Devine Scripture

John 16:9

What does John 16:9 mean?

A plain-English look at John 16:9 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.

What John 16:9 means

The Spirit convicts concerning sin specifically because people do not believe in Jesus. Unbelief is not a minor oversight; it is the core sin that refuses God’s appointed Savior. By making Jesus the issue, the Spirit strips away excuses and respectable veneers. He shows that the gravest fault is rejecting the One whom the Father sent. This does not deny other sins, but it names their root: failure to trust and receive Christ. Thus the Spirit’s conviction is Christ-centered; He presses hearts to reckon with Jesus’ identity and claims. Evangelistic clarity begins here: sin’s essence is unbelief toward the Son, which must be confessed and forsaken.

Parallel translations

WEB

World English Bible · 2000

of sin, because they believe not on me;

KJV

King James Version · 1611

Of sin, because they believe not on me;

ASV

American Standard Version · 1901

of sin, because they believe not on me;

BBE

Bible in Basic English · 1949

Of sin, because they have not faith in me;

YLT

Young's Literal Translation · 1862

concerning sin indeed, because they do not believe in me;

DRA

Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752

Of sin: because they believed not in me.

DBY

Darby Bible · 1890

of sin, because they do not believe on me;

Context

This verse unpacks the first term from verse 8, sharpening the focus of conviction on unbelief in Jesus. It connects back to earlier statements that persecutors act because they do not know the Father or the Son. The flow keeps Christ at the center of diagnosis and remedy. Next, Jesus explains how the Spirit will address righteousness, linking it to His going to the Father and their no longer seeing Him, a sign of His vindication.

v.8And he, when he is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

v.9This passage

v.10of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye behold me no more;

Cross references

Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.

  • 1 Thessalonians 2:15

    who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove out us, and please not God, and are contrary to all men;

  • Romans 7:9

    And I was alive apart from the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died;

  • Acts 26:9

    I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

  • John 8:23

    And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.

  • Romans 3:19

    Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God:

  • Hebrews 10:28

    A man that hath set at nought Moses’ law dieth without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses:

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