What Does John 9:27 Mean?
He answered them, I have already told you, and you did not hear. Why would you hear it again? Will you also become his disciples?
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 them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it again? will ye also be his disciples?THE KEY
His question exposes that they have heard his words but refuse the hearing that would make them learners.
THE MEANING
A person can repeat the words and still refuse to receive what they mean. The healed man makes the real question visible: whether his testimony can be received, and whether they will become learners of Jesus. His challenge speaks wherever a request to hear again conceals a refusal to be taught.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that asking for the same testimony again proves openness. This verse exposes how repetition can serve refusal when the answer is already rejected.
THE ROOT
ἀκούω
akouō
GROWS FROM
ἀκου-
akou-
To hear, listen, or receive a report.
English “hear” can sound like sound merely reaching the ear, but this Greek word can also describe receiving a message. His charge is not that they lack access to the words; they refuse to receive his testimony as testimony.
ALSO GROWS
akoē: Hearing; a report or message heard.
ἀκοή
This branch joins the act of hearing with the report received, like the man’s witness that they have already heard.
hypakouō: To listen to or obey.
ὑπακούω
This related verb extends hearing toward response, illuminating the difference between hearing his words and receiving what they say.
μαθητής
mathētēs
GROWS FROM
μανθαν-
manthan-
To learn or acquire through instruction.
The word translated “disciples” carries the sense of learners. His question turns their demand for another answer into a sharper one: will they let this testimony teach them?
ALSO GROWS
manthanō: To learn.
μανθάνω
The verb beneath the word for disciple makes learning central to the choice he puts before them.
mathēma: A lesson or something learned.
μάθημα
This related word evokes what is taken in and learned, giving weight to the question of whether they will receive the man’s testimony.
THE PATTERN
In scripture, hearing is shown by how a word is received and followed, not merely by sound reaching the ear.
Now therefore, if you will truly hear and respond to my voice, and guard my covenant, then you shall be my own treasure from among all peoples, for all the earth is mine.My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon the rock.THE THREAD
My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.John 10:27 uses the same Greek verb, ἀκούω (akouō, hear), as John 9:27. There, the man says his listeners did not receive his testimony; here, hearing the voice belongs with knowing and following, revealing the response his question puts before them.
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