What Does John 10:21 Mean in the King James?
Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The decisive evidence is not the label attached to the healer but the eyes that open.
THE MEANING
The line puts the accusation beside its consequence: blind eyes open. The healing is evidence the claim must answer, not a detail it can erase. For the reader now, the verse asks what the visible restoration reveals about the power at work.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a hostile label is enough to settle the source or meaning of an act; the opened eyes keep the claim accountable to what happened.
THE ROOT
ἀνοῖξαι
anoixai
GROWS FROM
ἀνοιγ-
anoig-
To open, open up.
“open” in this verse is anoixai. The Greek verb here also describes the blind man’s eyes opening in John 9. Its compound form in Luke 24 describes both eyes opening and Scripture opening, joining sight with understanding.
ALSO GROWS
ēnoixen: opened
ἤνοιξεν
John 9:32 uses this form of the same verb for the eyes of a man born blind, echoing the act named in this question.
dianoigō: open fully; open up
διανοίγω
In Luke 24:31–32, forms of this compound describe eyes and Scripture being opened, linking sight with understanding.
δαιμόνιον
daimonion
GROWS FROM
δαίμων
daimōn
A demon or spirit; in this passage, demonic agency.
“devil” in this verse is daimonion. The Greek here is daimonion, the word for a demon; diabolos, “the Slanderer,” is a separate term. That distinction keeps the question focused on the claimed demonic source and the visible restoration it must explain.
ALSO GROWS
daimōn: spirit or divinity; in this context, a demon
δαίμων
This is the root word behind daimonion, naming the kind of agency the speakers question.
daimonizomai: to be demonized or under demonic influence
δαιμονίζομαι
This related verb describes the condition attributed to someone under a demon’s influence, clarifying the accusation being weighed against the healing.
THE PATTERN
Across Scripture, restored sight bears witness to the power that brings people out of incapacity.
The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.THE THREAD
Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.John 9:32 uses the same Greek verb for opening a man’s eyes from birth. John 10:21 echoes that opening and asks whether the act of restoring sight can be explained by the accusation.
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