The Meaning of Mark 8:18 Explained

Mark 8:18

KJV: Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?

YLT: Having eyes, do ye not see? and having ears, do ye not hear? and do ye not remember?

Darby: Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?

ASV: Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Having  eyes,  see ye  not?  and  having  ears,  hear ye  not?  and  do ye  not  remember? 

What does Mark 8:18 Mean?

Context Summary

Mark 8:1-21 - The Demand For Signs Rebuked
Notice the Master's tender considerateness, Mark 8:1-9. He would not have the people faint on their way home. There are distinct differences between this miracle and the feeding of the five thousand. Most of these are evident to the English reader, but that between the baskets used for the fragments is clear only from the original-those used in the case of the five thousand being quite different from the large ones used here, Mark 8:20; Matthew 15:37. Our Lord never repeats His work.
The Savior sighed in the previous chapter over physical need; here He sighs over moral obtuseness, Mark 8:10-21. The language is very strong, and gives a glimpse into the Redeemer's heart. Had the Pharisees been as willing to discern the signs of the age as to read the weather, they must have been able to recognize Him and His claims; but their foolish heart was darkened. Having sighed over the hard-heartedness of the Pharisees, might He not equally have done so over the obtuseness of the Twelve? They thought that He was referring to their carelessness in omitting to take bread. How little they realized that the cause lay far deeper! Let us be quick to read the divine intention in very simple incidents, and to learn that all God's past dealings contain lessons for the present! [source]

Chapter Summary: Mark 8

1  Jesus feeds the people miraculously;
10  refuses to give a sign to the Pharisees;
14  admonishes his disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod;
22  gives a blind man his sight;
27  acknowledges that he is the Jesus who should suffer and rise again;
34  and exhorts to patience in persecution for the profession of the gospel

What do the individual words in Mark 8:18 mean?

Eyes having not do you see And ears not do you hear do you remember
Ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔχοντες οὐ βλέπετε καὶ ὦτα οὐκ ἀκούετε μνημονεύετε

Ὀφθαλμοὺς  Eyes 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Masculine Plural
Root: ὀφθαλμός  
Sense: the eye.
βλέπετε  do  you  see 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 2nd Person Plural
Root: βλέπω  
Sense: to see, discern, of the bodily eye.
ὦτα  ears 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Neuter Plural
Root: οὖς  
Sense: the ear.
ἀκούετε  do  you  hear 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 2nd Person Plural
Root: ἀκουστός 
Sense: to be endowed with the faculty of hearing, not deaf.
μνημονεύετε  do  you  remember 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 2nd Person Plural
Root: μνημονεύω  
Sense: to be mindful of, to remember, to call to mind.