JOHN 9: A LITERARY-CRITICAL ANALYSIS* JAMES L. RESSEGUIE C.H. Dodd refers to John 9 as "one of the most brilliant passages in the gospel." The imagery, the structure, the movement of the plot, and the characterisation all work together to form a tightly knit narrative. The narrative has been carefully shaped so that everything it shows serves to tell. The purpose of this paper is to show how the form and content of John 9 are closely woven together to form a unity. The chapter may be divided into seven scenes with each scene containing a dialogue between two characters or sets of characters. In scene 1, the dialogue occurs between the disciples and Jesus; in scene 2, the blind man and his neighbours; in scenes 3 and 5, the blind man and the religious authorities; in scene 4, the religious authorities and the parents of the blind man; in scene 6, Jesus and the blind man; and in scene 7, the authorities and Jesus. SCENE l: VV. 1-7 The opening scene introduces a blind man and two other characters, Jesus and the disciples. If we compare the structure of chapter 9 with other healing stories in the Gospel, we see that this chapter does not conform to the basic form of other similar stories. John 9 departs from the structural pattern of the other stories in one significant way: the characterisation of the healed man is fully developed. In John 5, for example, a lame man at the pool of Bethzatha is healed by Jesus; yet within the miracle story itself there is no attempt by the narrator to develop the character of the lame man. Only once does the lame man speak, and that is in response to a question by Jesus. The blind man of chapter 9, however, not only speaks in 13 of 41 verses, but he uses irony and sarcasm, and he even takes the initiative to lecture the religious authorities on some basic theological insights. Unlike any other healing story of the Gospel of John, the blind • This article first appeared in Gros Louis, K. (ed) Literary Interpretations of Biblical Narratives. Vol.II. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1982). James L. Resseguie - 9789004379879 Downloaded from Brill.com01/26/2021 10:47:57PM by james.resseguie1@gmail.com via James Resseguie