What Does Luke 18:41 Mean?
Saying, What do you want me to do for you? And he said, Lord, that I may look up.
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
Saying, What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight.THE KEY
The word translated “receive my sight” also means “look up” or “regain sight,” so the request holds seeing as a capacity restored.
THE MEANING
The question gives this need room to be named plainly: he wants to see. The verb translated “receive my sight” can also mean “look up” or “regain sight,” holding restored seeing and an upward gaze in one word. The verse catches you at the moment a need becomes speakable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You must justify your need before it can be named: Jesus asks what the man wants, and the answer needs no defense.
THE ROOT
ἀναβλέψω
anablepsō
GROWS FROM
βλεπ-
blep-
The Greek verbal stem for looking or seeing.
The verb ἀναβλέψω (anablepsō, “look up” or “regain sight”) is built on βλέπω (blepō, “look” or “see”). English gives the result as sight received; the Greek also holds the movement of looking up, as if seeing is a capacity restored.
ALSO GROWS
blepō: To see, to look.
βλέπω
The plain verb shows the seed preserved in ἀναβλέπω (anablepō, “look up” or “regain sight”): the request is for seeing itself to return.
emblepō: To look at, to gaze upon.
ἐμβλέπω
The same βλέπω (blepō, “look” or “see”) stem appears in a verb for directed attention, showing how seeing can also mean attending to what is before you.
THE PATTERN
A direct question lets a person name the specific restoration they seek.
In Gibeon the LORD showed himself to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask what I shall give you.When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been that way a long time already, he said to him, Do you want to become whole?Jesus answered and said to him, What do you want me to do for you? The blind man said to him, My teacher, that I might look up again.THE THREAD
And Jesus said to him, Look up again! Leaning your full weight has delivered you.The request in Luke 18:41 uses ἀναβλέψω (anablepsō, “look up” or “regain sight”); Jesus answers with ἀνάβλεψον (anablepson, “look up” or “regain sight”), built on the same βλέπω (blepō, “look” or “see”) stem. The word moves from the man’s request into the answer: the capacity he asks for is restored.
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