What Does John 9:17 Mean?
So they said to the blind man again, What do you say of him, that he opened your eyes? He said, He is a prophet.
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 say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a prophet.THE KEY
The opening of his eyes becomes evidence by which he names the one who opened them.
THE MEANING
When what you see changes, the question reaches beyond what happened to who is acting. The man answers from his own encounter: he calls him a prophet. His response shows how a lived change can become a way of naming the one before you.
THE ROOT
ἤνοιξεν
ēnoixen
GROWS FROM
οἴγω
oigō
To open.
The verb family links the opening of eyes with opening the heart and opening understanding. Here the opened eyes are more than a completed physical event: the opening becomes the ground for the man’s recognition of who stands before him.
ALSO GROWS
anoigō: Open.
ἀνοίγω
The same verb appears in John 9:10 when people ask how the man’s eyes were opened, returning the questioning to the act itself.
dianoigō: Open through; open fully.
διανοίγω
In Acts 16:14, this related verb describes the Lord opening Lydia’s heart to attend, carrying the image of opening from eyes to inner attention.
προφήτης
prophētēs
GROWS FROM
φη- (phē-, from φημί)
To say or speak.
The Greek word family keeps speech at the center; a prophet is not only someone associated with foretelling. The man names Jesus through the meaning he sees in the act: the one who opens his eyes belongs to the world of God’s speaking.
ALSO GROWS
phēmi: Say; speak.
φημί
This speech word is the verbal element in the prophet word family, bringing the act of speaking into the man’s answer.
prophēteuō: Prophesy; speak as a prophet.
προφητεύω
This related word names the act associated with a prophet, showing the family’s emphasis on declaring or speaking.
THE PATTERN
When sight opens, perception moves from seeing what changed toward recognizing who is acting.
The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; the LORD straightens the bent; the LORD loves the aligned.And their eyes were thrown open, and they recognized him, and he became unseen to them.To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the authority of the Adversary to God, that they may receive release from their shortcomings, and an inheritance among those who are set apart through leaning their full weight upon me.THE THREAD
So they said to him, How were your eyes opened?The Greek verb for “opened” here is from the same word family as the verb in their earlier question about how his eyes were opened. The inquiry moves from the opening itself to what the man now says about the one who opened them.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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