Confirmation Bias in the Bible (John 9)

Hey, Scott, what brings you into the pharmacy?

I'm thinking about getting one of the updated COVID -19 vaccines.

Great. Do you know which type of vaccine you'd like? There's more than one? Yep, there are different types of vaccines available. You can learn more about them at wedovaccines .com. If you have questions or want to make an appointment, give me a call.

What was that website again? Wedovaccines .com. Thanks, I'll check it out. This message was brought to you by Novavax.

Okay, round two. Name something that's not boring. Laundry? Ooh, a book club. Computer solitaire, huh? Ah, sorry, we were looking for Chumba Casino. Ch-ch-ch-ch-chumba. That's right, chumbacasino .com has over 100 casino-style games.

Join today and play for free for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. Ch-ch-ch-ch-chumba. Chumbacasino .com. No purchases necessary. Full word. Believed in by law.

18 plus terms and conditions apply. See website for details. One, two, three. Welcome to The Rap Report with your host, Andrew Rappaport, where we provide biblical interpretation and application. This is a ministry of Striving for Eternity and the Christian Podcast Community.

For more content or to request a speaker for your church, go to strivingforeternity .org.

Well welcome to another edition of The Rap Report. I am your host, Andrew Rappaport, the Executive Director of Striving for Eternity and the Christian Podcast Community, of which this podcast is a member.

And I am joined by my trusty co-host, Bud? Wait, you're not Bud? What did you do with Bud? You're that character from that other podcast, Voice of Reason Radio, aren't you?

Well, you know, Bud and I had a bet and I lost, so I'm here.

Chris Honhols from Voice of Reason Radio has crashed the studios here and taken over for Bud. I don't know. That's not a good thing. Someone call 911. Is Bud okay? I don't think anybody can take over for Bud.

Yeah, we better check on Bud. He must be not doing well. No, Bud's computer was out of commission, but he will be back hopefully by the next recording. And so Chris is filling in, and we're going to actually go through a chapter of scripture, John chapter 9.

So quickly, if you are not driving, open your Bibles. We're giving you time to do that. To John chapter 9, we're going to go through that and do some hermeneutics. Oh, wait, wait. We should play that clip.

If you have not listened to my other podcast, Apologetics Live, you're missing things. And one of the things you could be missing is, well, people that do say things like this. This was a classic.

Can you show me, because we're going to use some hermeneutics, can you show me anywhere in the Old Testament where that word perpetual is not perpetual? Because again, I understand you're appealing, again, talking about God's laws, where any of God's laws...

Hold on, hold on. Wait a minute. I thought I was going to get to have a talk here. You asked a question. Hang on a second, sir.

Be quiet now. Hang on a second. Well, there you go. I will mute you because it's not your show. You asked a question. I'm going to give you the answer. Genesis 6 -4, the word olam is used, referring to those who are of old.

Deuteronomy, I'll just rattle off all the ones where it's used, not referring to perpetual. Genesis 6 -4, Deuteronomy 32 -7, Joshua 24 -2, 1 Samuel 27 -8, Job 22 -15, Psalm 12 -9, Deuteronomy 24 -7, 24 -9, 25 -6, 41 -13, 77 -9, 90 -2, 103 -17, 106 -48, 119 -52, 43 -3, Proverbs 8 -23, Proverbs 22 -28, Proverbs 23 -10, and Ecclesiastes 1 -10.

Should I go on for more?

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I love that clip. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We're going to do some humaneudics. Well, yeah, we did some humaneudics there, sure, and we realized that olam doesn't say what you try to make it say. But we're going to do some humaneudics here today, and we're going to go through John 9 and look at some things.

We're going to actually look at a logical fallacy today. We're going to get to that and what that is, and that we're going to see why we're going to do this. Well, because you're going to find that this is extremely helpful in your dealing with people when you are talking with them, because what we're going to deal with, you see all the time.

You see it on the news. You see it in your own life. It is that common, and we're going to take a look at that. But before we do, Mr. Hanholds is here, and so let me give you a chance to give a plug for Voice of Reason Radio and your blog that you do.

Thanks, Andrew.

