Psalms 30:2

30:2 O Lord my God,

I cried out to you and you healed me. ¹ 

Psalms 146:8

146:8 The Lord gives sight to the blind.

The Lord lifts up all who are bent over. ² 

The Lord loves the godly.

Isaiah 29:18-19

29:18 At that time ³  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. ⁴ 

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

the poor among humankind will take delight ⁵  in the Holy One of Israel. ⁶ 

Isaiah 35:5

35:5 Then blind eyes will open,

deaf ears will hear.

Isaiah 42:16

42:16 I will lead the blind along an unfamiliar way; ⁷ 

I will guide them down paths they have never traveled. ⁸ 

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

and level out the rough ground. ⁹ 

This is what I will do for them.

I will not abandon them.

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!

Matthew 9:28-30

9:28 When ¹⁰  he went into the house, the blind men came to him. Jesus ¹¹  said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” 9:29 Then he touched their eyes saying, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.” 9:30 And their eyes were opened. Then Jesus sternly warned them, “See that no one knows about this.”

Matthew 11:5

11:5 The blind see, the ¹²  lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news proclaimed to them.

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.” ¹³  9:6 Having said this, ¹⁴  he spat on the ground and made some mud ¹⁵  with the saliva. He ¹⁶  smeared the mud on the blind man’s ¹⁷  eyes 9:7 and said to him, “Go wash in the pool of Siloam” ¹⁸  (which is translated “sent”). ¹⁹  So the blind man ²⁰  went away and washed, and came back seeing.

John 9:39-40

9:39 Jesus ²¹  said,] ²²  “For judgment I have come into this world, so that those who do not see may gain their sight, ²³  and the ones who see may become blind.”

9:40 Some of the Pharisees ²⁴  who were with him heard this ²⁵  and asked him, ²⁶  “We are not blind too, are we?” ²⁷ 

Acts 26:18

26:18 to open their eyes so that they turn ²⁸  from darkness to light and from the power ²⁹  of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share ³⁰  among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

[30:2]  ¹ sn You healed me. Apparently the psalmist was plagued by a serious illness that threatened his life. See Ps 41.

[146:8]  ² tn Perhaps “discouraged” (see Ps 57:6).

[29:18]  ³ tn Or “In that day” (KJV).

[29:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.”

[29:19]  ⁵ tn Or “will rejoice” (NIV, NCV, NLT).

[29:19]  ⁶ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[42:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “a way they do not know” (so NASB); NRSV “a road they do not know.”

[42:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “in paths they do not know I will make them walk.”

[42:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the rough ground into a level place.”

[9:28]  ¹⁰ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[9:28]  ¹¹ tn Grk “to him, and Jesus.” This is a continuation of the previous sentence in Greek, but a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[11:5]  ¹² 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.

[9:5]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “said these things.”

[9:6]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “on his.”

[9:7]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ tn Grk “So he”; the referent (the blind man) is specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:39]  ²¹ 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]  ²² 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]  ²³ tn Or “that those who do not see may see.”

[9:40]  ²⁴ sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.

[9:40]  ²⁵ tn Grk “heard these things.”

[9:40]  ²⁶ tn Grk “and said to him.”

[9:40]  ²⁷ tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “are we?”).

[26:18]  ²⁸ 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]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ tn Or “and an inheritance.”