The story of Jesus healing a blind man on the Sabbath {(John} 9) opens with some troubling suggestions about the relation of disability to sin. As vv. 3–4 are usually read, Jesus denies that this explanation holds true in this instance, and instead attributes the man's blindness to God's preparation for the healing about to occur. In spite of how widespread this reading is, there are several factors favoring an alternative reading, based on a different punctuation, in which Jesus does not attribute the man's blindness to God's action.