Bible Strands
John 8:21
Again He said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for Me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses His Jewish opponents in the temple courts near the treasury, speaking immediately after His previous teaching and before they question His meaning in John 8:22.
The words — The verb ὑπάγω (hupagō) literally means "am going away," marking a definitive departure from His current location.
The thread — The warning about searching for Him and being unable to follow appears in John 7:34, while the consequence of dying in sin is directly tied to belief in John 8:24.
Why it lands — The text declares that those who remain in sin will die in it and cannot follow Him to His destination. It requires the reader to acknowledge that faith in Jesus is the only means of escape from that fate.
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
Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come.
Cross-references
- John 7:34 You will look for Me, but you will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.”
- John 8:24 That is why I told you that you would die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
- Ezekiel 3:18 If I say to the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ but you do not warn him or speak out to warn him from his wicked way to save his life, that wicked man will die in his iniquity, and I will hold you responsible for his blood.
- John 13:33 Little children, I am with you only a little while longer. You will look for Me, and as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you: ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’
- 1 Corinthians 15:17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.
- 1 Kings 18:10 As surely as the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent someone to search for you. When they said, ‘He is not here,’ he made that kingdom or nation swear that they had not found you.
- 2 Kings 2:16 “Look now,” they said to Elisha, “we your servants have fifty valiant men. Please let them go and search for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the LORD has taken him up and put him on one of the mountains or in one of the valleys.” “Do not send them,” Elisha replied.
- Job 20:11 The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie down with him in the dust.
- Psalms 73:18 Surely You set them on slick ground; You cast them down into ruin.
- Proverbs 11:7 When the wicked man dies, his hope perishes, and the hope of his strength vanishes.