Yohanes 1:48

1:48 Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” Jesus replied, ¹  “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, ²  I saw you.”

Yohanes 9:2

9:2 His disciples asked him, ³  “Rabbi, who committed the sin that caused him to be born blind, this man ⁴  or his parents?” ⁵ 

[1:48]  ¹ tn Grk “answered and said to him.” This is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation to “replied.”

[1:48]  ² sn Many have speculated about what Nathanael was doing under the fig tree. Meditating on the Messiah who was to come? A good possibility, since the fig tree was used as shade for teaching or studying by the later rabbis (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 5:11). Also, the fig tree was symbolic for messianic peace and plenty (Mic 4:4, Zech 3:10.)

[9:2]  ³ tn Grk “asked him, saying.”

[9:2]  ⁴ tn Grk “this one.”

[9:2]  ⁵ tn Grk “in order that he should be born blind.”

[9:2]  sn The disciples assumed that sin (regardless of who committed it) was the cause of the man’s blindness. This was a common belief in Judaism; the rabbis used Ezek 18:20 to prove there was no death without sin, and Ps 89:33 to prove there was no punishment without guilt (the Babylonian Talmud, b. Shabbat 55a, although later than the NT, illustrates this). Thus in this case the sin must have been on the part of the man’s parents, or during his own prenatal existence. Song Rabbah 1:41 (another later rabbinic work) stated that when a pregnant woman worshiped in a heathen temple the unborn child also committed idolatry. This is only one example of how, in rabbinic Jewish thought, an unborn child was capable of sinning.