What Does John 9:13 Mean?
They brought him who had once been blind to the separated ones.
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
They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind.THE KEY
Others bring him forward by the condition he once had, while the verse marks that condition as past.
THE MEANING
You can be brought into another person’s scrutiny under the name of a former condition. Both facts remain visible: others decide where the man is brought, while “aforetime” marks blindness as his past, not the whole truth of who stands there now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that a past limitation remains the truest name for a person after it has changed.
THE ROOT
ἄγουσιν
agousin
GROWS FROM
ἀγ-
to lead or bring
“brought” in this verse is agousin. The Greek ἄγουσιν (agousin, they bring or lead) keeps the group as the agents and the man as the one being moved. Its family includes συναγωγή (synagōgē, gathering or assembly): an individual’s changed condition is carried before a group.
ALSO GROWS
agō: to lead, bring
ἄγω
This is the base verb behind “they brought,” naming the movement that places the man before the Pharisees.
synagōgē: gathering, assembly
συναγωγή
The same ἀγ- family appears in a word for gathering people together, echoing how one person’s changed condition enters a group setting.
agōgē: leading, conduct
ἀγωγή
This related word extends leading into the idea of how someone is conducted, sharpening the verse’s focus on who directs the man’s movement.
τυφλόν
typhlon
GROWS FROM
τυφλ-
blind, without sight
The same Greek stem names a blind person, the act of blinding, and blindness as a condition. The nearby ποτέ (pote, once or formerly) places that condition in the past, even as others still identify him through it.
ALSO GROWS
typhlos: blind, without sight
τυφλός
This adjective names the condition by which the group identifies the man.
typhloō: to blind, make blind
τυφλόω
The same stem can describe blindness as something that happens, rather than a person’s entire nature.
typhlotēs: blindness
τυφλότης
The abstract noun names blindness as a condition, while ποτέ (pote, formerly) marks that condition as past here.
THE PATTERN
When sight opens, what was hidden becomes visible testimony and a new way forward.
To open blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the prison, and those who settle in darkness out of the prison house.The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; the LORD straightens the bent; the LORD loves the aligned.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 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 Greek root τυφλ- (typhl-, blind) appears in both verses. Here others carry the label “once blind” into the room; in John 9:25, the man voices the change himself: “now I see.”
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us