Bible Strands
John 13:7
Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses Simon Peter immediately after Peter asks whether the Lord will wash his feet (John 13:6). This reply occurs chronologically before Peter’s protest in verse 8.
The words — ἀπεκρίθη (apekrithē) literally means “answered,” and ποιῶ (poiō) means “I do.” The text states that Jesus performs a present action which Peter cannot currently comprehend but will later grasp.
The thread — Delayed understanding appears in Daniel 12:8, John 12:16, and John 14:26. Each passage records that comprehension arrives only after a subsequent event or divine teaching.
Why it lands — The text requires acknowledgment of present limitation regarding God’s actions. It asks readers to accept the present act without demanding immediate explanation.
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
Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.
Cross-references
- Daniel 12:8 I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, “My lord, what will be the outcome of these things?”
- John 12:16 At first His disciples did not understand these things, but after Jesus was glorified they remembered what had been done to Him, and they realized that these very things had also been written about Him.
- John 14:26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.
- James 5:7 Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer awaits the precious fruit of the soil—how patient he is for the fall and spring rains.
- John 13:10 Jesus told him, “Whoever has already bathed needs only to wash his feet, and he will be completely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.”
- Daniel 12:12 Blessed is he who waits and reaches the end of the 1,335 days.
- Habakkuk 2:1 I will stand at my guard post and station myself on the ramparts. I will watch to see what He will say to me, and how I should answer when corrected.
- John 13:36 “Lord, where are You going?” Simon Peter asked. Jesus answered, “Where I am going, you cannot follow Me now, but you will follow later.”
- Jeremiah 32:24 See how the siege ramps are mounted against the city to capture it. And by sword and famine and plague, the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What You have spoken has happened, as You now see!
- Jeremiah 32:43 And fields will be bought in this land about which you are saying, ‘It is a desolation, without man or beast; it has been delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans.’