VI. [(1) JESUS IS LIFE (_continued_). (_b_) _His Incarnation is life for mankind_ (John 6). (_α_) Food given to sustain the hungry (John 6:1). (_β_) His body not subject to natural laws (John 6:16). (_γ_) The multitude follow Him (John 6:22). (_δ_) Teaching of Jesus (John 6:26): The work... [ Continue Reading ]
AFTER THESE THINGS... — Allowing an undefined interval, which is filled up by the earlier Gospels. We need not adopt the purely arbitrary supposition that a portion of the Gospel between John 5:6 has been lost, nor yet connect them in immediate order of time. For St. John the discourse is that for w... [ Continue Reading ]
A GREAT MULTITUDE... — This is explained by the facts (1) that the Baptist had been put to death, and that those who had followed him would now follow Christ; (2) that the Twelve had now returned from their ministry in the towns and villages of Galilee; (3) that the Passover was at hand, and that nu... [ Continue Reading ]
A MOUNTAIN. — Better, _the mountain,_ or, perhaps, the _hill-country_ on the east shore of the sea. See the parallel passages.... [ Continue Reading ]
A FEAST. — Better, _the feast._ Comp. John 5:1. This is added by St. John only, and is not simply a note of time, but gives a key of interpretation to the sign itself, and to the discourse which followed.... [ Continue Reading ]
The converse with Philip is also peculiar to this Gospel. (Comp. John 14:8 _et seq._) The impression of the immediate antecedents of the miracle is different from, but not opposed to, that of the other narratives. They all represent the request coming from the disciples as the first step. St. John d... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THIS HE SAID TO PROVE HIM. — This gives us a glimpse into the educational method of the great Teacher. There is for Him no difficulty. He of Himself knows what He is about to do. But Philip had, we may think, been present at Cana of Galilee, and had seen the wine multiplied to supply the needs o... [ Continue Reading ]
PHILIP ANSWERED HIM. — The answer proves that Philip has not really learnt the lessons of the earlier teaching. The question does not suggest to him the true answer of divine sufficiency, but leads him to think of the human difficulty. He looks on the vast throng of people. At the lowest estimate, i... [ Continue Reading ]
ONE OF HIS DISCIPLES. — Within the inner circle around Him — and this, too, is told us only by St. John — is another of the early disciples. He was one of the two disciples of the Baptist who first followed Jesus, and John’s own companion (John 1:40). He is always named as one of the first group of... [ Continue Reading ]
Again the account of the eye-witness is the more full and life-like. All tell of the five loaves and two fishes. John knows that they are barley loaves — the ordinary black bread of the Galilean peasant; and that the loaves and fishes are not the property of the disciples, but of a lad or slave who... [ Continue Reading ]
MUCH GRASS. — This is an addition in this account. St. Mark, who also represents the impression of an eye-witness, tells us that the grass was green (John 6:39). We know from John 6:4 that it was at the time of the Passover — _i.e.,_ about our April, when the hill-country on the west of the lake wou... [ Continue Reading ]
The better MSS. omit “to the disciples, and the disciples to.” It is included in the sense, but is not here expressed in word.... [ Continue Reading ]
GATHER UP THE FRAGMENTS. — Again St. John connects immediately with our Lord what the other Evangelists relate of the disciples. It is from this passage only that we know that the gathering of the fragments followed His express command.... [ Continue Reading ]
Comp. Note on Matthew 14:20.... [ Continue Reading ]
MIRACLE. — Better, _sign._ (Comp. John 2:11.) THAT JESUS DID. — Better, _that He did._ The example is instructive, as showing how words were added at the beginning of a portion read in church. See, among other examples in the Book of Common Prayer, the Gospels for St. John the Evangelist’s Day (Joh... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN JESUS THEREFORE PERCEIVED.... — St. John has told us of the effect of the sign on the multitude. He knows also the reason of Christ’s retirement, while St. Matthew and St. Mark only state the fact that He retired to pray. They knew not that He wished to avoid that throng of people who thought o... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN EVEN WAS NOW COME. — Comp. Note on Matthew 14:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
For “a ship,” the received text has, with some of the best MSS., _the ship_ — _i.e.,_ the ship in which they first crossed. For “went over the sea,” read _were going over the sea._ The voyage is described as still continuing. TOWARD CAPERNAUM. — St. Matthew speaks more generally of the other (_i.e.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE SEA AROSE. — Better, _was rising._ The tense is still imperfect, describing the scene as it took place. The sea was then being agitated by the wind.... [ Continue Reading ]
