John 9:38

And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(38) And he said, Lord, I believe.—The title is repeated, but now with the deeper meaning. His half-faith has passed into full conviction. The spiritual education has led him step by step from “the Man that is called Jesus” (John 9:11) to the confession that He is “a prophet” (John 9:17), and that He is “of God” (John 9:33), to the belief that He is the Messiah. It is. the course of a plain man in the honesty of his heart daring to think for himself, and to act upon his convictions. He declines to be silenced by authority, or ensnared in the mazes of argument. The ultimate facts of his own consciousness supply him with a definite foundation of truth, and this is immoveable. The steps by which he advances in knowledge are a striking comment on the promise (John 7:17).

And he worshipped him.—The act of adoration is the necessary expression of his faith in the Son of God. We may not think that he has yet learnt all that this term includes; but he has at least learnt that the Son of God has the attribute of the divine glory, and is the object of human worship. It should be noted that St. John uses the word here rendered “worshipped” only when speaking of the worship of God. (Comp. also John 4:20-24; John 12:20.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:35-38 Christ owns those who own him and his truth and ways. There is particular notice taken of such a suffer in the cause of Christ, and for the testimony of a good conscience. Our Lord Jesus graciously reveals himself to the man. Now he was made sensible what an unspeakable mercy it was, to be cured of his blindness, that he might see the Son of God. None but God is to be worshipped; so that in worshipping Jesus, he owned him to be God. All who believe in him, will worship him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I believe - This was the overflowing expression of gratitude and faith.

And he worshipped him - He did homage to him as the Messiah and as his gracious benefactor. See the notes at Matthew 2:2. This shows:

1. That it is right and natural to express thanks and praise for mercies.

2. All blessings should lead us to pour out our gratitude to Jesus, for it is from him that we receive them.

3. Especially is this true when the mind has been enlightened, when our spiritual eyes have been opened, and we are permitted to see the glories of the heavenly world.

4. It is right to pay homage or worship to Jesus. He forbade it not. He received it on earth, and for all mercies of providence and redemption we should pay to him the tribute of humble and grateful hearts. The Syriac renders the phrase, "he worshipped him," thus:" and, casting himself down, he adored him." The Persian, "and he bowed down and adored Christ." The Arabic, "and he adored him." The Latin Vulgate, "and, falling down, he adored him."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

38. he said, Lord, I believe: and he worshipped him—a faith and a worship, beyond doubt, meant to express far more than he would think proper to any human "prophet" (Joh 9:17)—the unstudied, resistless expression, probably of SUPREME faith and adoration, though without the full understanding of what that implied.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Now is the work of faith with power wrought in his soul: he saith, Lord, I do acknowledge and receive thee as the Son of God; I am fully persuaded that thou art more than what thou art in thy external form and appearance, more than a mere man, and I give up myself to thee, to be ruled and guided by thee. And as a testimony of this, he performed some act of external adoration to him. The word signifies prostration; he kneeled down to him, or he fell upon his face before him: we are not able to determine what particular act or posture of adoration he used; but there is nothing plainer, than that it is to be understood of such a Divine adoration and homage as is due unto God alone, for it was such as testified his faith in him as the Son of God, whom he had professed that he believed him to be, in the words immediately preceding: although therefore the word in the Greek be a word used sometimes to signify that civil respect which men show to their superiors, yet it cannot be so interpreted in this place, considering what went before.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he said, Lord, I believe,.... He immediately found faith in his soul, and that in exercise, moving towards, and acting upon Christ, as the Son of God, and true Messiah, for everlasting life and salvation; and as soon as he did perceive it, he made an open and hearty profession of it:

and he worshipped him: as God, with religious worship and adoration, not only trusting in him, but ascribing honour, glory, and blessing to him, which are due to God only, and not a creature.

Geneva Study Bible

And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 9:38. Ὁδὲ … αὐτῷ. He promptly uttered his belief and “worshipped” Jesus. In this Gospel προσκυνεῖν is used of the worship of God: the word is, however, susceptible of a somewhat lower degree of adoration (Matthew 18:26); but it includes the acknowledgment of supremacy and a complete submission.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

38. Lord, I believe] Or, I believe, Lord: the order is worth keeping. Comp. the centurion’s confession (Matthew 27:54). There is no need to suppose that in either case the man making the confession knew anything like the full meaning of belief in the Son of God: even Apostles were slow at learning that. The blind man had had his own uninformed idea of the Messiah, and he believed that the realisation of that idea stood before him. His faith was necessarily imperfect, a poor ‘two mites;’ but it was ‘all that he had,’ and he gave it readily, while the learned Rabbis of their abundance gave nothing. It is quite gratuitous to suppose that a special revelation was granted to him. There is no hint of this in the narrative, nor can one see why so great an exception to God’s usual dealings with man should have been made.

he worshipped him] This shews that his idea of the Son of God includes attributes of Divinity. The word for ‘worship’ occurs elsewhere in this Gospel only in John 4:20-24 and John 12:20, always of the worship of God.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 9:38. Κύριε, Lord) He now uses this term in a more strict sense than he had used it at verse 36.[264]—προσεκύνησεν, he worshipped) The worship follows spontaneously the recognition of His Divinity. [Jesus nowhere required this worship of any one; it was the spirit of faith that instructed believers to render it.—V. g.]

[264] There simply, Sir; here, Lord.—E. and T.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 38. - And he said, Lord, I believe - the Kyrie means more than in ver. 36 - and he worshipped him. The verb προσκυνεῖν is used by John for homage paid to God (John 4:20; John 12:20; and twenty-three times in the Revelation, always in the sense of "worship"). This prostration, when no prayer was offered, no forgiveness asked, but a simple act of faith exercised, was nothing less than the highest homage the man could pay. The adoration of this man is a fitting climax to the scene (John 8:59), and anticipates that of Thomas (John 20:28). The higher significance of the Sonship dawned upon him in the unearthly tone and manner of the Lord. These scenes, and the offer of Divine homage unrebuked by Jesus and uncommented upon by the evangelist, are among the most potent arguments for the belief of the Church in the Divine nature of the Lord. John 9:38

Vincent's Word Studies

Worshipped (προσεκύνησεν)

See on Acts 10:25.