The Greek verb anablepō is a compound of ana (up) and blepō (to see), meaning to look up, to recover sight, or to see again. It occurs about 25 times in the New Testament and is the standard verb used when Jesus heals the blind — their receiving of sight being a central sign of the Kingdom of God.
Physical blindness and its healing in the Gospels is never merely medical — it is profoundly symbolic. Jesus citing Isaiah 61 at Nazareth includes 'recovery of sight for the blind' (Luke 4:18) as a mark of the Messianic age. When blind Bartimaeus cries out and Jesus restores his sight (anablepō, Mark 10:52), he immediately follows Jesus 'along the road' — the restored vision leads to discipleship. John 9 (the man born blind) develops this most fully: physical healing leads to theological insight, while the spiritually 'seeing' Pharisees become progressively blind. Anablepō thus embodies the Gospel's core transformation — from darkness to light, blindness to sight, death to life.