The meaning of the sixth sign is made clear by this passage which is a brilliant commentary on the words of 1 :5 - 'The light shines in the darkness.' The spiritual blindness and unbelief of the Pharisees (9: 16 and 24) prevented them from accepting what the beggar knew, that he had been given sight by an act of God and that the man who caused it to happen must have come from God (9 :30-35). Although the beggar had still not seen Jesus, his belief in him as one who had come from God continued to grow (9:17,25,27,35), in spite of persecution from the Pharisees who tried to force him to deny the truth of what had happened. When the beggar persisted in his witness to what he knew Jesus had done for him, he was expelled from the synagogue, which made him an outcast, no longer to be called a Jew (9 :22 and 34). To John's readers, this would recall the bitter conflicts between the synagogue leaders and the early converts, like those described in Acts 14:1-2 and 17:2-5.