October 8th, 2009
47 And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.
39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
To get the full picture of both tales, you must read a bit more into it. In John 12, we find that Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees. Some of them do not believe in him, while some believe him but will not say so because they fear getting kicked out of the synagogue. He makes the statement that he did not come to judge the world while God is the one doing the judging.
Jesus says in one verse prior that if we’ve seen him, we’ve seen the one who sent him, implying that they are one and the same. In this instance, either he is God and he’s lying, or is he isn’t God and he could be telling the truth in this instance.
Upon reading John 9:35-41, we find that Jesus is speaking of spiritual blindness while referring to those who do not know the truth, and those who know the truth but deny it. He specifically states that he came into this world for judgment. He doesn’t specifically use the words judge the world, but the word judge is still used in such an open-ended fashion that it can be understood as the judgment of all.
Some may argue that these passages are referring to two completely different kinds of judgement. However, evaluation of the original Greek reveals the words used for judgment are both from the root krina or krima, which referred to judgments or accusations associated with criminal activity.
The hilarity of this contradiction is further compounded by the fact that they are from the same book and author. Apparently, either John the Apostle couldn’t get his story straight or Jesus couldn’t get his own story straight. The conclusion you’re left with is that either a major author of the New Testament was fallible or Jesus was fallible. Either way, this brings the King James Bible and Christianity as a whole into question.