Therefore Jesus told them, “Although your time is always at hand, My time has not yet come.
Parallel translations
- WEB Jesus therefore said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.
- KJV Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready.
- NKJV Then Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.
- NASB So Jesus *said to them, “My time is not yet here, but your time is always ready.
- NLT Jesus replied, “Now is not the right time for me to go, but you can go anytime.
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 replies that His time has not yet come, but their time is always ready. He acts according to the Father's appointed timing, not human pressure.
Overview
Jesus distinguishes His divinely set 'time' from the brothers' freedom to come and go as they please. His path to public revelation and ultimately the cross follows the Father's schedule alone. The verse displays Jesus's perfect submission to the Father's plan, refusing to be moved by worldly counsel.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- John 7:8Go up to the feast on your own. I am not going up to this feast, because My time has not yet come.”
- John 2:4“Woman, why does this concern us?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
- John 7:30So they tried to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.
- John 17:1When Jesus had spoken these things, He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You.
- John 13:1It was now just before the Passover Feast, and Jesus knew that His hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the very end.
- John 8:20He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts, near the treasury. Yet no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come.
- Matt 26:18He answered, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him that the Teacher says, ‘My time is near. I will keep the Passover with My disciples at your house.’”
- Acts 1:7Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority.
- Ps 102:13You will rise up and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show her favor—the appointed time has come.
- Eccl 3:1–15To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:
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 7:6 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.