FIVE AND TWENTY OR THIRTY FURLONGS — i.e., about half their voyage. Josephus describes the lake as forty furlongs wide (_Wars, iii._ 10, § 7). Comp. Matthew 14:25.... [ Continue Reading ]
See the same words in Mark 6:50. St. Matthew’s account is more full here, adding the trial of St. Peter’s faith.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN THEY WILLINGLY RECEIVED HIM. — This is doubtless correct as an interpretation, but it is too full for a translation. The Greek cannot mean more than, “Then they were willing to receive Him.” They are re-assured by His voice, and their fears cease. That they did receive Him into the ship is stat... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PEOPLE. — Better, _the multitude._ It is the same word which in John 6:5 is rendered “company.” ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SEA — i.e., on the eastern side. The writer’s starting-point is now Capernaum. In John 6:25 the same words mean the western side, the starting-point of the multitude being th... [ Continue Reading ]
HOWBEIT THERE CAME OTHER BOATS. — This is a parenthesis to explain the fact that while on the previous evening they saw only one boat, there were now several. The multitude came in part from the west of the lake, and the boats crossed over in the morning for them. It is possible that a harbour or ce... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THE PEOPLE. — Better, _the multitude,_ as before. It is not necessary to suppose that the whole 5,000 crossed over. The crowd came probably in part from the eastern side, and many would continue their journey to Jerusalem (comp. John 6:2). If indeed we press the words of John 6:22, “the multitu... [ Continue Reading ]
RABBI, WHEN CAMEST THOU HITHER? — This discourse took place in the synagogue at Capernaum (John 6:59). They are amazed to find Him here. When and how could He have come? He had not gone in the boat with the disciples, and no other boats had crossed but those in which they themselves came. On the tit... [ Continue Reading ]
Jesus does not answer their question. There is an earlier sign than that about which they now ask, the spiritual significance of which neither they nor the disciples have realised (Mark 6:52). He does not satisfy their curiosity, but with the solemn “Verily, verily,” begins to reveal this hidden tru... [ Continue Reading ]
LABOUR NOT FOR THE MEAT WHICH PERISHETH. — This is one of the instances in which the reader of the English Bible has in the margin a much better rendering than in the text. _Work not_ shows the verbal connection with John 6:28, which is wholly lost in “labour not.” It will be instructive to compare... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse confirms the meaning given to the preceding words. They understand them in that sense. There are works for them to do which are appointed of God. What shall they do that they may work these works? They had seen Him doing mighty works, which clearly showed the power of God. Are there for t... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS IS THE WORK OF GOD. — They speak of “works,” regarding life as an aggregate of individual deeds. He speaks of “work,” regarding separate acts as the outcome of principle. His own works (John 5:36) made one complete work (John 17:4). They had one great work to do, which indeed seemed not a work,... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT DOST THOU WORK? — They feel that His words are an assertion that He is the Messiah, and they demand of Him Messianic signs and works. Do they demand a sign who had seen the thousands fed, and would then have made Him a king? It was but yesterday that He was obliged to withdraw from the enthusia... [ Continue Reading ]
OUR FATHERS DID EAT MANNA. — He claims to be the Messiah; but the Messiah was to be greater than Moses, and the sign He has shown is less. The Messiah was to cause manna again to fall from heaven, as their Rabbis taught. They had eaten food which, if miraculously multiplied, was still the food of ea... [ Continue Reading ]
MOSES GAVE YOU NOT THAT BREAD. — Again His solemn words bring to their thoughts the deeper reality which they are passing over. They had implied a contrast between their fathers and themselves, between Moses and Jesus. They expressed the glory of the Mosaic sign in the language of the Psalm; but the... [ Continue Reading ]
HE WHICH. — Better, _that which._ The identification with Himself does not occur before John 6:35. This verse is a fuller expression of the last clause of John 6:32, to which each term answers. “My Father giveth”..... “the bread of God.” “The (ideally) true bread”..... “giveth life unto the world.”... [ Continue Reading ]
