What Does John 9:25 Mean?
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.
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
He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.THE KEY
The word translated “know” carries the older sense “I have seen,” so his certainty rests in what he has seen for himself.
THE MEANING
You can leave an accusation unresolved while telling the truth about what you know directly: what was unseen is now seen. An unanswered label does not erase a real change in perception.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that you must settle every accusation before your own testimony counts. Uncertainty about another’s character does not erase what you know firsthand.
THE ROOT
οἶδα
oida
GROWS FROM
εἴδω (eidō; stem ἰδ-)
See, perceive; οἶδα (oida) is the perfect form whose sense develops from “I have seen” to “I know.”
The word for knowing carries the trace of seeing: “I know” can mean “I have seen.” Here it stands beside “now I see,” grounding his certainty in direct perception rather than in a disputed label.
ALSO GROWS
eidon: Saw; a form in the see-family.
εἶδον
It makes visible the link between having seen something and knowing it.
eidos: Form, visible appearance.
εἶδος
This branch carries the family from seeing toward the recognizable form of what is seen.
βλέπω
blepō
GROWS FROM
βλεπ-
blep-
Look, see, perceive.
“see” in this verse is blepō. The same verb names the man’s new sight in this verse and his arrival seeing in verse 7. His testimony gives the change a simple, concrete form: blind before, seeing now.
ALSO GROWS
anablepō: Look up; regain sight.
ἀναβλέπω
This compound appears in accounts of recovered sight, making the root’s connection to restored vision explicit.
emblepō: Look at, gaze upon.
ἐμβλέπω
This compound shows the same seeing-root as directed attention, as well as the physical capacity to see.
THE PATTERN
What is encountered firsthand becomes testimony, not speculation.
O taste and see that the LORD is good. Flourishing is the strong one who takes shelter in him.For we cannot keep from speaking what we have perceived and heard.That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have perceived with our eyes, which we have gazed upon, and our hands have touched, concerning the word of life.THE THREAD
And he said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, the Sent. So he went and washed, and came seeing.The same Greek verb βλέπω (blepō, “see”) describes his coming away seeing in verse 7 and his “now I see” in verse 25. The first marks the change; the second is his own testimony to it.
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