Bible Strands
John 13:8
“Never shall You wash my feet!” Peter told Him. Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jesus, in the act of washing the disciples' feet at the Last Supper, responds to Peter's refusal. Peter has just declared he will never let Jesus wash his feet (John 13:8a); Jesus answers with a condition (13:8b).
The words — νίψῃς (nipsēs), aorist subjunctive of νίπτω "to wash," is the same verb Jesus used in 13:5 for the foot-washing itself. Peter's refusal uses the emphatic double negation οὐ μὴ, a stronger "never" than a simple οὐκ.
The thread — The washing-as-cleansing pattern recurs in Ezekiel 36:25 (sprinkling clean water), Acts 22:16 ("wash your sins away"), and Titus 3:5 ("washing of regeneration"). Each ties a physical act of washing to a spiritual reality.
Why it lands — Jesus makes fellowship with himself conditional on accepting his service, not on Peter's own merit or preference. The reader is left to ask whether they, like Peter, resist the very thing that would connect them to Christ.
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
Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 36:25 I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols.
- Acts 22:16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized, and wash your sins away, calling on His name.’
- Titus 3:5 He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
- Ephesians 5:26 to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
- 1 Corinthians 6:11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
- Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
- Revelation 7:14 “Sir,” I answered, “you know.” So he replied, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
- Matthew 26:33 Peter said to Him, “Even if all fall away on account of You, I never will.”
- John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.
- Colossians 2:23 Such restrictions indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-prescribed worship, their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body; but they are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.