It
was a universal opinion among the Jews that calamities of all kinds were the
effects of sin. The case, however, of this man was that of one that was blind
from his birth, and it was a question which the disciples could not determine
whether it was his fault or that of his parents. Many of the Jews, as it appears
from their writings, believed in the doctrine of the transmigration of souls; or
that the soul of a man, in consequence of sin, might be compelled to pass into
other bodies, and be punished there. They also believed that an infant might sin
before it was born, and that consequently this blindness might have come upon
the child as a consequence of that. It was also a doctrine with many that the
crime of the parent might be the cause of deformity in the child, particularly
the violation of the command in Leviticus 20:18. - Albert Barnes
It
was a universal opinion among the Jews that calamities of all kinds were the
effects of sin. The case, however, of this man was that of one that was blind
from his birth, and it was a question which the disciples could not determine
whether it was his fault or that of his parents. Many of the Jews, as it appears
from their writings, believed in the doctrine of the transmigration of souls; or
that the soul of a man, in consequence of sin, might be compelled to pass into
other bodies, and be punished there. They also believed that an infant might sin
before it was born, and that consequently this blindness might have come upon
the child as a consequence of that. It was also a doctrine with many that the
crime of the parent might be the cause of deformity in the child, particularly
the violation of the command in Leviticus 20:18. - Albert Barnes