as trees, walking. Then again he laid his hands on his eyes; and he looked steadfastly, and was restored, and saw all things clearly" (Mark 8:22-25). Sight returns by stages, and only the second touch makes everything clear.

Bartimaeus by the Jericho Road

The Markan and Lukan accounts of the blind beggar at Jericho are the longest healing scenes in the Synoptics. "And they come to Jericho: and as he went out from Jericho, with his disciples and a great multitude, the son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the wayside. And when he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me" (Mark 10:46-47). The crowd tries to silence him; he cries louder. Jesus stops, calls him, and asks the question that reveals the petition: "What do you want that I should do to you? And the blind man said to him, Rabboni, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said to him, Go your way; your faith has made you whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed him in the way" (Mark 10:51-52).

Luke reports the same encounter as Jesus draws near to Jericho. "A certain blind man sat by the wayside begging: and hearing a multitude going by, he inquired what this might be. And they told him, that Jesus of Nazareth passes by. And he cried out, saying, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me" (Luke 18:35-38). Again the rebuke from those in front, again the louder cry. Jesus asks what he wants; "Lord, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said to him, Receive your sight: your faith has made you whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed him, glorifying God: and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God" (Luke 18:41-43). Both Evangelists end with the formerly blind man following.

The Man Born Blind

John 9 takes blindness as the occasion for a sign of unusual length. The disciples ask the question that frames the chapter: "Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind?" (John 9:2). Jesus refuses both options: "Neither did this man sin, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him" (John 9:3). He spits on the ground, makes clay, spreads it on the man's eyes, and sends him to the pool of Siloam (John 9:6-7). The man "went away therefore, and washed, and came seeing" (John 9:7).

The remainder of the chapter is interrogation. The neighbors do not believe it is the same beggar (John 9:8-9). The Pharisees ask how the eyes were opened and divide over whether a Sabbath-breaker can do such signs (John 9:13-16). The man's parents refuse to answer for fear of being put out of the synagogue (John 9:18-23). The man himself is recalled and presses his one fact: "Whether he is a sinner, I don't know: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see" (John 9:25). His argument sharpens: "Never was it heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing" (John 9:32-33). The Pharisees cast him out (John 9:34).

Jesus finds him outside, asks, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" and identifies himself as the one who has spoken with him (John 9:35-37). The man answers, "Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him" (John 9:38). The chapter closes with a saying that turns the whole story inside out: "For judgment I came into this world, that those who don't see may see; and that those who see may become blind. Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and said to him, Are we also blind? Jesus said to them, If you⁺ were blind, you⁺ would have no sin: but now you⁺ say, We see: your⁺ sin stays" (John 9:39-41). Physical sight has become a figure for the spiritual condition the gospel diagnoses.

Eyes Opened by Yahweh

Already in the older narratives, opened eyes are a divine act. "And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water" (Gen 21:19) — Hagar in the wilderness. "Then Yahweh opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of Yahweh standing in the way, with his sword drawn in his hand" (Num 22:31). At Dothan again: "And Elisha prayed, and said, Yahweh, I pray you, open his eyes, that he may see. And Yahweh opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, look, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha" (2 Kgs 6:17). The eyes were never the limit of what was there to be seen.

Spiritual Blindness

Blindness as a figure for unbelief runs from Isaiah's commissioning oracle through the New Testament. To Isaiah Yahweh says, "Go, and tell this people, You⁺ indeed hear, but don't understand; and you⁺ indeed see, but don't perceive. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; or else they will see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed" (Isa 6:9-10). The same oracle returns later: "For Yahweh has poured out on you⁺ the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your⁺ eyes, the prophets; and your⁺ heads, the seers, he has covered" (Isa 29:10). Israel's lament admits the figure: "We grope for the wall like the blind; yes, we grope as those who have no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the twilight" (Isa 59:10).

The Synoptic and Johannine traditions take up the Isaiah oracle. Mark applies it to those outside the parable circle: "so that seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest perhaps they should turn again, and it should be forgiven them" (Mark 4:12). John cites it directly as the explanation for unbelief: "For this cause they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, He has blinded their eyes, and he hardened their heart; Lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, And should turn, And I should heal them" (John 12:39-40).

Paul reads the same hardening into his Israel-and-the-nations argument: "a hardening in part has befallen Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in" (Rom 11:25). The veil over the synagogue reading is the figure he reaches for in Corinthians: "but their minds were hardened. For until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil stays, not being unveiled, because it is in Christ that it is removed. But to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. But upon turning to the Lord, the veil is taken away" (2 Cor 3:14-16). One chapter later he names the agent: "in whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the good news of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn [on them]" (2 Cor 4:4). Ephesians describes the same condition from the side of the Gentiles: "being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart" (Eph 4:18).

The figure surfaces twice more. To churches that boast of their wealth Christ says: "Because you say, I am wealthy, and have become rich, and have need of nothing; and don't know that you are the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked" (Rev 3:17). And from within the believing community John warns that hatred is its own blindness: "But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn't know where he goes, because the darkness has blinded his eyes" (1 John 2:11). The blindness that scripture takes most seriously, in the end, is the kind that does not know it cannot see.