Sin in the Gospel according to John. John seems to understand sin in a way that accents a singular aspect in a way that deserves mention. Words for “sin” occur often in our text: hamartano = “to sin” (9:2, 3; elsewhere in John: 5:14 & 8:11); hamartia = “sin” (9:34, 41); hamartolos = “sinner” (9:16, 24, 25, 31 — all the occurrences in John). The question is does John’s discussion match the discussion of hamartia in the other gospels?
In our passage, the concept of sin will be quickly introduced via the disciples’ question in v.2 : “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” This reflects traditional Jewish speculation on the relationship of illness and sin (cf. 5:14). In 1st century Palestine, people commonly assumed that disease and disorders on both the personal and national level were due to sin, as summarized in the rabbinic saying from around 300 CE that “there is no death without sin and there is no suffering without iniquity” (b. shabbat 55a). Continue reading
Last week there was a bit of an “exchange” between Pope Francis/ Vatican and Donald Trump/his campaign team. Someone asked me what I thought about it all. I had nothing to offer since it is my experience that the press accurately quotes the Pope but then again, any text without a context is generally a pretext for what one wanted to say in the first place. What did the Pope say, in context? The context was following the celebration of Mass at the US-Mexican border while returning to Rome. Keep in mind, this Pope has built his pastoral response to the world around the model of St. Francis’ compassion for the poor, suffering, or marginalized. His response should not have been too surprising. Pope Francis said, a “person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the Gospel. As far as what you said about whether I would advise to vote or not to vote, I am not going to get involved in that. I say only that this man is not Christian if he says things like that. We must see if he said things in that way and in this I give the benefit of the doubt.” 