I actually do appreciate being here. Andrew hit me up with this yesterday, and I was very grateful to be included. Thank you for bringing me on. Voice of Reason Radio is basically myself and Richard Story.

We've been doing it for about six and a half years, and the intent of the program is twofold. We always want to seek to glorify God, number one, and number two, edify the saints in some way. So what we do is, the reason it's called Voice of Reason Radio is that there is only one voice of reason, and that's the Word of God.

That's what we have to filter everything through. So everything in your walk, everything in your life should be drawn from the basis of scripture, what decisions you make, how you live, what you say, what you do, how you practice your faith, how you share your faith.

All of that needs to come from the scriptures, and our hope is that we can point people back to that. We talk about a variety of things. We may talk about topics of the day, or we may, as we have the last couple episodes, take time to just kind of go through scripture and talk about some theological issues.

Just this last episode, we talked about contending for the faith, going through the book of Jude, and talking about those that come in unaware to the rest of the body, bringing in divisive teachings, but they seem just Christian enough to maybe they're true, but they are very destructive.

And so we spent some time doing that. So that's our hope for the program, is that those who hear it and listen to it are built up in the faith and are encouraged to go back into the Word and study and be equipped to do the work that God has given us to do.

So you can find that on pretty much any podcast app of your choice. You just look for Voice of Reason Radio, or as we have pointed out on our program, you can just go to Striving for Eternity's Christian Podcast Community podcast feed, plug that in, and get a whole bunch of other shows, including this one, on the podcast community feed, and you get to listen to a lot of great podcasts.

Our website is slave2theking .com. We have pretty much our one-stop shop there. That's how you get in touch with us. That's how you get your emails to us. That's how you follow us on social media. And occasionally we do add articles on there.

I'm trying to be a little bit more disciplined in my writing and reading time, a little bit more disciplined. Time discipline is an issue for me. I truly admit this. But that's where you'll find if we're putting out new content, that's where you're going to be able to find it.

So we encourage you to go to the website and then sign up as a follower of the website because you'll get updated information as new podcasts come out, new articles come out, because we all know that even though Elon Musk said he was going to buy Twitter, that doesn't seem to be happening, and they're kicking people off again, or shutting us down.

So I really recommend, you know, get the email set up. So that's our plug.

And your co-host has brilliantly I mean, I can't let this go without playing one of the clips from him, but we get brilliant

You can't do that when I'm about to take a drink of water. I know. I know.

I know where this is going. Take your sip because we don't know which one of these we're going to play. But this is my favorite from your co-host here on boxing. Here we go.

Well, I've said this before and I still stick to it now. Over the last 10 years off and on, when it comes to ministry versus boxing, boxing is far less violent.

You know, he is more right you know, I was with a pastor this past week, and he and I were chatting, and he, like myself, does a lot of counseling with other pastors, and we both were talking about the fact that right now, I don't know what is going on, but ever since this whole thing with COVID and the elections and everything else, I have been counseling more pastors than ever before that are being abused by their congregants.

I mean, slandered and just mistreated. We just we both had noticed it, and we're not 100 sure. Like, we can't it's like, don't know what's going on, but there's definitely something. So it is so I would agree, ministry is far more violent, unfortunately, than boxing.

But then, you know, I haven't played this one in a while. I actually don't remember this, but I just see it as Voice of Reason Radio calls out Andrew about buying Matt Slick, and I can't read the rest of it.

So let's find out what this was that was said. Hmm.

Andrew is a master manipulator, master planner, master you know, whatever it is he's going to do, because he knows well in advance how he's going to twist you up in circles and then try to make it look like it was your fault.

So just ask Matt Slick. Ask Matt Slick. That poor guy is getting no mercy from Andrew, since Andrew's been out there this week. Out there in Idaho, they were ministering to the Mormon community out there.

And poor Matt can't even buy dinner without Andrew mocking him, saying, I beat you to it, and putting him on video to do it.

Poor Matt, he got a meal. And by the way, he got me back.

Okay, but that was well before that ever happened. This was before Matt got you back on your own show, by the way. That was epic. That was epic. That was epic. I watched that happen.

