What Does John 9:30 Mean?
The man answered and said to them, Here is a thing to gaze upon, that you do not know where he is from, and yet he has opened my eyes.
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
The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes.THE KEY
The Greek word for “know” carries the sense of “see,” so the man’s opened eyes expose the leaders’ ignorance as a failure of perception.
THE MEANING
What opens your sight can be real before authority can explain its source. The man knows his eyes have been opened, while his questioners say they do not know where the opener is from.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that an authority’s explanation is what makes your experience real; the man’s clear knowledge remains even when the authorities cannot account for it.
THE ROOT
οἴδατε
oidate
GROWS FROM
εἴδω
eídō
To see, behold, or perceive; οἶδα is historically a perfect form meaning “have seen,” hence “know.”
The Greek word for “know” carries the trace of sight within it. The man’s opened eyes ground his knowledge in perception, while the questioners’ “we do not know” reveals what they fail to see.
ALSO GROWS
eídō: See, behold, perceive.
εἴδω
This verb-family beneath οἶδα makes “know” carry the sense of having seen.
eîdos: That which is seen; form, appearance.
εἶδος
The same word-family names both seeing and what is seen, tying perception to the man’s knowledge of what has happened.
THE PATTERN
When sight or understanding is opened, its visible effects bear witness beyond the limits of those watching.
To open blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the prison, and those who settle in darkness out of the prison house.The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; the LORD straightens the bent; the LORD loves the aligned.Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and grasped that they were unlettered and ordinary men, they marveled, and they knew them, that they had been with Jesus.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.The man uses the same Greek verb for “know” that appears in “ye know not.” The one who was blind speaks from what he now sees, while the sighted questioners profess not to know.
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