Open Bible Data Home About News OET Key
OET OET-RV OET-LV ULT UST BSB MSB BLB AICNT OEB WEBBE WMBB NET LSV FBV TCNT T4T LEB BBE Moff JPS Wymth ASV DRA YLT Drby RV SLT Wbstr KJB-1769 KJB-1611 Bshps Gnva Cvdl TNT Wycl SR-GNT UHB BrLXX BrTr Related Topics Parallel Interlinear Reference Dictionary Search
InterlinearVerse GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOB JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM PSA AMOS HOS 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR PROV ECC SNG JOEL MIC ISA ZEP HAB JER LAM YNA (JNA) NAH OBA DAN EZE EZRA EST NEH HAG ZEC MAL LAO GES LES ESG DNG 2 PS TOB JDT WIS SIR BAR LJE PAZ SUS BEL MAN 1 MAC 2 MAC 3 MAC 4 MAC YHN MARK MAT LUKE ACTs YAC (JAM) GAL 1 TH 2 TH 1 COR 2 COR ROM COL PHM EPH PHP 1 TIM TIT 1 PET 2 PET 2 TIM HEB YUD (JUD) 1 YHN (1 JHN) 2 YHN (2 JHN) 3 YHN (3 JHN) REV
Yhn C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21
Yhn 9 V1 V3 V5 V7 V9 V11 V13 V15 V17 V19 V21 V23 V25 V27 V29 V31 V35 V37 V39 V41
This section tells that Jesus healed the blind man on the Jewish rest day, the Sabbath. The Pharisees thought that healing people was work and so they did not allow it on the Sabbath.
They questioned the man about how he received his sight. They refused to believe that he was born blind and called his parents to come to identify him. Then they told the man that Jesus must be a sinner because he had worked on the rest day. But the man said that Jesus must be a prophet of God. The Pharisees were so angry at this that they forced him to leave.
Here are some other examples for a heading for this section:
The Pharisees questioned the man born blind
The Pharisees believed that Jesus was a sinner because he healed on a Sabbath
The investigation of the healing
The Pharisees tried to frighten the man that Jesus had healed so that he would agree with them. They wanted him to say that he did not believe that Jesus was from God. But the man continued to defend Jesus. He also challenged them about why they did not see that God was working when Jesus healed him.
If this man were not from God, He could do no such thing.”
If Jesus were not from God, he could not do anything like that.”
Unless Jesus has come from God, he could not do a miracle like that.”
Jesus must be from God to have done it.”
If this man were not from God, He could do no such thing: The man who had been blind gave reasons why what the Pharisees said about Jesus could not be true. For if it had been true and Jesus were not from God, Jesus could not have healed him. But Jesus had healed him, so Jesus must be from God. Therefore what the Pharisees said must be false. Consider how reasons for the man’s belief can be said most clearly and naturally in your language. For example:
if this man were not from God, he wouldn’t have been able to do anything (NJB)
If this man did not come from God, he couldn’t do such a thing. (JBP)
If this man were not from God: The word If imagines a situation that was not true: that Jesus did not come from God. If this imagined situation had been true, then Jesus would not have been able to do miracles. In some languages it may be natural to translate this in a positive way. For example:
Unless this man came from God (GNT)
this man: This phrase refers to Jesus. The Greek text more literally says “this one.” In this context, however, the speaker is not showing a lack of respect.
He could do no such thing: This clause indicates that Jesus would not have been able to do any miracles. He would not have been able to heal a blind person. For example:
he couldn’t do anything like that (GW)
he couldn’t have done it (NLT)
In some languages it may be natural to reverse the order of the clauses in this verse. For example:
Jesus couldn’t do anything unless he came from God. (CEV)
Jesus could not have done such a miracle if God had not sent him.
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / doublenegatives
εἰ μὴ ἦν οὗτος παρὰ Θεοῦ, οὐκ ἠδύνατο ποιεῖν οὐδέν
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Εἰ μή ἦν οὗτος παρά Θεοῦ οὐκ ἠδύνατο ποιεῖν οὐδέν)
The formerly blind man uses a double negative sentence pattern to emphasize the positive fact that Jesus must be from God. If this double-negative pattern would be misunderstood in your language, you could translate it as a positive statement. Alternate translation: [Only a man from God would be able to do anything like that!]
Note 2 topic: grammar-connect-condition-contrary
εἰ μὴ ἦν οὗτος παρὰ Θεοῦ
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Εἰ μή ἦν οὗτος παρά Θεοῦ οὐκ ἠδύνατο ποιεῖν οὐδέν)
The formerly blind man is making a conditional statement that sounds hypothetical, but he is already convinced that the condition is not true. He has concluded that Jesus must have come from God because he healed him. Use a natural form in your language for introducing a condition that the speaker believes is not true. Alternate translation: [If this one were not from God, but he is]
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
μὴ ἦν & παρὰ Θεοῦ
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Εἰ μή ἦν οὗτος παρά Θεοῦ οὐκ ἠδύνατο ποιεῖν οὐδέν)
See how you translated from God in [9:16](../09/16.md). Alternate translation: [did not have God’s authority]
Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
οὐδέν
nothing
Here, anything does not mean “anything at all.” It means anything like the miraculous signs that Jesus was performing, particularly his healing of this man who was born blind. You could include this information if that would be helpful to your readers. Alternate translation: [anything like healing a man blind from birth]
9:1-41 At the Festival of Shelters (chs 7–8), Jesus claimed to be the light of the world (8:12). Now John tells about Jesus giving light, both physically and spiritually, to a blind man who lived in darkness (see 9:5). The story ends with a splendid reversal of roles: The blind man who was assumed to be in spiritual darkness could see God’s light, whereas the Pharisees, who could see physically and were thought to be enlightened, were shown to be spiritually blind.
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.