“Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in Him?
Parallel translations
- WEB Have any of the rulers believed in him, or of the Pharisees?
- KJV Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him?
- NKJV Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him?
- NASB Not one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in Him, has he?
- NLT “Is there a single one of us rulers or Pharisees who believes in him?
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
The Pharisees ask whether any of the rulers or Pharisees have believed in Jesus. They appeal to their own group's unbelief as proof against Him.
Overview
The leaders use their own collective rejection of Jesus as evidence that He cannot be the Christ, assuming the educated elite must be right. Yet John shows that some rulers did secretly believe (12:42), and the very next verses introduce Nicodemus. Their argument exposes the danger of measuring truth by the consensus of the proud rather than by God's revelation.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- John 12:42Nevertheless, many of the leaders believed in Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue.
- 1 Cor 1:20Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
- 1 Cor 2:8None of the rulers of this age understood it. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
- John 7:26Yet here He is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying anything to Him. Have the rulers truly recognized that this is the Christ?
- Matt 11:25At that time Jesus declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
- Acts 6:7So the word of God continued to spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem grew rapidly, and a great number of priests became obedient to the faith.
- 1 Cor 1:22–28Jews demand signs and Greeks search for wisdom,
- Jer 5:4–5Then I said, “They are only the poor; they have played the fool, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.
- John 7:50Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who himself was one of them, asked,
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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 7:48 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.