John 9:22

had agreed It does not appear when; but we are probably to understand an informal agreement among themselves rather than a decree of the Sanhedrin. A formal decree would be easily obtained afterwards. The word for -agreed" is used of the agreement with Judas (Luke 22:5, where it is translated -covenanted"), and of the agreement of the Jews to kill S. Paul (Acts 23:20), and nowhere else. -Assented" in Acts 24:9 is a different compound of the same verb.

that if any man Literally, in order that if any man:what they agreed upon is represented as the purposeof their agreement. See on John 9:2, and John 8:56.

put out of the synagogue i.e. excommunicated. The Jews had three kinds of anathema. (1) Excommunication for thirty days, during which the excommunicated might not come within four cubits of any one. (2) Absolute exclusion from all intercourse and worship for an indefinite period. (3) Absolute exclusion for ever; an irrevocable sentence. This third form was very rarely if ever used. It is doubtful whether the second was in use at this time for Jews; but it would be the ban under which all Samaritans were placed. This passage and -separate" in Luke 6:22 probably refer to the first and mildest kind of anathema. The principle of all anathema was found in the Divine sentence on Meroz (Judges 5:23): Comp. Ezra 10:8. The word for -out of the synagogue" is peculiar to S. John, occurring John 12:42; John 16:2, and nowhere else.