Bible Strands
John 12:37
Although Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still did not believe in Him.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator reports the crowd’s response after Jesus finishes His public teaching and withdraws from them. The account marks the close of His visible ministry as He urges belief in the Light and then becomes hidden from the observers.
The words — Τοσαῦτα (tosauta) translates literally to "so many" or "so great a number," stressing the volume of miracles. ἔμπροσθεν (emprosthen) means "before" or "in the presence of," specifying the spatial location of the signs relative to the onlookers.
The thread — The pattern of witnessing visible works yet refusing faith runs through John 1:11 and John 15:24, where sight fails to generate trust. This same dynamic is paralleled in Luke 16:31, which states that rejecting established revelation blocks persuasion even by extraordinary signs.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to confront the reality that empirical evidence does not automatically produce belief. It demands a plain acknowledgment that faith operates independently of visible proof.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him:
Cross-references
- Luke 16:31 Then Abraham said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”
- John 1:11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
- John 15:24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father.
- Matthew 11:20 Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles had been performed, because they did not repent.
- John 11:42 I knew that You always hear Me, but I say this for the benefit of the people standing here, so they may believe that You sent Me.”