11:8a–b
God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear: There are several ways to interpret the connection of eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear (11:8b) to God gave them a spirit of stupor (11:8a):
(1) It is an additional description of the Jews, as with the comma in the Berean Standard Bible.
(Berean Standard Bible, REV, New International Version, English Standard Version, New American Bible, Revised Edition, King James Version, New American Standard Bible, NET Bible, New Living Translation (2004), God’s Word)
(2) Both parts describe the same thing. The semi-colon implies this in English. For example:
God has infused them with a spirit of lethargy; until today they have not eyes to see or ears to hear (New Jerusalem Bible)
(Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, Revised English Bible)
(3) The stupor is the cause for the eyes not seeing and ears not hearing. For example:
God made them so stupid that their eyes are blind, and their ears are still deaf (Contemporary English Version)
(Contemporary English Version, New Century Version)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), because many scholars also use a comma here.
In some languages adding an “and” would be more natural. For example:
God gave them a spirit of stupor, ⌊and⌋ eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear
11:8a
11:8a–c is a quote from parts of Isaiah 29:10 and Deuteronomy 29:4. If you indicate the location of quotes from the Old Testament with cross-references, you may want to do so here.
as it is written: This phrase introduces a quote from the Old Testament. Paul quoted what God said to the nation of Israel. See how you translated this phrase in 1:17 or 10:15.
God gave them a spirit of stupor: Here the word spirit refers to a condition or state of being. The Jews would always be in a stupor until the time God takes that stupor away. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:
God made their minds and hearts dull (Good News Translation)
stupor: This word refers to being unable to respond, like when someone cannot think well or is deeply asleep. Here the Jews could not understand God’s truth, in particular about his Christ/Messiah, Jesus. Here are other ways to translate this word:
being unable to think
-or-
not able to sense/be-aware-of (anything)
-or-
God made their minds to become numb so that they might not understand
11:8b
eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear: The Greek is literally “eyes of-the not seeing and ears of-the not hearing.” It is a figure of speech. It indicates that the Jews could not see or understand God’s truth, in particular about his Christ/Messiah, Jesus. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:
eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear (New International Version (2011))
-or-
they have not eyes to see or ears to hear (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
he has shut their eyes so they do not see, and closed their ears so they do not hear (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
they could not understand (New Century Version)
11:8c
to this very day: The Greek is literally “until the today day.” In the passage Paul quoted from, it referred to the forty years that the Jews wandered in the desert before reaching the promised land, going to the day Moses spoke these words. Paul implied that it was still true over a thousand years later when he wrote this letter to the Roman believers. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:
down to this very day (English Standard Version)
-or-
and so it is to this day (Revised English Bible)
-or-
This continues until today. (New Century Version)
© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.