Apologetics Live. Episode 100. We're trying to do a special with all these apologists. Poor Dr. Jason Lyle is trying to explain why apologetics is important to him, and I'm rushing off because I'm finding that Matt had a meal delivered to me, and he can't help but to cut off poor Jason Lyle and gloat.

That is true. Go back to episode 100 of Apologetics Live. That was beautiful to watch. I'm just saying. That was poetry. He got you good on that one. I'm glad you enjoy it, because this weekend I am going to be getting together with a friend of ours, Dr. James White.

Oh, no. I don't know what he and I may plan for you, my friend. Something, something. I'm sure we'll have something. Now, folks, to my audience, just know that I have just ruined Chris's week. All week long, he is now going to be thinking, what is going to happen come Sunday?

Just be watching his Twitter. You're going to see a depression is going to set in. I'll just get quiet. I'll just shut it down again. Who knows what, with Dr. White and I combined together, our combined forces, that would be like Batman and Superman getting together or something.

It's more like Wonder Twin Powers activate, but okay. Yeah, I don't get that one at all, but all right.

So let us dive into John 9. So, folks, we gave you plenty of time to get your Bibles out. Obviously not. If you're driving, we gave you time to pull over to the side of the road because you're going to want to follow along.

And if you're on the freeway, get off the freeway before you pull over. Well, that might be good.

I've seen. Well, okay. I haven't actually seen the way people drive in Nevada with Mr. Chris, but okay.

If you don't want to get killed here, it's Nevada. I'm just warning you, we don't like Nevada. Don't call it Nevada. You come here and say that, you will be ridden out on a rail. I'm warning. I'm just giving you fair warning.

People that get all picky about their state, people in Oregon, they don't want Oregon, it's Oregon. Like that thing that you have in your body, it's an organ, a heart organ. But, you know, I come from Jersey.

We're the armpit of New York. Okay. I mean, everyone thinks we go Jersey. No, that's how the New Yorkers talk. No one in Jersey says Jersey. It's the New Yorkers that come and invade our state and ruin everything about us.

But that all aside, I do know that the drivers in your state are, well, I know that you, you know, when you're talking to me and you're recording in your car and it's just you're always telling me someone's cutting you off.

So, yeah, take advice from Mr. Hanholds and pull over. All right, let's go. So, we're going to play, you know, I haven't played this clip in a long time, but we used to do this as a segment, and I'm going to play this clip so we can talk about a fallacy.

Fallacy. So, we're going to name a fallacy that we're going to see in Scripture called confirmation bias. And John chapter 9 is probably one of the clearest examples of confirmation bias that I could think of.

And there may be others. Maybe you'll find one that's better and you'll email us and let us know. And so, and you can email us at info at striving for eternity dot o r g. That's info at striving for eternity dot o r g.

And so, I should announce, though, with that is that we did get from the last episode I did with Eric Johnson. You know, I don't know about you, Chris, but you can always tell when someone on your show, you or someone else says something wrong because that gets the emails.

So, some people didn't like that Eric, who was talking about Mormons, you know, gave what they seemed as more of an evidential argument. And, you know, he at one point, I guess, mentioned something about, you know, just granting that, you know, Mormons are like granting that.

I think it was like atheism was true. I forget now. But he said something where they just are like, oh, he's an evidentialist. He actually really isn't. And they didn't like the fact that he edited the book that I worked on with him and many others by Sean McDowell.

And, oh, Sean's an evidentialist. Okay, well, it doesn't mean everything Sean does is wrong. And I'm not exactly sure that Eric is an evidentialist. I actually haven't talked to him about that. So, I should just clarify that since, you know, that got people's ires up.

Yeah, man, people online, you know, they let you know when they disagree with you. But you can also let us know if you actually agree with us, too. Just saying, that would be nice to read some of those.

But if you find a better passage...

It'd be nice to read emails in general, but some of us don't get those.

Hey, if you want my hate mail, I'll be happy to forward it over to you.

That's okay. That's okay. I don't need my email. It's a crash. Thank you.

