<p>9:8 <i>His neighbours and those that had seen him previously, as a beggar, said: Is this not he that sat and begged?</i>- He &quot;went home&quot; (:7) but perhaps he had not been home for a long time, hence the difficulty in recognizing him. &quot;Neighbours&quot; may well imply 'relatives'. His blindness had cut him off from his family, a situation made worse by all the myths about blindness being a punishment for sin. His cure therefore potentially enabled the re-establishment of relationships within his family, just as it can mean in lives today.</p>