NT Text: John 9:7
OT Source(s):
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Typology (Providential Type, Backward-Looking) + Analogy
Significance: The structural parallel between John 9:7 and 2 Kgs 5:10-13 is remarkably precise: a prophet sends a person with an affliction to wash in water, and obedience to the command results in miraculous healing. Just as Elisha commanded Naaman to "go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored," Jesus commands the blind man to "go, wash in the Pool of Siloam," with the same result — the man comes back healed. The pool's name, "Sent" (Siloam = Shiloah = sent), is almost certainly Johannine wordplay pointing to Jesus as the one "sent" by the Father (John 7:28-29; 9:4), so the obedience to the "sent one's" command by washing in the pool named "Sent" layers Christological significance onto the typological act. The escalation is significant: Naaman was a foreign general healed of leprosy after initial resistance; the blind man obeys immediately and receives not skin restoration but sight — the capacity to see and ultimately to worship Jesus (9:38).