For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.
Parallel translations
- WEB For as yet they didn’t know the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
- BSB For they still did not understand from the Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.
- NKJV For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.
- NASB For they did not yet understand the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead.
- NLT for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead.
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
As yet the disciples did not understand the Scripture that Jesus must rise. Their faith outran their full grasp of God's plan.
Overview
John candidly admits the disciples had not yet understood the Old Testament's witness that the Messiah must rise (e.g., Psalm 16:10; Isaiah 53). Their belief was not the product of prior expectation but a response to the empty tomb. Only after the resurrection did the Scriptures' meaning become clear, as Jesus himself later opened their minds (Luke 24:45-46).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Ps 16:10For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
- Isa 25:8He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.
- Isa 53:10–12Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
- Isa 26:19Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
- Luke 24:44–46And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
- 1 Cor 15:4And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
- Luke 24:26Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
- Hos 13:14I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.
- Matt 22:29Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.
- Mark 9:31–32For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day.
- Luke 18:33–34And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.
- Mark 9:9–10And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead.
- Ps 22:22–31I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
- Mark 8:31–33And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
- John 2:22When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
- Matt 16:21–22From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
- Luke 9:45But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not: and they feared to ask him of that saying.
- Ps 22:15My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
- Acts 13:29–37And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre.
- Acts 2:25–32For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:
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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 20:9 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
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