What Does John 10:21 Mean?
Others said, These are not the words of one held by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?THE KEY
The decisive evidence is not the label attached to the healer but the eyes that open.
THE MEANING
The line puts the accusation beside its consequence: blind eyes open. The healing is evidence the claim must answer, not a detail it can erase. For the reader now, the verse asks what the visible restoration reveals about the power at work.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a hostile label is enough to settle the source or meaning of an act; the opened eyes keep the claim accountable to what happened.
THE ROOT
ἀνοῖξαι
anoixai
GROWS FROM
ἀνοιγ-
anoig-
To open, open up.
“open” in this verse is anoixai. The Greek verb here also describes the blind man’s eyes opening in John 9. Its compound form in Luke 24 describes both eyes opening and Scripture opening, joining sight with understanding.
ALSO GROWS
ēnoixen: opened
ἤνοιξεν
John 9:32 uses this form of the same verb for the eyes of a man born blind, echoing the act named in this question.
dianoigō: open fully; open up
διανοίγω
In Luke 24:31–32, forms of this compound describe eyes and Scripture being opened, linking sight with understanding.
δαιμόνιον
daimonion
GROWS FROM
δαίμων
daimōn
A demon or spirit; in this passage, demonic agency.
“Can a demon open” in this verse is daimonion. The Greek here is daimonion, the word for a demon; diabolos, “the Slanderer,” is a separate term. That distinction keeps the question focused on the claimed demonic source and the visible restoration it must explain.
ALSO GROWS
daimōn: spirit or divinity; in this context, a demon
δαίμων
This is the root word behind daimonion, naming the kind of agency the speakers question.
daimonizomai: to be demonized or under demonic influence
δαιμονίζομαι
This related verb describes the condition attributed to someone under a demon’s influence, clarifying the accusation being weighed against the healing.
THE PATTERN
Across Scripture, restored sight bears witness to the power that brings people out of incapacity.
The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; the LORD straightens the bent; the LORD loves the aligned.Then the eyes of the blind open, and the ears of the deaf open.Then a man was brought to him who was held by a demon, blind and mute, and he healed him, so that the blind and mute both spoke and saw.THE THREAD
Since the age began, was it not heard that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind?John 9:32 uses the same Greek verb for opening a man’s eyes from birth. John 10:21 echoes that opening and asks whether the act of restoring sight can be explained by the accusation.
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