John 6:4

John 6:4. Now the passover, the feast of the Jews, was nigh. On the words ‘of the Jews' see the notes on John 1:19; John 2:13. The addition here serves to explain why Jesus did not go up to the Passover. He had been rejected by the Jews at the former Passover (John 2:18): the feast, which had before that time been robbed by them of its sanctity, belonged after their rejection of Him no longer to His Father but ‘to the Jews.' But if Jesus did not visit Jerusalem for this festival, why is it mentioned here? It certainly serves a chronological purpose (though it must be remembered that we cannot say with absolute certainly that this was the Passover immediately following that of John 2:11); but even in such incidental notices as these John has not his eye only or chiefly on chronology. Some have supposed that it is to account for the crowds which followed Him, and which may have consisted mainly or partly of the Galilean caravan on its way to the holy city to attend the feast. But John 6:2 makes this unlikely, for it gives an entirely different explanation of the concourse. Besides which, John 6:5 seems to connect the notice of the season and the miracle to follow in such a way as to suggest rather an internal than an external relation between them. It is probable, therefore, that the Evangelist by this mention of the Passover intends to show us the light in which the whole narrative should be viewed. The miracle and the discourses alike relate to the true Passover, the reality and substance of that feast which has now, alas! become ‘the feast of the Jews.'