The Clay of Eden and the Clay of Siloe: The Maker Finishes His Work on the Sabbath
Old Testament: Genesis 2:7
And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
Old Testament, also: Genesis 2:2
And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made: and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.
New Testament: John 9:6-7, 14
When he had said these things, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and spread the clay on his eyes, And said to him: Go, wash in the pool of Siloe, which is interpreted, Sent. He went therefore, and washed, and he came seeing. ... Now it was the sabbath, when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.
The connection
In the beginning God made man with His own hands. "The Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). Then the work was finished, and "on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made: and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done" (Genesis 2:2). St John tells of a man "blind from his birth" (John 9:1). The disciples ask whose sin it was, and Christ answers: "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him" (John 9:3). Then, with no word of healing, "he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and spread the clay on his eyes", and sent the man to "the pool of Siloe, which is interpreted, Sent" (John 9:6-7). Only afterwards does St John name the day: "Now it was the sabbath, when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes" (John 9:14). St Irenaeus saw what the clay meant. Christ healed this man "not by means of a word, but by an outward action", that He might "show forth the hand of God, that which at the beginning had moulded man." For "the work of God is the fashioning of man", and "that which the artificer, the Word, had omitted to form in the womb", He "then supplied in public". The hands that took up earth in Eden take up earth again, and finish a man. The Catechism keeps the same teaching of St Irenaeus, that the Son and the Holy Ghost are the hands with which the Father fashioned man (CCC 704). And He did it on the Sabbath, the day that keeps the memory of God's rest from His making. Some of the Pharisees saw only work on a forbidden day: "This man is not of God, who keepeth not the sabbath" (John 9:16). St John Chrysostom saw the opposite: "the manner of the creation was enough to indicate the Lord and Owner of the law." Christ had already said, "My Father worketh until now; and I work" (John 5:17). He did not despise the holiness of the day (CCC 2173). St Augustine says He kept it best of all, "in that He was without sin; for to observe the sabbath spiritually, is to have no sin."
Moral sense
St Augustine reads the miracle as the road every believer walks. "He made clay of His spittle; for the Word was made flesh." The man was anointed and still could not see. He had to go to Siloe, and there, washing in the pool called Sent, "he was baptized in Christ". So the anointed blind man is the soul that has begun to believe and must still go and be washed. Isaias gives that soul its prayer: "we are clay: and thou art our maker, and we all are the works of thy hands" (Isaias 64:8). The man went on a word alone, before he could see anything, and came back seeing. And he had not been born blind for a sin, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. What is missing in us is not proof that the Maker has forgotten His work. It may be the very place He means to finish it.
Anagogical sense
The man's sight grew by stages. First Christ was "That man that is called Jesus" (John 9:11), then "a prophet" (John 9:17), and at the last, "I believe, Lord. And falling down, he adored him" (John 9:38). At the end the Maker's work will be complete. "There remaineth therefore a day of rest for the people of God" (Hebrews 4:9), a Sabbath no labour can break, and those formed from the earth "shall see his face" (Apocalypse 22:4). "Night shall be no more" (Apocalypse 22:5), for He who said "I am the light of the world" (John 9:5) will be their light for ever.
The Fathers
St Irenaeus, Against Heresies V.15.2: "To that man, however, who had been blind from his birth, He gave sight, not by means of a word, but by an outward action; doing this not without a purpose, or because it so happened, but that He might show forth the hand of God, that which at the beginning had moulded man." And: "Now the work of God is the fashioning of man." St Augustine, Tractates on John XLIV: "He made clay of His spittle; for the Word was made flesh." And: "he washed his eyes in that pool which is interpreted, Sent—he was baptized in Christ." St John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew, on Matthew 12:9-10: "the manner of the creation was enough to indicate the Lord and Owner of the law."
Warrant
Patristic. St Irenaeus draws the type in so many words in Against Heresies V.15.2-3: the clay shows "the hand of God, that which at the beginning had moulded man", the Word supplies in public the eyes He had not formed in the womb, and the washing at Siloe is the laver of regeneration. St Augustine reads the clay as the Word made flesh and the pool as Baptism in Christ (Tractates on John XLIV, also in the Catena on John 9), and says Christ kept the Sabbath spiritually. St John Chrysostom, preaching on Matthew 12:9-10, says the manner of the creation showed the Lord of the Law. Checked in the languages: the link is not one shared word. The Septuagint of Genesis 2:7 says God formed, eplasen, man of dust, choun, and the Vulgate has de limo terrae, while St John's clay is pelos, the Vulgate's lutum. Job joins the two: "thou hast made me as the clay" (Job 10:9) is pelon me eplasas in the Septuagint, St John's noun with the verb of Genesis 2:7, and Isaias 64:8 sets pelos beside "the works of thy hands". The Vulgate has lutum in Job, Isaias and John alike, and St Irenaeus's own text read Genesis as clay taken from the earth. In the Septuagint of Genesis 2:2 God finishes ta erga autou, His works, and rests on the seventh day; at John 9:3-4 Christ speaks of ta erga tou theou, the works of God, and of the works of Him that sent Him. Two links are the site's own rather than the Fathers': no Father in the site's corpora sets Genesis 2:2 beside John 9:14 in so many words, though St John Chrysostom and John 5:17 join the healing to the Creator's work; and CCC 704 speaks of the hands of God in general, not of this miracle. The lead was Dunk's, from asking the context of John 9:14.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 704.
The verses
Genesis 2:7 · Genesis 2:2 · John 9:6 · John 9:7 · John 9:14
