Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Parallel translations
- WEB Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
- BSB Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.
- NKJV Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
- NASB Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.
- NLT Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.
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
Heaven and earth will pass away, but Jesus' words will never pass away. His words carry the permanence and authority of God himself.
Overview
Jesus places his own teaching above the created order in durability, a claim only fitting for one who is divine. The visible universe is temporary, but the word of the Son endures forever, like the word of the Lord in the prophets. This grounds the certainty of every promise and warning in the discourse. Believers can stake their lives on words that outlast the cosmos.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Isa 40:8The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
- 1 Pet 1:25But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
- Num 23:19God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
- Isa 55:11So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
- Matt 5:18For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
- Prov 30:5Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
- Isa 51:6Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
- Isa 54:10For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.
- Ps 89:34My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
- Titus 1:2In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
- Ps 102:26They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:
- 2 Pet 3:7–12But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
- Heb 1:11–12They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;
- Ps 19:7The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
- Jer 31:35–36Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:
- Rev 3:14And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
- Rev 6:14And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
- Rev 20:11And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
- Isa 34:4And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.
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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 24:35 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.