Blind

Blindness in Scripture is treated both as a physical condition and as a powerful spiritual metaphor. Blind beggars appear frequently in the Gospels, often at city gates and roadsides, dependent on charity in a society that had no provision for those unable to work (Matt. 9:27; 20:30; John 5:3). The Mosaic law specifically forbade mistreating the blind and placing stumbling blocks before them (Lev. 19:14; Deut. 27:18), and the prophets included restoration of sight among the signs of the messianic age (Isa. 35:5; 42:7).

Jesus' healing of the blind is one of the most prominent categories of his miraculous ministry, and the Fourth Gospel develops the healing of the man born blind (John 9) as an extended meditation on spiritual sight and blindness. Paul uses blindness as a metaphor for the spiritual condition of those who do not perceive the gospel (2 Cor. 4:4), and the Laodicean church is rebuked for not recognizing its own spiritual blindness (Rev. 3:17). The consistent biblical movement is from physical blindness toward the deeper blindness of unbelief, overcome by the light of divine revelation.