complete verse (John 9:7)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 9:7:

  • Uma: “and he said to him: ‘Go wash your (sing.) face in Siloam pool.’ (The name ‘Siloam’ means ‘Sent.’) He went and washed his face. When he returned, he could see.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Then he said to the person, ‘Go and wash-your-face in the water Siluwam.’ The meaning of Siluwam is ‘sent’. So-then the blind person went and washed-his-face. When he returned he could see already.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “He said, ‘Go to the pool that is called Siloam and wash your face there.’ (The meaning of the name Siloam is ‘sent’). And the blind man went there and washed his face, and when he returned he was able already to see.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “and said, ‘Go (sing.) wash-your-face in the dammed-up pool at Siloam.’ (The meaning of Siloam is sent.) When the blind-one went and washed-his-face, he was-able-to-see and afterwards went-home.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “When he had applied it, he said, ‘Go, go-and-wash-your-face in that water called Standing-water of Siloe. (That Siloe means sent.) That blind man believed/obeyed. On his return to his home, he could now see.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Then he said to him, ‘Go now, wash your eyes in the water place Siloam.’ Siloam means ‘have been sent.’ The blind man went to wash his eyes. Coming back, his eyes were now opened.” (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.

Honorary "are" construct denoting God ("say")

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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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on John 9:7

In Greek the verb wash has no stated object, but it is obvious that the man is not told to go take a bath. In order to remove the ambiguity in the verb wash, Good News Translation translates wash your face and Moffatt “wash them,” referring to “eyes” of the previous verse.

The Pool of Siloam was the pool from which the water was drawn for the ceremonies connected with the Festival of Shelters. It is located within the walls of Jerusalem, at the southern extremity of the eastern hill of the city, near the point where the Kidron and Tyropean valleys came together. In Hebrew the pool is Shiloah (Isa 8.6), which is derived from the Hebrew verb “to send.” This is the basis for John’s remark, This name means “Sent.”

The Pool of Siloam may be rendered “the pool called Siloam” or “Siloam pool.” A translator should adapt the orthography of Siloam to reflect the pronunciation of this term in the dominant language of the area or to follow traditional practice there.

This name means “Sent.” may be rendered in some languages as “the word ‘Siloam’ means ‘sent’ ” or “in our language the word Siloam means ‘sent.’ ”

So the man went, washed his face is literally “so he went and washed.” Here again Good News Translation (so also Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) makes explicit that the man did not take a bath.

Came back seeing may be expressed in some instances as “came back, and he could see,” since the coming and the seeing are often treated as coordinate elements, rather than one being subordinate to the other. Since in terms of the events of this story, the seeing is more important than the return, it may be necessary in some languages to translate “and he was able to see as he came back.”

A difficulty may be involved in translating came back, since in some languages this expression can only be understood to mean that he came back to where Jesus was. That is obviously not the case, since Jesus finally went looking for the man and found him (verse 35). The apparent meaning is that he returned to his home, for it is his neighbors who begin to comment about the change in his condition. It may be necessary, therefore, to translate “and went back home, being able to see” or “since he was able to see, he went back home.”

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 9:7

9:7a

Then He told him: Jesus spoke to the blind man. In some languages it may be natural to start a new sentence here. For example:

He told him (New Living Translation (2004))

Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam: The word Go indicates that Jesus wanted the man to leave him and walk to the pool of Siloam. There Jesus wanted him to wash the mud off his face. In some languages it may be natural to make explicit that the man was to wash his face:

Go and wash your face in the Pool of Siloam (Good News Translation)

in the Pool of Siloam: The words the Pool of Siloam refer to a pool of water that was near the temple in Jerusalem. The name of this pool was Siloam.

(which means “Sent”): This clause explains the name “Siloam.” This is a comment by the author, not by Jesus. The Berean Standard Bible therefore places it in parentheses. Translate it in a way that is natural in your language for background information. For example:

(this word means Sent) (New International Version)
-or-
(Siloam means “sent”) (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
(which is translated “sent”) (NET Bible Bible)

9:7b

So: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as So can also be translated as “therefore.” Here it introduces what the man did as a result of what Jesus had just said.

the man went and washed: The pronoun the man refers to the man who was born blind. Refer to him in a way that is clear and natural in your language.

It may also be natural to supply information about where the man went and what he washed. For example:

the man went ⌊to the pool⌋ and washed ⌊his face⌋

and came back seeing: The Greek words that the Berean Standard Bible translates as came back seeing are more literally “went seeing.” The context implies that he went home rather than back to Jesus. For example:

came home seeing (New International Version)

General Comment on 9:7b

The man became able to see after he washed and before he went home. In some languages it may be natural to translate the verbs in the order in which they happened. For example:

Then he went ⌊to the pool⌋ and washed ⌊his face⌋ . Then he was able to see, and he went back ⌊home⌋ .

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