Acts 9:17-18

9:17 So Ananias departed and entered the house, placed ¹  his hands on Saul ²  and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came here, ³  has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ⁴  9:18 Immediately ⁵  something like scales ⁶  fell from his eyes, and he could see again. He ⁷  got up and was baptized,

Psalms 119:18

119:18 Open ⁸  my eyes so I can truly see ⁹ 

the marvelous things in your law!

Psalms 146:8

146:8 The Lord gives sight to the blind.

The Lord lifts up all who are bent over. ¹⁰ 

The Lord loves the godly.

Isaiah 29:18

29:18 At that time ¹¹  the deaf will be able to hear words read from a scroll,

and the eyes of the blind will be able to see through deep darkness. ¹² 

Isaiah 32:3

32:3 Eyes ¹³  will no longer be blind ¹⁴ 

and ears ¹⁵  will be attentive.

Isaiah 35:5

35:5 Then blind eyes will open,

deaf ears will hear.

Isaiah 42:7

42:7 to open blind eyes, ¹⁶ 

to release prisoners ¹⁷  from dungeons,

those who live in darkness from prisons.

Isaiah 43:8

The Lord Declares His Sovereignty

43:8 Bring out the people who are blind, even though they have eyes,

those who are deaf, even though they have ears!

Luke 4:18

4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed ¹⁸  me to proclaim good news ¹⁹  to the poor. ²⁰ 

He has sent me ²¹  to proclaim release ²²  to the captives

and the regaining of sight ²³  to the blind,

to set free ²⁴  those who are oppressed, ²⁵ 

Luke 24:45

24:45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures, ²⁶ 

John 9:39

9:39 Jesus ²⁷  said,] ²⁸  “For judgment I have come into this world, so that those who do not see may gain their sight, ²⁹  and the ones who see may become blind.”

John 9:2

9:2 His disciples asked him, ³⁰  “Rabbi, who committed the sin that caused him to be born blind, this man ³¹  or his parents?” ³² 

Colossians 4:4

4:4 Pray that I may make it known as I should. ³³ 

Colossians 4:6

4:6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer everyone.

Ephesians 1:18

1:18 – since the eyes of your ³⁴  heart have been enlightened ³⁵  – so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, ³⁶  what is the wealth of his glorious ³⁷  inheritance in the saints,

[9:17]  ¹ tn Grk “and placing his hands on Saul, he said.” The participle ἐπιθείς (epiqei") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. For the same reason καί (kai) has not been translated before the participle.

[9:17]  ² tn Grk “on him”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:17]  ³ tn Grk “on the road in which you came,” but the relative clause makes for awkward English style, so it was translated as a temporal clause (“as you came here”).

[9:17]  ⁴ sn Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Here someone who is not an apostle (Ananias) commissions another person with the Spirit.

[9:18]  ⁵ tn Grk “And immediately.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[9:18]  ⁶ tn The comparison to “scales” suggests a crusty covering which peeled away (cf. BDAG 592 s.v. λεπίς 2).

[9:18]  ⁷ tn Grk “and he.” Because of the length of the Greek sentence, the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here. Instead a new English sentence was started, with “and” placed before the final element of the previous clause as required by English style.

[119:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “uncover.” The verb form גַּל (gal) is an apocopated Piel imperative from גָּלָה (galah, see GKC 214 §75.cc).

[119:18]  ⁹ tn The cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative.

[146:8]  ¹⁰ tn Perhaps “discouraged” (see Ps 57:6).

[29:18]  ¹¹ tn Or “In that day” (KJV).

[29:18]  ¹² tn Heb “and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.”

[32:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “Eyes that see.”

[32:3]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text as vocalized reads literally “will not gaze,” but this is contradictory to the context. The verb form should be revocalized as תְּשֹׁעֶינָה (tÿsho’enah) from שָׁעַע (sha’a’, “be blinded”); see Isa 6:10; 29:9.

[32:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “ears that hear.”

[42:7]  ¹⁶ sn This does not refer to literal physical healing of the blind. As the next two lines suggest, this refers metonymically to freeing captives from their dark prisons where their eyes have grown unaccustomed to light.

[42:7]  ¹⁷ sn This does not refer to hardened, dangerous criminals, who would have been executed for their crimes in ancient Near Eastern society. This verse refers to political prisoners or victims of social injustice.

[4:18]  ¹⁸ sn The phrase he has anointed me is an allusion back to Jesus’ baptism in Luke 3:21-22.

[4:18]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “to evangelize,” “to preach the gospel.”

[4:18]  ²⁰ sn The poor is a key term in Luke. It refers to the pious poor and indicates Jesus’ desire to reach out to those the world tends to forget or mistreat. It is like 1:52 in force and also will be echoed in 6:20 (also 1 Pet 2:11-25). Jesus is commissioned to do this.

[4:18]  ²¹ tc The majority of mss, especially the later Byzantines, include the phrase “to heal the brokenhearted” at this point (A Θ Ψ 0102 ˹ Ï). The phrase is lacking in several weighty mss (א B D L W Ξ Ë¹³ 33 579 700 892* pc lat sy^s co), including representatives from both the Alexandrian and Western texttypes. From the standpoint of external evidence, the omission of the phrase is more likely original. When internal evidence is considered, the shorter reading becomes almost certain. Scribes would be much more prone to add the phrase here to align the text with Isa 61:1, the source of the quotation, than to remove it from the original.

