Greek word · G3467

μυωπάζω

myōpazō

be nearsighted

The verb comes from myōps, built from myein ("to close, shut," used of the eyes) and ōps ("eye, face"). A myōps is someone who half-closes or screws up the eyes, which is what short-sighted people do to bring things into focus.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

μυ-ωπάζω

(μύωψ, closing the eyes, short-sighted; μύω, ὤψ)

to be short-sighted: 2 Peter 1:9 (R, mg., closing his eyes; see ICC, in l).†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of 2 Peter 1:9

Range of meaning

The verb comes from myōps, built from myein ("to close, shut," used of the eyes) and ōps ("eye, face"). A myōps is someone who half-closes or screws up the eyes, which is what short-sighted people do to bring things into focus. In Greek medical and scientific writing (for example the Aristotelian Problems), myōps is the ordinary word for a short-sighted person. That is the source of the English word "myopia." So the verb can mean (a) to be short-sighted, or (b) to squint or blink, half-shutting the eyes.

Against the English

KJV: "blind, and cannot see afar off" (it explains the word as a phrase). BSB and ESV: "nearsighted to the point of blindness" (they let the participle explain or limit "blind"). NASB: "blind or short-sighted" (it treats the two as alternatives). WEB: "seeing only what is near." YLT: "dim-sighted." The Latin Vulgate makes it "groping with the hand," which shows how hard early translators found the word.

Used elsewhere in the period

Very rare as a verb. This is its only New Testament use. The noun myōps is well attested in the medical and natural-science vocabulary of Greek writers. The same spelling myōps is also an unrelated word meaning "gadfly" or "spur." That homonym has no bearing here.

Where it appears

2 Peter · 1

  1. 2 Peter 1:9 μυωπάζων, being short sighted,

    But whoever lacks these traits is nearsighted to the point of blindness, having forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

    Here: An extremely rare word, found nowhere else in the New Testament. It is related to myōps, someone who screws up their eyes, which came to mean a short-sighted person. It sharpens or qualifies "blind": he sees only what is close, or he half-shuts his eyes, so in effect he cannot see.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.