John 3:12

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

King James Version (1611)
If I haue tolde you earthly things, and ye beleeue not: how shall ye beleeue if I tell you of heauenly things?

King James Version
If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

English Standard Version
If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

New American Standard Bible
"If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

New Century Version
I have told you about things here on earth, and you do not believe me. So you will not believe me if I tell you about things of heaven.

Amplified Bible
"If I told you earthly things [that is, things that happen right here on earth] and you do not believe, how will you believe and trust Me if I tell you heavenly things?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

Legacy Standard Bible
If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

Berean Standard Bible
If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

Contemporary English Version
If you don't believe when I talk to you about things on earth, how can you possibly believe if I talk to you about things in heaven?

Complete Jewish Bible
If you people don't believe me when I tell you about the things of the world, how will you believe me when I tell you about the things of heaven?

Darby Translation
If I have said the earthly things to you, and ye believe not, how, if I say the heavenly things to you, will ye believe?

Easy-to-Read Version
I have told you about things here on earth, but you do not believe me. So I'm sure you will not believe me if I tell you about heavenly things!

Geneva Bible (1587)
If when I tel you earthly things, ye beleeue not, howe should yee beleeue, if I shall tel you of heauenly things?

George Lamsa Translation
If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how then will you believe me, if I tell you about heavenly things?

Good News Translation
You do not believe me when I tell you about the things of this world; how will you ever believe me, then, when I tell you about the things of heaven?

Lexham English Bible
If I tell you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

Literal Translation
If I tell you earthly things, and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

American Standard Version
If I told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you heavenly things?

Bible in Basic English
If you have no belief when my words are about the things of earth, how will you have belief if my words are about the things of heaven?

Hebrew Names Version
If I told you earthly things and you don't believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

International Standard Version
If I have told you peopleyou (pl.)">[fn] about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

Etheridge Translation
If of (what is) on earth I tell you, and you believe not, how if I tell you of (what is) in heaven, could you believe me ?

Murdock Translation
If I have spoken to you of things on earth, and ye believe not; how will ye believe, if I speak of things in heaven?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
If I haue tolde you earthly thynges, and ye beleue not: howe shall ye beleue, yf I tell you of heauenly thynges?

English Revised Version
If I told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you heavenly things?

World English Bible
If I told you earthly things and you don't believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how would ye believe, if I told you heavenly things?

Weymouth's New Testament
If I have told you earthly things and none of you believe me, how will you believe me if I tell you of things in Heaven?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
If Y haue seid to you ertheli thingis, and ye bileuen not, hou if Y seie to you heueneli thingis, schulen ye bileue?

Update Bible Version
If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

Webster's Bible Translation
If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how will ye believe if I tell you heavenly things?

New English Translation
If I have told you people about earthly things and you don't believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

New King James Version
If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

New Living Translation
But if you don't believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

New Life Bible
I tell you about things of the earth and you do not believe them. How will you believe if I tell you things about heaven?

New Revised Standard
If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
If, the earthly things, I told you, and ye believe not, How, if I should tell you the heavenly things, will ye believe?

Douay-Rheims Bible
If I have spoken to you earthly things, and you believe not: how will you believe, if I shall speak to you heavenly things?

Revised Standard Version
If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Yf when I tell you erthely thinges ye beleve not: how shuld ye beleve yf I shall tell you of hevenly thinges?

Young's Literal Translation
if the earthly things I said to you, and ye do not believe, how, if I shall say to you the heavenly things, will ye believe?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Yf ye beleue not whan I tell you of earthly thinges, how shulde ye beleue, wha I speake vnto you of heauenly thinges?

Mace New Testament (1729)
if you don't believe when I tell you what is plain, how should you believe, if I tell you of things more sublime?

Simplified Cowboy Version
And if you won't believe me about things you can touch and feel, how are you going to believe me about spiritual things?

