<p>9:17 <i>Therefore they said to the man born blind: What do you say concerning him, in that he opened your eyes? And he said: He is a prophet</i>- The Gospel records are full of questions posed about the person and nature of the Lord Jesus. &quot;What do you think about the Christ?... What do you think? Is He worthy of death?... What do you think... about the portrayal of the Father and son in various parables...&quot; (Mt. 21:28; 22:42; 26:66; Jn. 11:56). And we have another example here. In teaching his Gospel, John would have laboured these questions- 'What do <i>you</i> say concerning Him?'. It is hard for some of us to get a second naivet&eacute; and enter into the feelings of a secular person, or a Moslem or Buddhist, as they read the Gospels for the very first time. These questions are powerful, and they would have been powerful to the audiences to which the Gospel records were first read or recited.</p><p>&quot;He is a prophet&quot; was the response of the Samaritan woman (4:19). Miracles were understood as the validation of a prophet (6:14). There was no doubt the man considered that this miracle marked out the Lord as one sent from God. The Pharisees were seeking to elicit the answer &quot;I think He is Messiah&quot; so they could excommunicate him (:22). But the man didn't think that, at this stage. He had no knowledge about the Lord Jesus beyond the fact that He had done a miracle. We see here grace- that the Lord took the initiative to work in a man's life to bring him to faith, before the man had any faith or the knowledge upon which to base faith.</p>