So, we're going to look through John chapter 9. I will read here in the New American Standard Version. That's what I happen to have up here. And so, I'm going to just walk through this. And what I want to do is, we want to go through what the text is saying and look at confirmation bias.

And this is... Confirmation bias is when you start with a conclusion and you only accept information or evidence that supports the conclusion. So, anytime you get something that doesn't support the conclusion, you throw that out.

Let me give you some examples, quick examples of confirmation bias, before we get to the text, so that you can see how this is in everyday life. You start talking to someone and they're arguing for evolution.

You deny evolution. You give them evidence that evolution is not true. And what they end up doing is ignoring the evidence. So, you talk about the fact that, well, the salt levels in the ocean. Maybe you don't know this, but the oceans get a little bit saltier every year.

And if the earth really was millions of years old, well, the oceans would be so salty you could walk on it. In fact, you go to the Dead Sea where it's a heavy salt content and you can't drown. And that's a heavy salt content that would fill the oceans.

There would be a Dead Sea everywhere in the oceans, if the earth was millions of years old. The moon is actually pulling away from the earth a couple of inches every year. If the earth, and by the way, that kind of affects climate.

Just saying, we can't control the moon. But if the moon really was millions of years old on the earth, the moon wouldn't be so close to us. There's things like that that we could look at. And what do people do?

They just ignore that and then look for things to give their conclusions. Now, you could see it in politics. Right now, you can really see it in politics. It's really simple. Here's the solution to everything you see on the news.

Trump is wrong. I mean, right? Chris, am I wrong with this? It's like right now, it's Trump's fault for the immigration policies, which I'm like going, how is that Trump's fault?

Yeah, no, that's absolutely correct. I mean, we do see it a lot. And it's even so much to go to the effect of actually reinterpreting what's been presented to you. As not only is it not your evidence anymore, they've taken it, twisted it, and made it into something that's now their evidence.

So when you point out, for example, inflation, and you say this is a result of current policies, what they'll do is then say, oh, look, in this month, there was the inflation. Well, it didn't drop, but it didn't grow either.

So now inflation is 0%. So it's not only just ignoring the evidence in front of you, but it's actually taking the existing evidence that you've just talked about, and it's reinterpreting it in a fallacious way, so as to make it sound like it actually supports their position.

And we see that going on with the government right now.

You mean like redefining what a recession is? Giving a new definition? Oh, right. Or redefining what a vaccine is to fit something that's not really a vaccine. Oh, no, that could never happen.

Well, they would have to have defined recession to redefine it. They just rejected the recession definition and never gave one. Good point.

Valid point. So here's something that I do on the streets, and you may find this helpful if you're talking with someone, especially that they say they're an atheist, and you want to set this up ahead of time.

This is what I do. I remember the first time I did this was at the Reason Rally. Reason Rally is a big atheist rally where they try to show that they're a political force to be dealt with. And I was talking to a gentleman, and I told him that he wanted me to give him a reasonable argument for the earth being only 6 ,000 years old.

I said I'd be happy to do it. His name was Carl, I believe. And I said, but the problem is, Carl, that you have confirmation bias. And so no matter what I say, you're going to ignore all the evidence I give that doesn't support your conclusion, and you will only accept the evidence that supports your conclusion.

He says, no, no, no, I would never do that. I said, yes, you will. And so what I did was I said, listen, before I give you the evidence, I want to show you what you are going to look like to me. And so I said, would you do a little thought experiment with me?

He said, sure. I said, okay. I know for a fact, actually, I first asked him his name, and it was Carl. I asked where he was born. He said, Ohio, if I remember correctly. I asked how old he was. He was like in his 30s.

I said, well, you say that, but I know for a fact that your actual name is Steve. You were born in Italy in 1915. Prove that I'm wrong. And he laughed. And he says, look at my wallet. I said, what am I going to find there?

He says, you'll find my driver's license. I said, yes, so? He says, well, it has my age on it. I said, I had a fake one of those when I was 18. I said, I asked you for evidence. He said, well, you can look at my birth certificate.

I said, birth certificate? And remember, this was back when Barack Obama was president. But I said, even Barack Obama has a fake one of those, which he actually laughed at. He said, well, talk to my parents.

