What Does John 9:20 Mean in the King James?
His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born 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 Greek word for “know” carries the trace of “having seen,” grounding the parents’ certainty in what they have witnessed of their son.
THE MEANING
Their certainty is specific: this is their son, and he has been blind from birth. They speak from what they know firsthand, while the question of how he now sees remains beyond this sentence.
THE ROOT
οἴδαμεν
oidamen
GROWS FROM
εἴδω (ἰδ-)
To see or perceive; οἶδα, “know,” is the perfect form, carrying the sense of having seen and thus knowing.
The parents’ “we know” is more than a bare assertion: the word preserves a link between seeing and knowing. Their testimony rests on the life they have witnessed, even as the verse leaves the meaning of his new sight to unfold.
ALSO GROWS
oida: To know, be aware
οἶδα
As a perfect form related to εἴδω, it shows how perceived experience becomes knowledge.
eidon: I saw
εἶδον
This form keeps direct seeing visible in the same verbal family as the parents’ word for knowing.
THE PATTERN
Witness names what is directly seen and heard, grounding testimony in what is known.
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;For we can not but speak the things which we have seen and heard.That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;THE THREAD
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 man uses the same Greek verb for “know” that his parents use here. Their knowledge names his identity and former blindness; his testimony joins knowing directly to what he now sees.
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