What Does John 9:24 Mean?
Then they called the man who had been blind again, and said to him, Give God the weight. We know that this man misses the mark.
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 called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner.THE KEY
The speakers invoke God’s honor while prescribing the verdict, turning praise into a test of obedience to their certainty.
THE MEANING
They call the man back and tell him to give God praise, then name the conclusion they expect him to accept. Their claim that they “know” stands against the man’s sight, which the verse just before has named. The pressure remains recognizable whenever honoring God is made to require repeating someone else’s verdict.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Invoking God does not make a speaker’s verdict true; this verse shows God’s name being used while truth is being narrowed.
THE ROOT
δόξασον
doxason
GROWS FROM
δοξάζω
doxazō
To give honor and weight; the related noun δόξα carries the sense of glory, standing, or esteem.
“praise” in this verse is doxason. The command carries the sense of assigning God due weight and honor. The speakers immediately claim authority over what that honor requires: they declare what the truth must be, and the verse lets the collision between reverence and pressure be heard.
ALSO GROWS
doxa: Glory, honor, or standing.
δόξα
The related noun brings out the weight carried by the command to give God praise.
doxazō: To glorify or honor.
δοξάζω
This is the verb used in the verse; its action is giving honor.
endoxos: Honored, held in esteem.
ἔνδοξος
This branch shows how the word family concerns what is regarded as weighty or worthy of honor.
οἴδαμεν
oidamen
GROWS FROM
εἴδω (eidō), εἰδ- (eid-)
To see or perceive; the word family also carries the sense of knowing.
The speakers’ “we know” belongs to a see-and-know word family, which sounds especially charged beside the man described as blind. Their certainty is set beside his newly restored sight, making the difference between claiming knowledge and perceiving something plain.
ALSO GROWS
eidon: I saw or they saw.
εἶδον
This form makes the seeing within the word family visible.
eidos: Form or appearance.
εἶδος
It connects perception with what is seen.
oida: I know, with the sense of having seen or perceived.
οἶδα
This is the singular form behind the speakers’ “we know.”
ἁμαρτωλός
hamartōlos
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ-
hamart-
Missing or failing to reach what is sought.
“misses the mark” in this verse is hamartōlos. The label is presented as the speakers’ conclusion, not established as truth. The root-family of missing leaves a sharp question in the scene: while they name Jesus as the one who misses, are they missing what the healed man’s testimony shows?
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: To miss or fail.
ἁμαρτάνω
This verb makes the root’s sense of missing explicit.
hamartia: Missing or missing the mark.
ἁμαρτία
This related noun carries the same root sense as the accusation in the verse.
THE PATTERN
An appeal to God’s honor is tested by whether it leaves truth free to be spoken.
My son, give weight to the LORD God of Israel, and speak your falling short into the open before him, and tell me now what you have done, and do not hide it from me.But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to him, I bind you by the living God, that you tell us whether you are the Anointed One, the Son of God.And the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, Behold, the words of the prophets declare good to the king with one mouth. Let your word, I ask you, be like the word of one of them, and speak what is good. And Micaiah said, As the LORD lives, what the LORD says to me, that I will speak.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.John 9:25 repeats the Greek terms for “sinner” and “know,” but the man declines to claim knowledge of the charge and names what he directly perceives: he was blind; now he sees. The repeated roots set imposed certainty against testimony from encounter.
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