Limitless Word
In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
John 14:2 · King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB In my Father’s house are many homes. If it weren’t so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you.
  • BSB In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
  • NKJV In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
  • NASB In My Father’s house are many rooms; if that were not so, I would have told you, because I am going there to prepare a place for you.
  • NLT There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?

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

Jesus assures them that His Father's house has many rooms and that He goes to prepare a place for them. It promises a secure, prepared dwelling with God for His people.

Overview

The 'Father's house' pictures the heavenly home where believers will dwell with God forever. Jesus' going to prepare a place points to His death, resurrection, and ascension, which open the way into God's presence. The verse offers profound hope: Christ Himself secures an eternal home for all who trust Him.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 23

  • 2 Cor 5:1For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
  • John 13:36Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards.
  • Heb 13:14For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
  • Rev 21:2And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
  • Heb 11:10For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
  • Rev 3:12Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
  • Heb 11:14–16For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
  • John 12:25–26He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
  • John 13:33Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you.
  • John 17:24Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
  • Heb 6:20Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
  • John 16:4But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.
  • Heb 9:8The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:
  • 1 Th 3:3–4That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.
  • 2 Th 1:4–10So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:
  • Titus 1:2In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
  • Rev 1:5And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
  • Rev 3:21To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
  • Heb 9:23–26It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
  • Luke 14:26–33If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
  • 1 Th 5:9For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
  • Acts 9:16For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.
  • Rev 21:10–27And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (4)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — John videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on John 14:2YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JohnMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

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 14:2 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.