Skip to content
mannafest.faith
Read

John 5:25

in John 5

Truly, truly, I tell you, the hour is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live.

KJV

Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.

⋯

This verse in John 5

Commentary

4 notes on this verse
The hour - The time. Is coming - Under the preaching of the gospel, as well as in the resurrection of the dead. Now is - It is now taking place. Sinners were converted under his ministry and brought to spiritual life. The dead - Either the dead in sins, or those that are in their graves. The words of the Saviour will apply to either. Language, in the Scriptures, is often so used as to describe two similar events.

This site's exposition

The hour is coming, and now is

The hour is coming, and now is joins the two tenses the Gospel's hour sayings elsewhere keep apart, an event both future and already begun. The dead who hear the voice of the Son of God are read by the bench as the spiritually dead, those in Adam's death hearing the gospel call and living by it, a resurrection already underway in Jesus' own ministry. The next section will speak of the graves themselves, and the deliberate overlap invites the reader to hold both the present and the future hour together rather than collapse one into the other.

The record, by era

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

on John 5:24-29

The passage before us is singularly rich in weighty truths. To the minds of Jews, who were familiar with the writings of Moses and Daniel, it would come home with peculiar power. In the words of our Lord they would not fail to see fresh assertions of His claim to be received as the promised Messiah. We see in these verses that the salvation of our soul depends on hearing Christ. It is the man, we are told, who "hears Christ's word," and believes that God the Father sent Him to save sinners, who "has everlasting life."

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

on John 5:25-29

Here He rises from the calmer phrase "hearing his word" (Joh 5:24), to the grander expression, "hearing the voice of the Son of God," to signify that as it finds men in a dead condition, so it carries with it a resurrection-power. shall live--in the sense of Joh 5:24.

The words behind it

24 Greek words

Every Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

18 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Ezekiel 37:4And He said to me, “Prophesy concerning these bones and tell them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!56 worksJohn 10:27My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.37 worksHebrews 3:7Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear His voice,33 worksJohn 4:23But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him.28 worksJohn 5:28Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice19 works1 Corinthians 15:52in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.17 works
The other 12 cross-references, with their words ▾
Ephesians 5:14So it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”16 worksRomans 4:17As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the presence of God, in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not yet exist.15 worksJohn 11:44The man who had been dead came out with his hands and feet bound in strips of linen, and his face wrapped in a cloth. “Unwrap him and let him go,” Jesus told them.15 worksEphesians 2:5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!14 worksEzekiel 16:6Then I passed by and saw you wallowing in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, ‘Live!’ There I said to you, ‘Live!’10 worksJohn 8:47Whoever belongs to God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”9 worksColossians 2:13When you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our trespasses,9 worksMark 4:24He went on to say, “Pay attention to what you hear. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and even more will be added to you.9 worksRevelation 3:1“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of the One who holds the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation for being alive, yet you are dead.8 worksRomans 6:4We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.8 worksLuke 9:60But Jesus told him, “Let the dead bury their own dead. You, however, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”7 worksEphesians 2:1And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,7 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Ephesians 5:14

    So it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 60:1

      Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.

    • Isaiah 26:19

      Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is like the dew of the morning, and the earth will bring forth her…

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Romans 13:11–12

      And do this, understanding the occasion. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

    • 1 Thessalonians 5:6

      So then, let us not sleep as the others do, but let us remain awake and sober.

    • Isaiah 52:1

      Awake, awake, clothe yourself with strength, O Zion! Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, holy city! For the uncircumcised and unclean will no longer enter you.

  • Through

    John 4:23

    But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him.

    it leads to

    • Philippians 3:3

      For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—

    • Matthew 15:7–9

      You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you:

  • Through

    Ephesians 2:5

    made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!

    it leads to

    • Romans 3:24

      and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Where this verse is studied

About John

The Healing at the Pool of Bethesda — Gustave Doré (engraving), public domain
The Healing at the Pool of Bethesda — Gustave Doré (engraving), public domain
John: the study guide →Read John 5 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Brooke Foss Westcott, The Gospel according to St. John; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in John 5 →