What Does Luke 18:42 Mean in the King James?
And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight: thy faith hath saved thee.
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 rendered “saved” is also translated “made thee whole” in another healing, so the man’s returned sight is itself deliverance.
THE MEANING
Jesus’ command meets the man as his sight opens: trust and bodily restoration converge in a deliverance he can see. The verse speaks of being brought through into wholeness as something present in the body.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that deliverance belongs only to an invisible, future state: here, it is visible as sight returning.
THE ROOT
σέσωκέν
sesōken
GROWS FROM
σῴζ- / σωκ- (sōz- / sōk-)
Rescue, preserve, bring safely through; the perfect form in this verse uses the stem σωκ-.
“saved” in this verse is sesōken. The Greek verb σῴζω (sōzō, deliver, preserve, heal) can describe bodily restoration as well as rescue. Its perfect form here, σέσωκεν (sesōken, has delivered or made whole), presents an accomplished act whose result stands now: the man’s sight and his deliverance are held together.
ALSO GROWS
sōzō: Deliver, rescue, preserve; also heal.
σῴζω
This is the lexical verb behind σέσωκέν, and its range holds bodily healing and deliverance together.
diasōzō: Bring safely through; preserve through danger.
διασῴζω
This compound makes the same family’s “through to safety” dimension explicit.
πίστις
pistis
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
pist-
Trustworthy, reliable, firm; the quality of trust and reliance.
The English “faith” can sound like a private quantity of belief, while this Greek word-family links trusting with being trustworthy. Here, trust is a relation of reliance, not a score the man possesses.
ALSO GROWS
pisteuō: Trust, believe, rely upon.
πιστεύω
The verb shows trust as an act of reliance, the living counterpart to the noun in this verse.
pistos: Trustworthy, reliable, firm.
πιστός
This branch links the act of trusting with the reliability on which trust rests.
ἀνάβλεψον
anablepson
GROWS FROM
βλεπ-
blep-
See, look, direct the eyes toward.
The Greek command ἀνάβλεψον (anablepson, see again or look up) joins ἀνά (ana, up or again) to βλέπω (blepō, see or look). “Receive thy sight” can sound like receiving an object; the Greek also presents seeing as perception returning.
ALSO GROWS
blepō: See, look.
βλέπω
This is the verb at the center of the command, making sight an act of seeing.
apoblepō: Look toward, fix one’s gaze upon.
ἀποβλέπω
The compound preserves βλέπ- and shows the same root in directed looking.
THE PATTERN
Restoration becomes visible when what was closed opens and a person returns to movement.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.THE THREAD
And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.Luke 17:19 uses the same Greek perfect form σέσωκέν (sesōken, has delivered or made whole) as this verse, though the KJV renders it “made thee whole” there and “saved thee” here. The repeated wording lets restored sight and wholeness appear as one deliverance.
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