John 12:40
John 12:4040“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.”
Read at the level of the original context — Jehovah blinds, hardens, and prevents healing in judicial response to Israel's persistent unbelief. The Watchtower's own jw.org footnote on cross-references , confirming the connection. The implication for verse 41 is simply not engaged.
The New Testament writer is quoting — 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 with 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.