What Does John 9:16 Mean in the King James?
Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them.
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 same healing becomes evidence both against the healer and for God’s work, revealing the different standards by which the witnesses judge it.
THE MEANING
This scene meets you whenever one event receives opposite verdicts because people read it through different rules. Some treat Sabbath-breaking as enough to dismiss the healer; others cannot reconcile the healing with the label “sinner.” The division exposes a conflict over how God’s work is recognized.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being named a sinner is not enough to invalidate what the evidence shows.
THE ROOT
σχίσμα
schisma
GROWS FROM
σχίζω
schizō
To split or tear apart.
English “division” can sound like simple disagreement; σχίσμα (schisma), meaning a split or tear, gives the scene the force of a rupture. The shared root σχίζω (schizō), meaning to split or tear, makes the fracture concrete: one healing opens incompatible readings of what counts as God’s work.
ALSO GROWS
schizō: To split or tear.
σχίζω
In John 19:24, the same verb describes the soldiers refusing to tear Jesus’ garment; that physical image makes the division here feel like a rupture in what was one.
schisma: A split or division.
σχίσμα
Here the word names the rupture among the witnesses as they confront the same healing.
ἁμαρτωλός
hamartōlos
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτάνω
hamartanō
To miss or err; the related noun ἁμαρτία (hamartia) means missing or the mark missed.
English “sinner” can sound like a settled identity; ἁμαρτωλός (hamartōlos), meaning one characterized as missing or erring, belongs to the same word family as ἁμαρτάνω (hamartanō), meaning to miss. The objection turns a label of missing into a test of whether the healing can be real, while the witnesses cannot make that label settle what they see.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: To miss or err.
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb keeps the focus on missing rather than making the person’s whole nature a fixed label.
hamartia: Missing; the mark missed.
ἁμαρτία
This related noun shows the word family behind “sinner,” clarifying why the question is whether someone associated with missing can perform such signs.
THE PATTERN
A sign or message can expose hidden judgments by drawing opposite responses to the same work.
So there was a division among the people because of him.Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:But the multitude of the city was divided: and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles.THE THREAD
So there was a division among the people because of him.John 7 uses the same Greek noun, σχίσμα (schisma), meaning a split or division. Its root σχίζω (schizō), meaning to split or tear, reveals that the disagreement is a rupture opened around Jesus, not a side detail.
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