[4:18]  ²² sn The release in view here is comprehensive, both at a physical level and a spiritual one, as the entire ministry of Jesus makes clear (Luke 1:77-79; 7:47; 24:47; Acts 2:38; 5:31; 10:43).

[4:18]  ²³ sn Again, as with the previous phrase, regaining of sight may well mean more than simply miraculously restoring physical sight, which itself pictures a deeper reality (Luke 1:77-79; 18:35-43).

[4:18]  ²⁴ sn The essence of Jesus’ messianic work is expressed in the phrase to set free. This line from Isa 58 says that Jesus will do what the nation had failed to do. It makes the proclamation messianic, not merely prophetic, because Jesus doesn’t just proclaim the message – he brings the deliverance. The word translated set free is the same Greek word (ἄφεσις, afesi") translated release earlier in the verse.

[4:18]  ²⁵ sn Again, as with the previous phrases, oppressed may well mean more than simply political or economic oppression, but a deeper reality of oppression by sin (Luke 1:77-79; 18:35-43).

[24:45]  ²⁶ sn Luke does not mention specific texts here, but it is likely that many of the scriptures he mentioned elsewhere in Luke-Acts would have been among those he had in mind.

[9:39]  ²⁷ tn Grk “And Jesus.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[9:39]  ²⁸ tc ‡ Some early and important witnesses (Ì⁷⁵ א* W b sa^ms ac² mf) lack the words, “He said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him. Jesus said,” (vv. 38-39a). This is weighty evidence for the omission of these words. It is difficult to overstate the value of Ì⁷⁵ here, since it is the only currently available papyrus ms extant for the text of John 9:38-39. Further, א is an important and early Alexandrian witness for the omission. The versional testimony and codex W also give strong support to the omission. Nearly all other mss, however, include these words. The omission may have been occasioned by parablepsis (both vv. 37 and 39 begin with “Jesus said to him”), though it is difficult to account for such an error across such a wide variety of witnesses. On the other hand, the longer reading appears to be motivated by liturgical concerns (so R. E. Brown, John [AB], 1:375), since the verb προσκυνέω (proskunew, “I worship”) is used in John 4:20-25 of worshiping God, and again with the same sense in 12:20. If these words were authentic here, this would be the only place in John’s Gospel where Jesus is the explicit object of προσκυνέω. Even if these words are not authentic, such an omission would nevertheless hardly diminish John’s high Christology (cf. 1:1; 5:18-23; 14:6-10; 20:28), nor the implicit worship of him by Thomas (20:28). Nevertheless, a decision is difficult, and the included words may reflect a very early tradition about the blind man’s response to Jesus.

[9:39]  ²⁹ tn Or “that those who do not see may see.”

[9:2]  ³⁰ tn Grk “asked him, saying.”

[9:2]  ³¹ tn Grk “this one.”

[9:2]  ³² tn Grk “in order that he should be born blind.”

[4:4]  ³³ tn The phrase begins with the ἵνα (Jina) clause and is subordinate to the imperative προσκαρτερεῖτε (proskartereite) in v. 2. The reference to the idea that Paul must make it known indicates that this clause is probably best viewed as purpose and not content, like the ἵνα of v. 3. It is the second purpose stated in the context; the first is expressed through the infinitive λαλῆσαι (lalhsai) in v. 3. The term “pray” at the beginning of the sentence is intended to pick up the imperative of v. 3.

[1:18]  ³⁴ tc ‡ Most witnesses, especially of the Byzantine and Western texttypes, though with a few important Alexandrian witnesses (א A D F G Ψ 0278 Ï latt sy), add ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “your”) after καρδίας (kardias, “heart”), though it is clearly implied in the shorter (Alexandrian) reading (found in Ì⁴⁶ B 6 33 1175 1739 1881 pc). The longer reading thus looks to be a clarifying gloss, as is frequently found in the Byzantine and Western traditions. The translation above also uses “your” because of English requirements, not because of textual basis.

[1:18]  ³⁵ tn The perfect participle πεφωτισμένους (pefwtismenou") may either be part of the prayer (“that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened”) or part of the basis of the prayer (“since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened”). Although the participle follows the ἵνα (Jina) of v. 17, it is awkward grammatically in the clause. Further, perfect adverbial participles are usually causal in NT Greek. Finally, the context both here and throughout Ephesians seems to emphasize the motif of light as a property belonging to believers. Thus, it seems that the author is saying, “I know that you are saved, that you have had the blinders of the devil removed; because of this, I can now pray that you will fully understand and see the light of God’s glorious revelation.” Hence, the translation takes the participle to form a part of the basis for the prayer.

[1:18]  ³⁶ tn Or “the hope to which he has called you.”

[1:18]  ³⁷ tn Grk “of the glory of his inheritance.” Here “inheritance” is taken as an attributed genitive and the head noun, “glory,” is thus translated as an adjective, “glorious inheritance.”