“Ask and you shall receive”

The actual sources

The phrase compresses material from at least three New Testament passages. The closest verbatim source is John 16:24.

John 16:24 (BSB):

Until now you have not asked for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

John 16:24 (KJV):

Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

The KJV’s “ask, and ye shall receive” is the source of the popular English wording.

A closely related saying appears in Matthew 7:7–8 (and the parallel Luke 11:9–10), but with different wording.

Matthew 7:7–8 (BSB):

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

The Matthean wording — “ask and it will be given” — uses the passive voice, with no specified giver.

The surrounding context

Each passage qualifies the saying in a different way. The popular phrase “Ask and you shall receive” is rarely cited with these qualifications attached.

John 16:24 appears in the Last Supper discourse (John 13–17). The “asking” is qualified as asking in Jesus’ name. The immediate context (John 16:23–24, BSB):

23 In that day you will no longer ask Me anything. Truly, truly, I tell you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

Matthew 7:7–11 is part of the Sermon on the Mount and is followed immediately by the human/divine fatherhood comparison. The full unit (Matt. 7:7–11, BSB):

7 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!

James 4:3 offers a counter-case from elsewhere in the New Testament:

And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures.

Original language

The Greek verb in John 16:24 is αἰτέω (aiteō), “to ask, request, demand.” The wording αἰτεῖτε καὶ λήψεσθε (aiteite kai lēpsesthe) is “ask, and you will receive.” Matthew 7:7 uses the same verb but with a passive future: αἰτεῖτε καὶ δοθήσεται ὑμῖν (aiteite kai dothēsetai hymin), “ask, and it will be given to you.” The Matthean form does not specify the giver; the Johannine form pairs the asking with “in my name.”