Mark 8:25

8:25 Then Jesus ¹  placed his hands on the man’s ²  eyes again. And he opened his eyes, ³  his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

Psalms 33:9

33:9 For he spoke, and it ⁴  came into existence,

he issued the decree, ⁵  and it stood firm.

Psalms 146:8

146:8 The Lord gives sight to the blind.

The Lord lifts up all who are bent over. ⁶ 

The Lord loves the godly.

Isaiah 29:18-19

29:18 At that time ⁷  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. ⁸ 

29:19 The downtrodden will again rejoice in the Lord;

the poor among humankind will take delight ⁹  in the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 35:5

35:5 Then blind eyes will open,

deaf ears will hear.

Isaiah 42:16-18

42:16 I will lead the blind along an unfamiliar way; ¹¹ 

I will guide them down paths they have never traveled. ¹² 

I will turn the darkness in front of them into light,

and level out the rough ground. ¹³ 

This is what I will do for them.

I will not abandon them.

42:17 Those who trust in idols

will turn back and be utterly humiliated, ¹⁴ 

those who say to metal images, ‘You are our gods.’”

The Lord Reasons with His People

42:18 “Listen, you deaf ones!

Take notice, ¹⁵  you blind ones!

Matthew 11:5

11:5 The blind see, the ¹⁶  lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news proclaimed to them.

Matthew 12:22

Jesus and Beelzebul

12:22 Then they brought to him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute. Jesus ¹⁷  healed him so that he could speak and see. ¹⁸ 

Matthew 21:14

21:14 The blind and lame came to him in the temple courts, and he healed them.

John 9:5-7

9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” ¹⁹  9:6 Having said this, ²⁰  he spat on the ground and made some mud ²¹  with the saliva. He ²²  smeared the mud on the blind man’s ²³  eyes 9:7 and said to him, “Go wash in the pool of Siloam” ²⁴  (which is translated “sent”). ²⁵  So the blind man ²⁶  went away and washed, and came back seeing.

John 9:32

9:32 Never before ²⁷  has anyone heard of someone causing a man born blind to see. ²⁸ 

John 9:39

9:39 Jesus ²⁹  said,] ³⁰  “For judgment I have come into this world, so that those who do not see may gain their sight, ³¹  and the ones who see may become blind.”

Acts 26:18

26:18 to open their eyes so that they turn ³²  from darkness to light and from the power ³³  of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share ³⁴  among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

[8:25]  ¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:25]  ² tn Grk “his”; the referent (the blind man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:25]  ³ tn Or “he looked intently”; or “he stared with eyes wide open” (BDAG 226 s.v. διαβλέπω 1).

[33:9]  ⁴ tn That is, “all the earth” in the first line of v. 8. The apparent antecedent of the masculine subject of the verbs in v. 9 (note וַיֶּהִי [vayyehiy] and וַיַּעֲמֹד [vayya’amod]) is “earth” or “world,” both of which are feminine nouns. However, כָּל (kol, “all”) may be the antecedent, or the apparent lack of agreement may be explained by the collective nature of the nouns involved here (see GKC 463 §145.e).

[33:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “he commanded.”

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

[29:18]  ⁷ tn Or “In that day” (KJV).

[29:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.”

[29:19]  ⁹ tn Or “will rejoice” (NIV, NCV, NLT).

[29:19]  ¹⁰ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[42:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a way they do not know” (so NASB); NRSV “a road they do not know.”

[42:16]  ¹² tn Heb “in paths they do not know I will make them walk.”

[42:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the rough ground into a level place.”

[42:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “be ashamed with shame”; ASV, NASB “be utterly put to shame.”

[42:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “look to see”; NAB, NCV “look and see”; NRSV “look up and see.”

[11:5]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “and the,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more. Two other conjunctions are omitted in this series.

[12:22]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “And he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:22]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “demoniac, and he healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw.”

[9:5]  ¹⁹ sn Jesus’ statement I am the light of the world connects the present account with 8:12. Here (seen more clearly than at 8:12) it is obvious what the author sees as the significance of Jesus’ statement. “Light” is not a metaphysical definition of the person of Jesus but a description of his effect on the world, forcing everyone in the world to ‘choose up sides’ for or against him (cf. 3:19-21).

[9:6]  ²⁰ tn Grk “said these things.”

[9:6]  ²¹ tn Or “clay” (moistened earth of a clay-like consistency). The textual variant preserved in the Syriac text of Ephraem’s commentary on the Diatessaron (“he made eyes from his clay”) probably arose from the interpretation given by Irenaeus in Against Heresies: “that which the Artificer, the Word, had omitted to form in the womb, he then supplied in public.” This involves taking the clay as an allusion to Gen 2:7, which is very unlikely.

[9:6]  ²² tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the conjunction καί (kai) was replaced by a third person pronoun and a new sentence started here in the translation.

[9:6]  ²³ tn Grk “on his.”

[9:7]  ²⁴ tn The pool’s name in Hebrew is shiloah from the Hebrew verb “to send.” In Gen 49:10 the somewhat obscure shiloh was interpreted messianically by later Jewish tradition, and some have seen a lexical connection between the two names (although this is somewhat dubious). It is known, however, that it was from the pool of Siloam that the water which was poured out at the altar during the feast of Tabernacles was drawn.

[9:7]  ²⁵ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. Why does he comment on the meaning of the name of the pool? Here, the significance is that the Father sent the Son, and the Son sent the man born blind. The name of the pool is applicable to the man, but also to Jesus himself, who was sent from heaven.

[9:7]  ²⁶ tn Grk “So he”; the referent (the blind man) is specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:32]  ²⁷ tn Or “Never from the beginning of time,” Grk “From eternity.”

[9:32]  ²⁸ tn Grk “someone opening the eyes of a man born blind” (“opening the eyes” is an idiom referring to restoration of sight).

[9:39]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ 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]  ³¹ tn Or “that those who do not see may see.”

[26:18]  ³² sn To open their eyes so that they turn… Here is Luke’s most comprehensive report of Paul’s divine calling. His role was to call humanity to change their position before God and experience God’s forgiveness as a part of God’s family. The image of turning is a key one in the NT: Luke 1:79; Rom 2:19; 13:12; 2 Cor 4:6; 6:14; Eph 5:8; Col 1:12; 1 Thess 5:5. See also Luke 1:77-79; 3:3; 24:47.

[26:18]  ³³ tn BDAG 352-53 s.v. ἐξουσία 2 states, “Also of Satan’s power Ac 26:18.” It is also possible to translate this “the domain of Satan” (cf. BDAG 353 s.v. 6)

[26:18]  ³⁴ tn Or “and an inheritance.”