Why can’t you understand what I am saying? It’s because you can’t even hear me!
Parallel translations
- WEB Why don’t you understand my speech? Because you can’t hear my word.
- KJV Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
- BSB Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you are unable to accept My message.
- ESV Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.
- NKJV Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.
- NASB Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot listen to My word.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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
They cannot understand Jesus' words because they are unable to truly hear them. Their spiritual condition blocks comprehension.
Overview
Jesus locates the problem not in his teaching but in their inability to receive it. This inability is moral and spiritual, rooted in their alienation from God. The verse illustrates that understanding Christ's word requires a heart opened by God, a truth that exposes human need and magnifies divine grace in salvation.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- John 5:43I have come in my Father’s name, and you don’t receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
- Rom 8:7–8because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.
- John 7:17If anyone desires to do his will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is from God, or if I am speaking from myself.
- John 12:39–40For this cause they couldn’t believe, for Isaiah said again,
- Prov 28:5Evil men don’t understand justice; but those who seek Yahweh understand it fully.
- Acts 7:51“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do.
- John 6:60Therefore many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying! Who can listen to it?”
- Jer 6:10To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can’t listen. Behold, Yahweh’s word has become a reproach to them. They have no delight in it.
- John 8:27They didn’t understand that he spoke to them about the Father.
- Isa 6:9He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand; and you see indeed, but don’t perceive.’
- Isa 44:18They don’t know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see; and their hearts, that they can’t understand.
- Hos 14:9Who is wise, that he may understand these things? Who is prudent, that he may know them? For the ways of Yahweh are right, and the righteous walk in them; But the rebellious stumble in them.
- Mic 4:12But they don’t know the thoughts of Yahweh, neither do they understand his counsel; for he has gathered them like the sheaves to the threshing floor.
- Rom 3:11There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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 8:43 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.