And Jesus said, for judgment I am come into this
world,
&c.] The Syriac version reads, "for the judgment of this
world I am come"; and with which agrees the Ethiopic version,
"for the judgment of the world I am come into the world"; and the
Arabic and Persic versions still more expressly, "to judge this
world", or "the world, am I come"; which seems contrary to what
Christ elsewhere says, ( John 3:17 ) ( 12:47 ) . Nor is the
sense of the words that Christ came by the judgment of God, or
the order of divine providence, or to administer justice in the
government of the world, in a providential way, or to distinguish
his own people from others, though all these are true; but either
to fulfil the purpose and decree of God in revealing truth to
some, and hiding it from others; or in a way of judgment to
inflict judicial blindness on some, whilst in a way of mercy he
illuminated others. So Nonnus interprets it of (krima yisson) , a twofold "judgment",
which is different the one from the other.
That they which see not, might see;
meaning, not so much corporeally as spiritually, since in the
opposite clause corporeal blindness can have no place; for though
Christ restored bodily sight to many, he never took it away from
any person. The sense is, that Christ came as a light into the
world, that those who are in the darkness of sin, ignorance, and
unbelief, and who are sensible of the same, and desire spiritual
illuminations, as this man did, might see what they are by
nature, what need they stand in of him, and what fulness of
grace, life, righteousness, and salvation, there is in him for
them.
And that they which see might be made blind;
that such who are wise and knowing in their own conceit, who
fancy themselves to have great light and knowledge, to have the
key of knowledge, and to have the true understanding of divine
things, and to be guides of the blind, such as the Scribes and
Pharisees, might be given up to judicial blindness and hardness
of heart, so as to shut their eyes, and harden their hearts
against the Gospel, and the truths of it, and which was in
judgment to them: such different effects Christ and his Gospel
have, as to illuminate and soften some, and blind and harden
others; just as some creatures, as bats and owls, are blinded by
the sun, whilst others see clearly by the light of it; and as
that also has these different effects to soften the wax, and
harden the clay; see ( Isaiah 6:9 ) .