This is Scripture Roundtable 114 from The Interpreter Foundation, in which we discuss the New Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson #16, “I Was Blind, Now I See,” focusing on scriptures in John 9-10, bringing in various insights to help us better understand the scriptures. These roundtables will generally follow the 2015 Gospel Doctrine schedule of scriptures, a few weeks ahead of time.
Panelists for this roundtable are Robert White, Jeff Bradshaw, Cassandra Hedelius, Daniel Peterson, and Craig Foster.
This roundtable is also available as an audio podcast, and will be included in the podcast feed. You can listen by pressing the play button or download the podcast below:
Podcast: Download (Duration: 54:24 — 18.7MB)
I, too, appreciate your insights and use them in preparing for my class. We had a brief discussion in the class about how the parents of the blind man responded to the Pharisees view of the miracle. After class one of the students pointed out to me that the depiction of that event in the new bible videos contradicted what I read in the scriptures and Brother Peterson’s commentary on the subject. Are you aware of the videos producer’s artistic license ultimately painting a different picture than what actually appears in the scriptures?
Thank you for your comments at the beginning of this broadcast about how the blind man could have sinned before he was born. I had wondered in class today if there were some ancient Israelite belief in a pre-existence and asked how this man could have been seen to have sinned before he was born and got no answer. I felt sure that this verse pointed in that direction and matched with the beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Re: the necessity of inferring a pre-mortal existence based on John 9:2, quoting from the website “Lumina” https://lumina.bible.org/bible/John+9: “Thus in this case the sin must have been on the part of the man’s parents, or during his own prenatal existence. Song Rabbah 1:41 (another later rabbinic work) stated that when a pregnant woman worshiped in a heathen temple the unborn child also committed idolatry. This is only one example of how, in rabbinic Jewish thought, an unborn child was capable of sinning.” So existence prior to conception is not the only conclusion that can be drawn.
If that was the conclusion, however, it seems that the question asked by the disciples in John 9:2 would be meaningless because the sin of a child in the womb would have to be the sin of the parent as well, so who committed the sin is not an either/or situation.
I have been listening to these discussions for the past 2-3 months and find them insightful and helpful in preparing to deliver lessons in gospel doctrine. I wish to thank all involved for the time spent and scholarship and testimony given. One complaint: Sister Hedelius, in every discussion which I have heard, has some kind of technical glitch that gives a lot of reverb when she speaks. I have listened on two different machines and it is the same on both. None of the others involved have manifested this. I have no idea if anything can be done. Thanks again for your work and please don’t stop.