Blind
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τυφλός (typhlos) means blind or unable to see and can refer to physical blindness or, in context, metaphorical inability to perceive spiritual reality. Matthew introduces two blind men as people who follow Jesus and cry for mercy, refusing to reduce them to a condition.
Reader summary
Full entry for τυφλός (G5185) · Open the biblical lexicon
τυφλός (typhlos) means blind or unable to see and can refer to physical blindness or, in context, metaphorical inability to perceive spiritual reality. Matthew introduces two blind men as people who follow Jesus and cry for mercy, refusing to reduce them to a condition.
The BSB source-word alignment has 50 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include blind (18), [The] blind (7), blind [man] (4), a blind [man] (3), blind [men] (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 9:27. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (17), John (16), Luke (8), Mark (5).
τυφλός (typhlos) means blind or unable to see and can refer to physical blindness or, in context, metaphorical inability to perceive spiritual reality. Matthew introduces two blind men as people who follow Jesus and cry for mercy, refusing to reduce them to a condition. Jesus identifies the blind receiving sight as part of the messianic works reported to John the Baptist.
John 9 begins with a man blind from birth and explicitly rejects the disciples’ assumption that his condition can be traced to his or his parents’ sin. The chapter later uses sight and blindness in Jesus’ judgment saying, exposing people who claim to see while rejecting Him. Revelation calls Laodicea blind within a diagnosis of self-deceived wealth and need.
Metaphorical uses must not turn physical blindness into an insult or imply moral failure in disabled people. The passages distinguish embodied suffering, compassionate healing, false confidence, and spiritual perception.
τυφλός names physical blindness and, where the passage signals it, spiritual inability to perceive. The selected witnesses preserve disabled people’s dignity, Jesus’ messianic healing, rejection of simplistic blame, and warnings against self-confident blindness.
As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”
Matthew presents the men as active followers who address Jesus with a messianic title and seek mercy. Their blindness is real, but it does not exhaust their agency, faith, or place in the narrative.
The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.
Jesus points to visible works that answer John’s question in the language of prophetic hope. The blind receiving sight belongs to a wider messianic pattern of mercy and good news.
Now as Jesus was passing by, He saw a man blind from birth,
The chapter begins with Jesus seeing a particular man whom the disciples immediately turn into a question about blame. Jesus rejects their proposed causal alternatives and directs attention to God’s works.
Then Jesus declared, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind may see and those who see may become blind.”
After the man receives physical sight and increasingly recognizes Jesus, the saying uses blindness metaphorically for judgment and rejected revelation. The narrative contrast must not be used to demean physical disability.
You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.
Laodicea’s blindness belongs to Christ’s exposure of a congregation whose self-assessment contradicts its true condition. The remedy is His counsel, discipline, and call to repent.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Blind describes both physical sight loss and spiritual inability to perceive divine truth or moral reality
Blind describes both physical sight loss and spiritual inability to perceive divine truth or moral reality
blind: as subst., ὁ τ., Mat.9:27, Mrk.8:22, Luk.4:18" (LXX), Jhn.5:3, al. Metaphorical: Mat.15:14 23:16-26, Jhn.9:39-41, Rom.2:19, 2Pe.1:9, Rev.3:17.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 53 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
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Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 10 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 50 lexical occurrence verses.
τυφλός is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Jesus does not encounter “blindness” as an abstraction. Matthew’s blind men follow Him, cry for mercy, call Him Son of David, and answer His question. John’s man born blind is seen by Jesus before others debate the cause of his condition. Jesus refuses the disciples’ attempt to locate blame in the man or his parents and acts so that God’s works may be displayed.
As the chapter unfolds, the man gains more than physical sight: his testimony about Jesus grows clearer while confident religious opponents close themselves against the evidence. Only then does Jesus use blindness as a judgment image. Revelation likewise calls a self-satisfied church blind because it cannot perceive its true poverty. These metaphors are powerful precisely because the narratives preserve physical blindness as real human experience, not moral defect.
Churches should honor disabled people as full participants, pray without accusation, remove barriers, and hear their testimony. Spiritual blindness should be applied first as a warning against pride that claims sight while refusing Christ’s word.
John.9.1
The adjective can describe a person physically unable to see or function metaphorically when the author clearly develops a perception contrast. Referent and discourse control the sense. A shift from physical to metaphorical blindness within John 9 is narratively signaled and should not be projected backward as a moral diagnosis of the man.
The law protects blind people from exploitation, the prophets condemn leaders who fail to perceive, and Isaiah promises that the blind will see in the age of restoration. Jesus’ healings enact messianic mercy, while His judgment sayings turn prophetic perception language against confident unbelief.