Matius 13:16

13:16 “But your eyes are blessed ¹  because they see, and your ears because they hear.

Ulangan 29:3-4

29:3 Your eyes have seen the great judgments, ²  those signs and mighty wonders. 29:4 But to this very day the Lord has not given you an understanding mind, perceptive eyes, or discerning ears! ³ 

Yesaya 42:18-20

The Lord Reasons with His People

42:18 “Listen, you deaf ones!

Take notice, ⁴  you blind ones!

42:19 My servant is truly blind,

my messenger is truly deaf.

My covenant partner, ⁵  the servant of the Lord, is truly blind. ⁶ 

42:20 You see ⁷  many things, but don’t comprehend; ⁸ 

their ears are open, but do not hear.”

Yesaya 44:18

44:18 They do not comprehend or understand,

for their eyes are blind and cannot see;

their minds do not discern. ⁹ 

Yeremia 5:21

5:21 Tell them: ‘Hear this,

you foolish people who have no understanding,

who have eyes but do not discern,

who have ears but do not perceive: ¹⁰ 

Yehezkiel 12:2

12:2 “Son of man, you are living in the midst of a rebellious house. ¹¹  They have eyes to see, but do not see, and ears to hear, but do not hear, ¹²  because they are a rebellious house.

Markus 8:17-18

8:17 When he learned of this, ¹³  Jesus said to them, “Why are you arguing ¹⁴  about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Have your hearts been hardened? 8:18 Though you have eyes, don’t you see? And though you have ears, can’t you hear? ¹⁵  Don’t you remember?

Yohanes 3:19-20

3:19 Now this is the basis for judging: ¹⁶  that the light has come into the world and people ¹⁷  loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. 3:20 For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed.

Yohanes 9:39-41

9:39 Jesus ¹⁸  said,] ¹⁹  “For judgment I have come into this world, so that those who do not see may gain their sight, ²⁰  and the ones who see may become blind.”

9:40 Some of the Pharisees ²¹  who were with him heard this ²²  and asked him, ²³  “We are not blind too, are we?” ²⁴  9:41 Jesus replied, ²⁵  “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, ²⁶  but now because you claim that you can see, ²⁷  your guilt ²⁸  remains.” ²⁹ 

Yohanes 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 

Kolose 4:3-4

4:3 At the same time pray ³³  for us too, that ³⁴  God may open a door for the message ³⁵  so that we may proclaim ³⁶  the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. ³⁷  4:4 Pray that I may make it known as I should. ³⁸ 

[13:16]  ¹ sn This beatitude highlights the great honor bestowed on the disciples to share in this salvation.

[29:3]  ² tn Heb “testings.” This is a reference to the plagues; see note at 4:34.

[29:4]  ³ tn Heb “a heart to know, eyes to see and ears to hear” (NASB similar); NAB, NRSV “a mind to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear.”

[42:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “look to see”; NAB, NCV “look and see”; NRSV “look up and see.”

[42:19]  ⁵ tc The precise meaning of מְשֻׁלָּם (mÿshullam) in this context is uncertain. In later biblical Hebrew the form (which appears to be a Pual participle from the root שָׁלַם, shalam) occurs as a proper name, Meshullam. The Pual of שָׁלַם (“be complete”) is attested with the meaning “repaid, requited,” but that makes little sense here. BDB 1023 s.v. שָׁלַם relates the form to the denominative verb שָׁלַם (“be at peace”) and paraphrases “one in a covenant of peace” (J. N. Oswalt suggests “the covenanted one”; Isaiah [NICOT], 2:128, n. 59) Some emend the form to מֹשְׁלָם (moshÿlam, “their ruler”) or to מְשֻׁלָּחִי (mÿshullakhi, “my sent [or “commissioned”] one”), which fits nicely in the parallelism (note “my messenger” in the previous line). The translation above assumes an emendation to כְּמוֹ שֹׁלְמִי (kÿmo sholÿmi, “like my ally”). Isaiah uses כְּמוֹ in 30:22 and perhaps 51:5; for שֹׁלְמי (“my ally”) see Ps 7:5 HT (7:4 ET).

