For this reason they were unable to believe. For again, Isaiah says:
Parallel translations
- WEB For this cause they couldn’t believe, for Isaiah said again,
- KJV Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again,
- NKJV Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again:
- NASB For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again,
- NLT But the people couldn’t believe, for as Isaiah also said,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
John says they could not believe, and again grounds this in Isaiah's prophecy. It introduces the sobering reality of judicial hardening for persistent unbelief.
Overview
Their inability to believe is not a denial of human responsibility but a divine judgment upon prolonged rejection of the light (cf. v. 37). Scripture holds together God's sovereignty and human accountability without resolving the tension to our satisfaction. The verse prepares for the Isaiah 6 citation that follows, explaining their settled blindness.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Isa 6:9–10And He replied: “Go and tell this people, ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
- John 10:38But if I am doing them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the works themselves, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father.”
- John 5:44How can you believe if you accept glory from one another, yet do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
- 2 Pet 2:14Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed.
- John 6:44“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
- Isa 44:18–20They do not comprehend or discern, for He has shut their eyes so they cannot see and closed their minds so they cannot understand.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.
How John 12:39 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.