complete verse (John 9:10)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 9:10:

  • Uma: “So they asked him: ‘What happened with the result that you (sing.) can see?'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “‘How do you come to see?’ they said.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And the people said, ‘If it is you, then how were your eyes cured?'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Whereupon they inquired of him saying, ‘And now here you (sing.) are able-to-see?'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “‘Well how did you get to be able to see? Why are you no longer blind?’ said those people.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “He was asked, ‘How is it that your eyes were opened then?'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Jesus Cures the Man Born Blind

Following is a 1973 painting of the JESUS MAFA project, a response to New Testament readings from the Lectionary by a Christian community in Cameroon, Africa. Each of the readings was selected and adapted to dramatic interpretation by the community members. Photographs of their interpretations were made, and these were then transcribed to paintings:

In this simply beautiful painting of one of Jesus’ healings, we see a caring Jesus bend over a blind man holding his walking stick. From the story in John’s gospel, we know that the religious leaders struggle with accepting Jesus’ activity and Jesus responds saying, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” The Pharisees do not look at the blind man as a person, but as a symbol and Jesus points out their error. We are reminded that we should see the humanity in all people, refusing to use them for our own ends. We must look past our own issues and see the individuals.

From Art in the Christian Tradition , a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. Image retrieved March 23, 2026. Original source: librairie-emmanuel.fr.

2nd person pronoun with low register (Japanese)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between. One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.

In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also first person pronoun with low register and third person pronoun with low register.

Translation commentary on John 9:10

In Greek the words they asked him (literally “therefore they were saying to him”) come first in the sentence. The verbs said in verse 9 and asked in this verse are in the imperfect tense in Greek, perhaps for the sake of making the action more vivid.

The Greek text has literally “How were your eyes opened?” Such an expression, however, may have little relation to the meaning of “being able to see,” since the opening of the eyes might be understood merely as the opening of the eyelids, rather than as the ability to see. How is it that you can now see? must be rendered in some languages by a causative expression, for example, “What is it that caused you now to see?” or “What happened to cause you to see?” or “… to be able to see?”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on John 9:10

9:10

In Greek this verse begins with a conjunction that is usually translated as “therefore.” The man said that he used to be blind; therefore, the people asked how he was able to see. The conjunction introduces the people’s response to what the man said. Some English translations like the Berean Standard Bible do not explicitly translate it. You should introduce the people’s response in a way that is natural in your language. For example:

So (NET Bible Bible)

How then were your eyes opened?: This expression means “How did you become able to see?” It does not imply that earlier the man’s eyes were shut, but rather that he was blind. The verb in this expression is passive, and there are at least two ways to translate it:

• Use a passive verb. For example:

how was your blindness cured? (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
-or-
how…were you made to see? (NET Bible Bible)

• Use an active verb. For example:

Who healed you? What happened? (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
how can you see? (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
How did you receive your sight? (God’s Word)
-or-
What caused you to be able to see?

then: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as then is more literally “therefore.” It is not certain that it was present in the earliest Greek manuscripts. In some languages it may be more natural to leave it implied, as some English translations have done. Or here is another way to translate this question:

If you are that man, how were your eyes healed?

they asked: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as they asked is in a tense that indicates that they asked more than once. In your translation, you may imply that they asked repeated questions. For example:

they were saying to him (New American Standard Bible)

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