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Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God.
Mark 12:24 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB Jesus answered them, “Isn’t this because you are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God?
  • KJV And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?
  • BSB Jesus said to them, “Aren’t you mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?
  • NKJV Jesus answered and said to them, “Are you not therefore mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God?
  • NASB Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God?

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 says they are mistaken because they know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.

Overview

Jesus diagnoses two roots of their error: ignorance of Scripture and of God's power. They wrongly assume resurrection life merely extends present marriage, and they doubt God's ability to raise the dead. His rebuke calls all readers to know God's Word rightly and to trust His mighty power.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 23

  • 2 Tim 3:15–17From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
  • John 20:9For as yet they didn’t know the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
  • Matt 22:29But Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.
  • Eph 1:19and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might
  • 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.
  • Hos 6:2After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before him.
  • Jer 32:17“Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm; there is nothing too hard for you,
  • Acts 17:11Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
  • Rom 15:4For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through perseverance and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
  • Phil 3:21who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.
  • Mark 10:27Jesus, looking at them, said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God.”
  • Hos 6:6For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • John 5:39“You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me.
  • Luke 1:37For nothing spoken by God is impossible.”
  • Jer 8:7–9Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times; and the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people don’t know Yahweh’s law.
  • Job 19:25–27But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.
  • Dan 12:2Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
  • Isa 8:20Turn to the law and to the testimony! If they don’t speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.
  • Ezek 37:1–14Yahweh’s hand was on me, and he brought me out in Yahweh’s Spirit, and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones.
  • Gen 18:14Is anything too hard for Yahweh? At the set time I will return to you, when the season comes round, and Sarah will have a son.”
  • Hos 8:12I wrote for him the many things of my law; but they were regarded as a strange thing.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (5)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Mark videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Mark 12:24YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on MarkMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Mark drives urgently to the cross, showing Jesus the Son of God as the suffering Servant who 'came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'

How Mark 12:24 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.