Contextual Overview

¹There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the Jews. Late one night he visited Jesus and said, "Rabbi, we all know you're a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it." ³ Jesus said, "You're absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to—to God's kingdom." ⁴ "How can anyone," said Nicodemus, "be born who has already been born and grown up? You can't re-enter your mother's womb and be born again. What are you saying with this ‘born-from-above' talk?" ⁵Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the ‘wind-hovering-over-the-water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit. ⁷"So don't be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be ‘born from above'—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone ‘born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God." ⁹ Nicodemus asked, "What do you mean by this? How does this happen?" ¹⁰Jesus said, "You're a respected teacher of Israel and you don't know these basics? Listen carefully. I'm speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give witness only to what I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing secondhand here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions. If I tell you things that are plain as the hand before your face and you don't believe me, what use is there in telling you of things you can't see, the things of God? ¹³"No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life. ¹⁶"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him. ¹⁹"This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

earthly: John 3:3, John 3:5, John 3:8, 1 Corinthians 3:1, 1 Corinthians 3:2, Hebrews 5:11, 1 Peter 2:1-3

heavenly: John 3:13-17, John 3:31-36, John 1:1-14, 1 Corinthians 2:7-9, 1 Timothy 3:16, 1 John 4:10

Reciprocal: Genesis 37:20 - and let John 3:7 - Marvel Romans 10:6 - to bring 1 Corinthians 15:47 - the Lord

Cross-References

Genesis 2:18
God said, "It's not good for the Man to be alone; I'll make him a helper, a companion." So God formed from the dirt of the ground all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the Man to see what he would name them. Whatever the Man called each living creature, that was its name. The Man named the cattle, named the birds of the air, named the wild animals; but he didn't find a suitable companion.

Genesis 3:13
"The serpent seduced me," she said, "and I ate."

Genesis 3:20
The Man, known as Adam, named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living.

Genesis 3:21
God made leather clothing for Adam and his wife and dressed them.

Proverbs 19:3
People ruin their lives by their own stupidity, so why does God always get blamed?

Proverbs 28:13
You can't whitewash your sins and get by with it; you find mercy by admitting and leaving them.

Luke 10:29
Looking for a loophole, he asked, "And just how would you define ‘neighbor'?"

Gill's Notes on the Bible

If I have told you earthly things,.... Not that the doctrines he delivered were earthly ones; for he was not of the earth, but from heaven, and above all, and so spake not of the earth, but of heaven, John 3:31; and this doctrine of regeneration was an heavenly doctrine; and the thing itself required supernatural power, and grace from above: but either they were the more easy doctrines of the Gospel; or were delivered in a plain and easy style, and illustrated by similes taken from earthly things, as from human birth, from the water, and from the wind:

and ye believe not; i.e. those things; ye do not receive them, nor give credit to them; or "me", as the Ethiopic Version adds, who relate them on the best evidence, having fully known, and clearly seen them:

how shall ye believe; give credit to me, or receive my testimony:

if I tell you of heavenly things? of the more sublime doctrines of the Gospel, such as the descent of the Messiah from heaven; the union of the two natures, human and divine, in him; his being the only begotten Son of God; his crucifixion and death, signified by the lifting up of the serpent on a pole in the wilderness; and the wonderful love of God to the Gentile world in giving Christ to, and for them; and the salvation, and eternal happiness of all that believe in him, whether they be Jews or Gentiles; and these delivered in language suitable to them, without figures, or natural similes, which help the understanding, and convey ideas of things more easily to it.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

If I have told you earthly things - Things which occur on earth. Not sensual or worldly things, for Jesus had said nothing of these; but he had told him of operations of the Spirit which had occurred “on earth,” whose effects were visible, and which “might” be, therefore, believed. These were the plainest and most obvious of the doctrines of religion.

How shall ye believe - How will you believe. Is there any probability that you will understand them?

Heavenly things - Things pertaining to the government of God and his doings in the heavens; things which are removed from human view, and which cannot be subjected to human sight; the more profound and inscrutable things pertaining to the redemption of men. Hence, learn:

1. The height and depth of the doctrines of religion. There is much that we cannot yet understand,
2. The feebleness of our understandings and the corruptions of our hearts are the real causes why doctrines of religion are so little understood by us.
3. There is before us a vast eternity, and there are profound wonders of God’s government, to be the study of the righteous, and to be seen and admired by them forever and ever.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse John 3:12. If I have told you earthly things — If, after I have illustrated this new birth by a most expressive metaphor taken from earthly things, and after all you believe not; how can you believe, should I tell you of heavenly things, in such language as angels use, where earthly images and illustrations can have no place? Or, if you, a teacher in Israel, do not understand the nature of such an earthly thing, or custom of the kingdom established over the Jewish nation, as being born of baptism, practised every day in the initiation of proselytes, how will you understand such heavenly things as the initiation of my disciples by the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire from heaven, if I should proceed farther on the subject?