---
title: John 12:40
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/john-12-40/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/john-12-40.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: John 12:40
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# John 12:40

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they cannot see with their eyes, and understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.”

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "He has blinded their eyes and has made their hearts hard, so that they would not see with their eyes and understand with their hearts and turn around and I heal them."

## JW Usage

Read at the level of the original Isaiah 6:10 context — Jehovah blinds, hardens, and prevents healing in judicial response to Israel's persistent unbelief. The Watchtower's own jw.org footnote on John 12:40 cross-references Isaiah 6:10, confirming the connection. The implication for verse 41 is simply not engaged.

## Protestant Usage

The New Testament writer is quoting Isaiah 6:10 — the throne-room vision passage — and in the next verse he tells the reader who that passage was about. Verse 41: "Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke about him." The continuous subject is Jesus. The Septuagint of Isaiah 6 uses the same words John reaches for — horao (to see) and doxa (glory) — establishing that John is making a deliberate intertextual identification, not a loose allusion. Pair John 12:40 with Isaiah 6:1-5 in the JW's own NWT, including the seraphim's "Holy, holy, holy" and Isaiah's "my eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of armies." The Jehovah of Isaiah 6 and the Jesus of John 12 are the same person — and the Watchtower's own jw.org footnote confirms the cross-reference.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Isaiah Saw Jesus' Glory](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/john12-isaiah6.md) — John 12:41 / Isaiah 6 [Deity of Christ]