complete verse (John 9:32)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 9:32:

  • Uma: “From the beginning of the world, we have never yet heard a story that a person blind from birth could be healed.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Since the beginning of the world it has not been heard that a person blind from birth was caused to see.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “From the beginning of the creation of the world until now, this is the first time we have heard about a person who could medicine and cure the eyes of a person who was totally blind before he was born.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Ever-since the beginning of the world, certainly no person has been-reported who has removed the blindness of one who was-born-with his blindness.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “For from long ago when the world was young, there has never been anyone who could make well someone born blind, only now.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “From long ago it has not been heard that there arose a man who opened the eyes of a blind man who had been blind since birth.” (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.

age / (for)ever / eternity / eternal / permanent / of old / long ago

The Greek in the referenced verses that is typically translated as “age,” “(for)ever / eternity / eternal / permanent,” “of old / long ago” in English is translated in the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) consistenty as “world (or: “cosmic”) time” (Weltzeit).

Sarah Ruden (2021, p. lxii) explains the complexities of the translation of aiōn: “Trickiest of all [the words relating to time] is aion, most simply an ‘age’ or ‘era’ but sometimes denoting either the whole present world or the whole world to come. The same word can allude to all the limits of material existence (or to dangerous worldly distractions in particular), or to their absence in the eternal age to come. Looking forward, especially to ‘ages of ages’ (in the pattern of ‘King of Kings’), the meaning is ‘eternity.’”

Translation commentary on John 9:32

Since the beginning of the world is literally “from the age.” Most translations give the same meaning that Good News Translation gives this phrase. Since the beginning of the world may be rendered “since the world was created” or “from the very time that the world was first created.”

Nobody has ever heard of anyone giving sight to a blind person may require restructuring in the light of 9.1, which states that the man had been born blind. For example, “people have never heard that anyone ever gave sight to a person who had been blind from the day he was born” or “… caused a man who had always been blind to see” or “… caused that a man who was blind from birth would 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 9:32

9:32

Never before has anyone heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind: The man who had been healed continued his argument that Jesus was from God. He emphasized that Jesus had done a great miracle. He said that no one had ever heard of such a miracle happening before. (The phrase opening the eyes here means “healed the eyes.”) His point was not that no one had heard about such a miracle, but that such a miracle had never happened. No one had heard of it because it had not happened before. For example:

And this is the first time in history that anyone has ever given sight to someone born blind. (Contemporary English Version)

Never before: The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Never before is more literally “from the age,” meaning “from ancient times.” Here are other ways to translate this phrase:

Since the beginning of the world (Good News Translation)
-or-
Since ⌊God⌋ created the world
-or-
through all of history

has anyone heard of: The verb phrase has anyone heard of is passive in Greek. It means that no one had heard that such a miracle happened. No one had heard about such a miracle because no one had reported that such a miracle happened. There are two ways to translate this expression:

• Use a passive verb. For example:

it has never been heard (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
no person has ever been reported

• Use an active verb like the Berean Standard Bible. For example:

Nobody has ever heard of…. (New International Version)

General Comment on 9:32

In some languages it may be natural to reorder the information in this verse. For example:

To open the eyes of a man born blind—that is unheard of since time began. (Revised English Bible)

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