[42:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like my messenger I send? Who is blind like my commissioned one, blind like the servant of the Lord?” The point of the rhetorical questions is that no one is as blind/deaf as this servant. In this context the Lord’s “servant” is exiled Israel (cf. 41:8-9), which is spiritually blind and deaf and has failed to fulfill God’s purpose for it. This servant stands in contrast to the ideal “Israel” of the servant songs.

[42:20]  ⁷ tn The consonantal text (Kethib) has a perfect, 2nd person masculine singular; the marginal reading (Qere) has an infinitive absolute, which functions here as a finite verb.

[42:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “but you do not guard [i.e., retain in your memory]”; NIV “but have paid no attention.”

[44:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “for their eyes are smeared over so they cannot see, so their heart cannot be wise.”

[5:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they have eyes but they do not see, they have ears but they do not hear.”

[12:2]  ¹¹ sn The book of Ezekiel frequently refers to the Israelites as a rebellious house (Ezek 2:5, 6, 8; 3:9, 26-27; 12:2-3, 9, 25; 17:12; 24:3).

[12:2]  ¹² sn This verse is very similar to Isa 6:9-10.

[8:17]  ¹³ tn Or “becoming aware of it.”

[8:17]  ¹⁴ tn Or “discussing.”

[8:18]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “do you not hear?”

[3:19]  ¹⁶ tn Or “this is the reason for God judging,” or “this is how judgment works.”

[3:19]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “and men,” but in a generic sense, referring to people of both genders (as “everyone” in v. 20 makes clear).

[9:39]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ tn Or “that those who do not see may see.”

[9:40]  ²¹ sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.

[9:40]  ²² tn Grk “heard these things.”

[9:40]  ²³ tn Grk “and said to him.”

[9:40]  ²⁴ 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?”).

[9:41]  ²⁵ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

[9:41]  ²⁶ tn Grk “you would not have sin.”

[9:41]  ²⁷ tn Grk “now because you say, ‘We see…’”

[9:41]  ²⁸ tn Or “your sin.”

[9:41]  ²⁹ sn Because you claim that you can see, your guilt remains. The blind man received sight physically, and this led him to see spiritually as well. But the Pharisees, who claimed to possess spiritual sight, were spiritually blinded. The reader might recall Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in 3:10, “Are you the teacher of Israel and don’t understand these things?” In other words, to receive Jesus was to receive the light of the world, to reject him was to reject the light, close one’s eyes, and become blind. This is the serious sin of which Jesus had warned before (8:21-24). The blindness of such people was incurable since they had rejected the only cure that exists (cf. 12:39-41).

[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.”

[9:2]  sn The disciples assumed that sin (regardless of who committed it) was the cause of the man’s blindness. This was a common belief in Judaism; the rabbis used Ezek 18:20 to prove there was no death without sin, and Ps 89:33 to prove there was no punishment without guilt (the Babylonian Talmud, b. Shabbat 55a, although later than the NT, illustrates this). Thus in this case the sin must have been on the part of the man’s parents, or during his own prenatal existence. Song Rabbah 1:41 (another later rabbinic work) stated that when a pregnant woman worshiped in a heathen temple the unborn child also committed idolatry. This is only one example of how, in rabbinic Jewish thought, an unborn child was capable of sinning.

[4:3]  ³³ tn Though προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi) is an adverbial participle related to the previous imperative, προσκαρτερεῖτε (proskartereite), it is here translated as an independent clause due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[4:3]  ³⁴ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause has been rendered as substantival here, indicating the content of the prayer rather than the purpose for it. These two ideas are very similar and difficult to differentiate in this passage, but the conjunction ἵνα following a verb of praying is generally regarded as giving the content of the prayer.

[4:3]  ³⁵ tn Grk “that God may open for us a door of the word to speak the mystery of Christ.” The construction in Greek is somewhat awkward in this clause. The translation attempts to simplify this structure somewhat and yet communicate exactly what Paul is asking for.

[4:3]  ³⁶ tn Or “so that we may speak.”

[4:3]  ³⁷ tn Or “in prison.”

[4:4]  ³⁸ 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.