For as yet they did not know 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.
- KJV For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.
- BSB For they still did not understand from the Scripture that Jesus had to rise 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 you will not leave my soul in Sheol, neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption.
- Isa 25:8He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken it.
- Isa 53:10–12Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days, and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.
- Isa 26:19Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast out the departed spirits.
- Luke 24:44–46He said to them, “This is what I told you, while I was still with you, that all things which are written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me must be fulfilled.”
- 1 Cor 15:4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
- Luke 24:26Didn’t the Christ have to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?”
- Hos 13:14I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction? “Compassion will be hidden from my eyes.
- Matt 22:29But Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.
- Mark 9:31–32For he was teaching his disciples, and said to them, “The Son of Man is being handed over to the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, on the third day he will rise again.”
- Luke 18:33–34They will scourge and kill him. On the third day, he will rise again.”
- Mark 9:9–10As they were coming down from the mountain, he commanded them that they should tell no one what things they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
- Ps 22:22–31I will declare your name to my brothers. Among the assembly, I will praise you.
- Mark 8:31–33He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
- John 2:22When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this, and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
- Matt 16:21–22From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.
- Luke 9:45But they didn’t understand this saying. It was concealed from them, that they should not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.
- Ps 22:15My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death.
- Acts 13:29–37When they had fulfilled all things that were written about him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a tomb.
- Acts 2:25–32For David says concerning him, ‘I saw 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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