I said, Steve, because I was in role play here. I said, Steve, they've been lying to you your whole life. Do you think they're going to tell you the truth now? And he goes, you're being ridiculous. And I said, good.

I said, because I want you to see what you're going to look like to me when I start giving you evidence. Because when I give you evidence, what you're going to do is you're going to do exactly that. The first thing you're going to do is reject the evidence.

Then when I give you more evidence, you're going to start to insult me. And then when that doesn't work, you're going to walk away. And so I start giving him evidence. He started rejecting it. I told him, and I called him Steve on purpose.

I said, Steve, I told you you would reject this. He started to insult me. I started calling him Steve and said, Steve, I told you the second stage is you're going to insult me. He then walked away telling me I wasn't worth his time.

And as he's walking away, I shouted, Steve, remember I told you you would walk away. It's predictable. That is the same pattern we're going to see here in John 9. So Chris, actually, would you mind reading John 9 for us?

Yeah. I'll do my best Virgil and go with the elect standard version here. Okay. I can switch to that. John 9. As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

Jesus answered, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work.

As long as I am in the world. Oops. Oh, excuse me. I flipped my page the wrong way. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva.

Then he anointed the man's eyes with mud and said to him, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means scent. So he went and washed and came back seeing. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, is this not the man who used to sit and beg?

Some said, it is he. Others said, no, but he is like him. He kept saying, I am the man. So they said to him, then how were your eyes opened? He answered, the man called Jesus, made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, go to Siloam and wash.

So I went and washed and received my sight. They said to him, where is he? He said, I do not know. They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.

So the Pharisees once again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, he put mud on my eyes and I washed and I see. Some of the Pharisees said, this man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.

But others said, how can a man who is a sinner do such signs? And there was a division among them. So they said again to the blind man, what do you say about him since he has opened your eyes? He said, he is a prophet.

The Jews did not believe that he had been born blind, had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who received his sight and asked them, is this your son who you say was born blind?

How then does he now see? His parents answered, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees, we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him, he is of age, he will speak for himself.

His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, he is of age, ask him.

So for the second time, they called the man who had been born blind and said to him, give glory to God, we know that this man is a sinner. He answered, whether he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know, though I was blind, now I see.

They said to him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered them, I have told you already and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?

And they reviled him saying, you are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from. The man answered, why, this is an amazing thing.

You do not know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.

If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. They answered him, you were born in utter sin, and you would teach us? And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him, he said, do you believe in the Son of Man?

He answered, and who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, you have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you. He said, Lord, I believe, and he worshipped him. Jesus said, for judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.

Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, are we also blind? Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say we see, your guilt remains.

Thank you for that. Now, this is something that when you read Scripture, we often make a mistake of, well, just doing that, reading Scripture. What I mean is, that's all we do. We read it, well, it's our devotion, so let's open our Bible, read our chapter, or three chapters, or whatever you have as your devotional time, if you have a plan, and you read, and then you go about your day.

What we want to encourage you to do is interact with the Bible. Don't just read your Bible, but think through it, interact with it. That's what we're going to do in this show with you. So this is just after everything that Chris just read, and I did like the way he emphasized certain things, that was good.

But this is right after Jesus says to the Jewish leaders, Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am. And they pick up stones to stone him. He hid himself, went out from the temple. And right after this is chapter 10.

And in chapter 10 is where he is going to say, The Father and I are one. And again, they're going to pick up stones to stone him. He's going to ask for what good works do you stone me? And they say, Not for any good works, but you being a man, claim to be God.

So they're going to recognize what he actually says about himself. But we're looking at chapter 9 with the idea of what is this confirmation bias? Now this is something that we see in this text. The Pharisees clearly have a confirmation bias.

Chris, what is their confirmation bias that we see?

They've already determined in their own minds that there's no way Jesus can be the Christ. That's right.

And with confirmation bias, it doesn't matter what evidence they have, if it doesn't support their conclusion, they ignore the evidence. As we look through this, and you see this, we see that Jesus heals a man born blind.

