John 6:60

τῶν μαθητῶν. The more numerous and somewhat shifting company out of which He had chosen the Twelve.

σκληρός. Not hard to understand, but hard to accept: σκληρός (σκέλλω) means originally ‘dry’ and so ‘rough;’ and then in a moral sense, ‘rough, harsh, offensive.’ Nabal the churl is σκληρός, 1 Samuel 25:3, and the slothful servant calls his master σκληρός, Matthew 25:24. Λόγος is more than ‘saying’ (John 3:34), and might cover the whole discourse. It was the notion of eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood that specially scandalized them: ‘This is a revolting speech; who can listen to it?’ Αὐτοῦ no doubt refers to λόγος; but it might mean ‘listen to Him.’ A century later we find the same thing: not only opponents but disciples take offence at such language; “They abstain from (public) thanksgiving and prayer, because they allow not that the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which Flesh suffered for our sins.” Ignat. Smyrn. VI.