John 9:22-23

The reason for the parents’ silence was their fear of excommunication from their local synagogue for affirming that Jesus was the Messiah.

"For a Jew to be put out of the synagogue meant that he was ostracized by everyone." [Note: The New Scofield …, p. 1139.]

We now learn that the official position about Jesus was that He was not the Messiah, and anyone who affirmed that He was suffered religious persecution (cf. John 7:13). Some scholars have argued that such a test of heresy was impossible this early in Jewish Christian relations. [Note: E.g., Barrett, pp. 261; et al.] However, other scholars have rebutted these objections effectively. [Note: E.g., Carson, The Gospel . . ., pp. 369-72.]

"’Already the Jews had decided’ does not necessarily indicate a formal decree of the Sanhedrin. It might well mean that some of the leading men had agreed among themselves to take action against the supporters of Jesus, perhaps to exclude them from the synagogues, perhaps to initiate proceedings in the Sanhedrin." [Note: Morris, p. 435.]

Interestingly the Apostle John considered confession of Jesus as the Messiah to be a litmus test that identifies genuine Christians (1 John 5:1). In 1 John 5:1 the title "Christ" (the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew "Messiah") comprehends all the biblical revelation about Messiah, specifically that He was divine as well as human. During Jesus’ ministry, however, confessing Jesus as the Messiah did not necessarily involve believing in His deity (cf. John 1:41; Matthew 16:16). It meant at least believing that He was the promised messianic deliverer of Israel, the popular conception of Messiah.