What Does John 9:15 Mean?
Then again the separated ones also asked him how he had received his sight. He said to them, He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.
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 again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see.THE KEY
The Greek shifts from “how he recovered sight” (ἀναβλέπω, anablepō: recover sight) to “I see” (βλέπω, blepō: see), moving the answer from mechanism to present reality.
THE MEANING
The question seeks an account, and the answer holds a simple sequence in view: clay, washing, sight. His final words use the present tense: he sees now, and that current reality becomes his testimony.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A change must be fully explainable before its reality can be trusted.
THE ROOT
ἀνέβλεψεν
anéblepsen
GROWS FROM
βλέπω
blepō
To see, look, or direct one’s gaze.
“I see” in this verse is anéblepsen. The question’s “received his sight” is ἀνέβλεψεν (anéblepsen), from ἀναβλέπω (anablepō: recover sight, look up). His answer, “I do see,” uses βλέπω (blepō: see/look) in the present tense. The same word family holds both restored sight and seeing now.
ALSO GROWS
blepō: See, look, notice.
βλέπω
The man’s “I do see” uses this verb in the present tense, making sight his current reality.
anablepō: Look up; recover sight.
ἀναβλέπω
This is the compound in the question about his restored sight, linking the recovery to the same seed as “I see.”
emblepō: Look at attentively; gaze upon.
ἐμβλέπω
In Luke 20:17, Jesus looks at those questioning him; the same root can carry seeing as directed attention.
THE PATTERN
When sight is opened, what is seen becomes a present fact that can be plainly witnessed.
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.For we cannot keep from speaking what we have perceived and heard.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.“Now I see” uses βλέπω (blepō: see/look), the same Greek root as “I do see” here. The man’s present sight becomes his clearest answer, even when he cannot account for everything the questioners ask.
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