And then He said to them, “You foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
Parallel translations
- WEB He said to them, “Foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
- KJV Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
- BSB Then Jesus said to them, “O foolish ones, how slow are your hearts to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
- NKJV Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
- NLT Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures.
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 gently rebukes the two for being slow to believe what the prophets had foretold. He shows that the Scriptures themselves had already announced the events they found confusing.
Overview
Rather than first revealing his identity, Jesus addresses the deeper problem: a failure to believe all that the prophets spoke. Their sorrow grew from reading the cross apart from Scripture's testimony. The rebuke is tender, aiming to lead them from despair to faith by reorienting them to God's revealed word.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Mark 7:18He said to them, “Are you also without understanding? Don’t you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can’t defile him,
- Mark 9:19He answered him, “Unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to me.”
- Heb 5:11–12About him we have many words to say, and hard to interpret, seeing you have become dull of hearing.
- Mark 16:14Afterward he was revealed to the eleven themselves as they sat at the table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they didn’t believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
- Mark 8:17–18Jesus, perceiving it, said to them, “Why do you reason that it’s because you have no bread? Don’t you perceive yet, neither understand? Is your heart still hardened?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 24:25 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.