For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.
Parallel translations
- WEB For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.
- KJV For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.
- BSB For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.
- NASB For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.
- NLT For before John came, all the prophets and the law of Moses looked forward to this present time.
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
All the prophets and the law pointed forward until John. John stands as the hinge between promise and fulfillment.
Overview
Jesus says the entire Old Testament had a forward-looking, prophetic character, anticipating the Messiah until John appeared. John marks the close of the age of expectation and the dawn of fulfillment in Christ. The verse affirms the unity of Scripture, all of it converging on Jesus.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Matt 5:17–18“Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.
- Rom 3:21But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets;
- Luke 24:44He said to them, “This is what I told you, while I was still with you, that all things which are written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me must be fulfilled.”
- Acts 13:27For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they didn’t know him, nor the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him.
- Acts 3:22–24For Moses indeed said to the fathers, ‘The Lord God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him in all things whatever he says to you.
- Mal 4:6He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
- Luke 24:27Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
- John 5:46–47For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
How Matthew 11:13 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.