What Does John 9:12 Mean?
Then they said to him, Where is he? He said, I do not know.
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
Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not.THE KEY
The man whose sight has been opened can see, yet he still does not know where Jesus is.
THE MEANING
The question asks for a location, and the answer names a real limit: “I know not.” You can experience a genuine change without yet knowing where its source is or how to find it. The verse lets that gap be spoken plainly.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a change is unreal unless you can explain its source or locate it.
THE ROOT
οἶδα
oida
GROWS FROM
εἴδω
eidō
To see or behold; οἶδα is a perfect form used with the sense “know.”
The word translated “know” belongs to a root meaning “see,” holding perception and knowledge close. Here, that link sharpens the scene: the man’s sight has returned, while he still does not know where the one who healed him is.
ALSO GROWS
eidon: I saw; a past-tense form of the same root.
εἶδον
It makes the root’s connection between seeing and knowing audible beneath the English distinction.
ide: See! Behold!
ἴδε
This command to look grows from the same root, showing its direct sense of seeing.
THE PATTERN
Perception can be genuine and still partial: a person may see what has changed without knowing the whole story.
I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.He answered, Whether he misses the mark or not, I do not know. One thing I know, that I was blind, and now I see.For now we see through a mirror, in a riddle; but then face to face. Now I know in pieces; but then I shall know wholly, even as I was known.THE THREAD
He answered, Whether he misses the mark or not, I do not know. One thing I know, that I was blind, and now I see.The same speaker repeats οἶδα, the word behind “I know not,” now to name what he is certain of. He cannot settle who Jesus is, but he can testify to the change he sees in himself.
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