Why is it mentioned that he's born blind? Well, because the text says that no one has ever healed a person that's born blind. So the whole emphasis here is this is something only God can do. Right after John chapter 8, where Jesus claims to be the I Am, he's claiming that he's God.

He now heals a blind man in a way that only God can get the credit for it. And their conclusion is still he can't be Messiah. Right? Sorry, that evidence doesn't fit our conclusion. That's what confirmation bias is.

So Jesus heals this man, and one of the things that, you know, Jesus told him to go and wash himself, but being blind, what he should do is, he's now known as being a guy who's begging. Everyone sees this guy.

He's no longer begging. He's presenting himself to the community where they see him, and people are going, that looks like the guy that was born blind. No, he just looks like him. Right? Not sure if it's actually him.

Well, remember, as this text says, Chris, what was the threat if anybody named Jesus as the Christ? They would be put out of the synagogue. Yeah. Could that be a fear for people to be like, oh, maybe that just looks like the guy.

It's not really the guy.

Well, and imagine at the same time, I mean, how often do you pay attention to the beggar on the street corner? This is not somebody that they really probably spent most time being too concerned about.

So not only do they have the justifiable reason culturally, but also they were like, maybe? I don't know. So you've got two things working against them. They've barely ever paid attention to this guy.

And number two, man, if we say anything, yeah, I'm just going to go with my aunt on this one.

Yeah. I mean, if you're going to be thrown out of the synagogue, maybe we'll just take the safe side. I mean, because the synagogue within the Jewish culture, especially at that time, is everything. I mean, that's the center of society.

This is where you got all your education. This is where you got, you know, it was kind of like the town hall. It's where everyone went. And so to be thrown out of the synagogue is basically be thrown out of the town.

So what we end up seeing in verse 13 is they brought this blind man to the Pharisees. And this is, the Pharisees would be the ones to identify that he is, you know, has been healed. But what's the issue is that Jesus did this on the Sabbath.

Now, did he break the Sabbath? No. He broke their man-made laws that they added to the Sabbath, but he didn't break God's law for the Sabbath. And that becomes a major difference. So he ended up doing this on the Sabbath.

And what do you do? He just, he made clay. He ends up taking some clay and putting it on the guy's eyes. That's really work? Not so much. Because he wasn't like a bricklayer where that would be his work, right?

But the issue is he heals a man on the Sabbath. And so they talked to this person. They gather his story that he applied the clay to the eyes, and then he was, he washed it off. And verse 16, therefore, some of the Pharisees were saying, this man is not from God because he does not keep the Sabbath.

That is the confirmation bias, right? Jesus just did something that only God can do, and their response is to find some way to ignore the evidence in front of them for the conclusion that they already hold to.

That's how this ends up working. And that's exactly what you see here. I mean, it starts off right away with the fact of saying that their conclusion is how they're going to interpret facts, evidence.

And in their case, they're going to ignore the evidence for their perceived ideas, perceived conclusion. Okay? And like we said, you will see this all the time, folks. But when you engage with Scripture, don't just read this, but think through what they're doing.

Think through what is going on here. These guys have their power structure in being the Pharisees. If Jesus is the Christ and he's been condemning the Pharisees' behavior, that upsets the apple cart. Then all of the authority goes to Jesus and not them, and they don't quite like that.

People in power like to stay in power. You know, just saying. But what you end up seeing is that they would prefer their power structure. And so, you know, some will recognize that no one's ever opened the eyes of the blind.

Right? Verse 17. So they said to the blind man, what do you say about him since he opened your eyes? And so the man says he's a prophet. Well, that's the right response. But what are they doing? They're putting it on him.

Right? This is kind of like the, you know, he could plead the fifth, right? We have a fifth amendment in America where you can't indict yourself. That's actually biblical. It's a biblical principle that where America got that from.

But that's the thing that this guy ends up saying, though. He says, no, he's a prophet. Now saying that means that he could be thrown out of the temple. He seemed to be okay with that. And so what do they do?

Well, they didn't get the answer they wanted. It says in verse 18, the Jews did not believe it of him that he had been blind and received a sight. So what do they do? I mean, they just ignore the fact that he really wasn't blind.