BSN: JESUS NOT UNDERSTOOD BY HIS DISCIPLES

Back to BSN Glossary: Jesus Christ

• Matthew 15:15-16 – Peter fails to understand a parable Jesus told.
• Matthew 16:9 – Jesus’ disciples fail to remember and learn the proper lesson from His feeding of the 5,000.
• Matthew 16:11 – Jesus’ disciples fail to understand what He meant by “the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
• Matthew 16:22–23 – Peter fails to understand Jesus’ prophecy of His own death and resurrection.
• Matthew 17:9–13 – Jesus’ disciples are slow to grasp how John the Baptist was fulfilling the prophecies of Elijah coming before the Lord.
• Matthew 17:23 – Jesus’ disciples again fail to understand Jesus’ prophecy of His impending death and resurrection.
• Mark 4:10 – Jesus’ disciples ask Jesus for explanation of His parable about the sower.
• Mark 4:13 – Jesus tells His disciples that their failure to grasp the parable of the sower means they will have a hard time understanding His other parables.
• Mark 6:52 – Jesus’ disciples fail to gain insight from the incident of the loaves and “their heart was hardened.”
• Mark 7:18 – Jesus’ disciples fail to understand a parable.
• Mark 8:17–21 – Jesus’ disciples fail to understand what Jesus means by “the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod, so He asks them, “Do you have a hardened heart?”
• Mark 9:32 – Jesus’ disciples fail to understand His prophecy of His impending death and crucifixion.
• Mark 14:40 – Jesus’ disciples did not understand how to pray with Jesus in Gethsemane as He wanted them to.
• Luke 2:50 – Jesus’ own parents did not understand a statement made by their 12-year-old son.
• Luke 8:9–10 – Jesus’ disciples ask Him to explain His parable of the sower.
• Luke 9:45 – Jesus’ disciples did not understand His prophecy of His death and were afraid to ask Him about it.
• Luke 18:34 – After hearing a straightforward explanation by Jesus of His impending death and resurrection as prophesied in the Scriptures, Luke writes, “But the disciples understood none of these things, and the meaning of this statement was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said.”
• Luke 24:25–27 – The resurrected Jesus calls His disciples “foolish” and “slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken”
• John 2:22 – John indicates that when Jesus said to the administrators of the temple, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” His disciples didn’t understand what He meant until after He’d actually risen from the dead.
• John 4:33 – When Jesus says to His disciples, “I have food that you do not know about,” they think He’s talking about physical food.
• John 6:60 – Some of Jesus’ disciples choke on His talk of “eating His flesh and drinking His blood.”
• John 6:66 – “As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.” Further evidence that the language of “eating flesh and blood” was so hard to understand that they wanted no part of it.
• John 10:6 – When Jesus speaks of a shepherd and the sheep, John reports, “This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them.”
• John 12:16 – When the Jerusalem crowds welcomed Jesus in the custom of ancient Israelites receiving their king (and as described in Zech 9:9), John reports: “These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him…”
• John 13:7 – “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.” Jesus didn’t even attempt to get His disciples to understand His washing of their feet in the moment.
• John 20:9 – “For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.” Jesus’ disciples are staring at an empty tomb and still don’t realize that all this has happened – including His resurrection – according to what Scripture had prophesied.