These people knew the man well as the blind beggar of their neighborhood, and now he could see. They could hardly believe it was the same person. Gill says it seems he was not a stranger from the country but "a native of Jerusalem, that had long lived in a certain neighbourhood in it." Barnes notes that his case was "likely to attract attention, and one where there could be no imposture, as he was generally known." Their question mixes wonder with doubt.

The crowd was divided: "Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him" (John 9:9). The man settled it himself: "but he said, I am he." They asked, "How were thine eyes opened?" and he told them that "A man that is called Jesus" made clay, anointed his eyes, and sent him to Siloam (John 9:10-11). When they asked, "Where is he?" he answered, "I know not" (John 9:12). Then they brought him to the Pharisees (John 9:13).

The KJV says those who had seen him knew "that he was blind," while the ESV says they had seen him "as a beggar." The difference comes from the Greek texts. The Textus Receptus behind the KJV reads typhlos, "blind," and later critical texts read prosaites, "beggar." Both describe the same man.

In the Greek, "sat" and "begged" are present participles, "the one sitting and begging," which is why the ESV says he "used to sit and beg."

This question shows how public Jesus' work was. The healing was not done in secret. The people who had seen the blind beggar before were the witnesses that he now saw. The question "Is not this he?" becomes evidence for the miracle.

The man's own answer, "I am he" (John 9:9), is the start of his testimony, which grows through the chapter until he worships Jesus (John 9:38). Matthew Henry writes that those whose eyes are opened by grace, "being known to be the same person, but widely different in character, live as monuments to the Redeemer's glory."