Luke 18:42 Receive thy sight: thy faith hath saved thee.

Spoken to
Apostles

Blind man asks for his sight.

KJV

Luke 18:42 Receive thy sight: thy faith hath saved thee.

NIV

Luke 18:42 “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.

LISTENERS HEARD

Look up! That faith of yours has rescued you.

LOST IN TRANSLATION

This verse starts with a verb that means "look up!" not "receive your sight."
By telling the man to look to the sky, the blind man discovers that he has received his sight. This is a highly symbolic act. Being told that his faith has rescued him is typical for Jesus's healing. 

MY TAKE

We must all look higher in order to see.

GREEK ORDER

 

 Ἀνάβλεψον:      πίστις   σου      σέσωκέν     σε.
Look up!       That faith    of yours has rescued you.

# KJV TRANSLATION ISSUES
2

[Receive thy sight(CW)]: thy (MW) faith hath saved thee.

  •  CW --Confusing Word -- "Receive thy sight's" is more specific than the word's more general meaning.
  • MW - Missing Word -- The word "the/this" before "faith" is not shown in the English translation. 
# NIV TRANSLATION ISSUES
3

[Receive your sight(CW)] your (MW) faith has healed(CW) you.

  •  CW --Confusing Word -- "Receive thy sight's" is more specific than the word's more general meaning.
  • MW - Missing Word -- The word "the/this" before "faith" is not shown in the English translation. 
  • CW --Confusing Word -- This is not the common word usually translated as "heal ."

 

EACH WORD of KJV

Receive thy sight:  ---  - (CW)"Receive thy sight" is a Greek verb that means "to look up," "recover sight," "open one's eye's" and, metaphorically, "revive." This translation is more specific than the word's meaning. 

thy -- The word translated as "thy" is the possessive form of the second person pronoun.

missing "the/this"  -- (MW) The untranslated word is the Greek definite article," the," which usually precedes a noun or changes the word it precedes (adjective, infinitive, participle, etc.) to act like a noun. The Greek article is much closer to our demonstrative pronouns ("this," "that," "these," and "those"). See this article for more.

faith  -- The term translated as "faith" is closer to our idea of having confidence or trust in people, especially their word, rather than having a religious belief.

have -- This helping verb "have" indicates that the verb is the tense indicating an action completed in the past.

saved -- "Saved" is the Greek word that means "to keep alive" when applied to people or "to keep safe" when applied to things. Jesus uses it to mean "rescue" in most cases. It also doesn't refer to maladies or curing them directly. Interestingly, this same word is often translated in other verses about cures as "made whole" but the translated as "saved" is closer except for the sense of "redemption" that the word has taken on.

 thee. -- The "thee" here is singular second person pronoun.

EACH WORD of NIV

Receive you sight:  ---  - (CW) "Receive thy sight" is a Greek verb that means "to look up," "recover sight," "open one's eye's" and, metaphorically, "revive." This translation is more specific than the word's meaning. 

your -- The word translated as "your " is the possessive form of the second person pronoun.

missing "the/this"  -- (MW) The untranslated word is the Greek definite article," the," which usually precedes a noun or changes the word it precedes (adjective, infinitive, participle, etc.) to act like a noun. The Greek article is much closer to our demonstrative pronouns ("this," "that," "these," and "those"). See this article for more.

faith  -- The term translated as "faith" is closer to our idea of having confidence or trust in people, especially their word, rather than having a religious belief.

has -- This helping verb "have" indicates that the verb is the tense indicating an action completed in the past.

healed --  (CW) "Healed " is the Greek word that means "to keep alive" when applied to people or "to keep safe" when applied to things. Jesus uses it to mean "rescue" in most cases. It also doesn't refer to maladies or curing them directly. Interestingly, this same word is often translated in other verses about cures as "made whole" but the translated as "saved" is closer except for the sense of "redemption" that the word has taken on. This is not the word usually translated as "heal ." 

 you. -- The "you" here is singular second person pronoun.

COMPARISON: GREEK to KJV

Ἀνάβλεψον: [3 verses]( verb 2nd sg aor imperat act) "Receive their sight" is anablepô, which means "to look up," "recover sight," "open one's eye's" and, metaphorically, "revive."  It is from blepo, which means "to look," and "to see." The prefix is  ana, which in compound words means "strengthen" and "increase."

[821 verses](article sg  fem nom)  Untranslated is the Greek definite article, hos, ("the"). It usually precedes a noun or changes the word it precedes (adjective, infinitive, participle, etc.) to act like a noun. When not preceding a a word that can become a noun, takes the meaning of "the one" or, in the plural, "the ones." 

πίστις ( noun sg fem nom ) "Faith" is pistis, which means "confidence", "assurance", "trustworthiness", "credit", "a trust," "that which give confidence," and, as a character trait, "faithfulness."

σου  (adj sg masc gen) "Thy" is sou which means "of you" and "your." 

σέσωκέν (verb 3rd sg perf ind act ) "Saved" is sozo (soizo), which means "save from death", "keep alive", "keep safe", "preserve", "maintain", "keep in mind", "carry off safely," and "rescue." This is the 3rd person, singular, aortic, passive form. 

σου . (pron 2nd sg acc) "Thee" is from se, the second person singular accusative pronoun.

Wordplay

The word translated as "receive your sight" means "to look up", which has the double meaning of looking upward, cheering up, opening one's eyes,  and having confidence in the future, as it does in English.

Front Page Date