LORD, EVERMORE GIVE US.... — Comp. Note on John 4:15. It would be better to read _Sir_ for “Lord” here, as there. They, as the Samaritan woman, think of the satisfaction of physical need. They do not realise that man does not live by bread alone. The manna fell from heaven and gave life to their fat... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE. — Comp. again the conversation with the woman of Samaria. Here they have asked for “this bread,” the bread which giveth life, as distinct from that which perisheth. It is now present with them. He is that bread, whose characteristic is life. He is the Word of God, revealing G... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT I SAID UNTO YOU... — There is no record of this saying. It was included in the thoughts of John 5:37, and was perhaps uttered then, or, more probably, to those whom He is now addressing. That there are many words of Christ which have not been preserved to us is certain. (Comp. Notes on John 20:3... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THAT THE FATHER GIVETH ME. — There is something startling in this power of the human will to reject the fullest evidence, and to remain unbelieving, after the proof which it has itself demanded as a foundation for its belief. In that assembly there are representatives of the differing stages of... [ Continue Reading ]
NOT TO DO MINE OWN WILL. — Comp. John 5:30. He has spoken of the Father’s gift and of human action. He now once more identifies His own will with that of the Father, and yet states the fact of His possessing an independent will. It cannot be that He should cast out any one who comes. He knows, indee... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THIS IS THE FATHER’S WILL. — Read, with best MSS., _And this is the will of Him that sent Me._ Comp. Note on John 6:40. These two verses further set forth the divine will in the mission of Christ, first in relation to the Father’s gift, and then in relation to man’s acceptance. Both verses make... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THIS IS THE WILL OF HIM THAT SENT ME. — Read, _For this is the will of My Father._ (See John 6:39.) The common text has inserted the opening words of these verses. There can be no doubt that the change indicated gives the original reading, and it will be seen that the relation of “Father” and “S... [ Continue Reading ]
THE JEWS MURMURED AT HIM. — Better, _concerning Him,_ as in John 7:12; John 7:32. Here, too, it was “among themselves” (John 6:43). With the true spirit of objectors, they do not regard what He has since said in explanation, but fasten upon what they do not understand in its most striking form. Perh... [ Continue Reading ]
IS NOT THIS JESUS? — Here is something definite. He has spoken of being the Bread of Life, and of the Bread from Heaven. Putting together John 6:33; John 6:35; John 6:38, they in effect quote His words. But His natural descent and birth was in its outer facts well known, though all its mysteries wer... [ Continue Reading ]
He does not meet their difficulty. It does not appear, indeed, that it was expressed to Him. He seeks to silence the interruption which their murmuring _among themselves_ has caused, and resumes the discourse broken at John 6:40.... [ Continue Reading ]
NO MAN CAN COME TO ME. — The subject is still the mystery of the varying effects of His revelation on the minds of men. These depend upon their present mental state, which is itself the result of acceptance of, or rejection of, divine influence. The Father which sent Him had, by law, and prophets, a... [ Continue Reading ]
IT IS WRITTEN IN THE PROPHETS.. — _i.e.,_ in the Book of the Prophets. (Comp. Matthew 2:23; Mark 1:2; Acts 7:42; Acts 13:40.) The immediate reference is to the LXX. translation of Isaiah 54:13, but the same thought runs through other passages of the prophets, as Jeremiah 31:34, and Joel 3:1 _et seq.... [ Continue Reading ]
But this hearing and learning of the Father was the preparation for, not the substitute for, the fuller revelation in the person of the Son. Once again He declares that “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath been the interpreter.” (See N... [ Continue Reading ]
HE THAT BELIEVETH. — This thought gives a new force to what He has said in John 6:40. He there declared the Father’s will, that every one seeing the Son and believing on Him may have eternal life. No man had ever seen the Father, but the Son was then standing in human form before them, and this will... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM THAT BREAD OF LIFE. — Better, _I am the bread of life._ The words, which seem to them so hard to fathom (John 6:41), are only an expression of this truth in the form of their own demand (John 6:31). The essence of life is unseen; bread is the visible form which contains and imparts it. The invi... [ Continue Reading ]
YOUR FATHERS... AND ARE DEAD. — Better,... _and died._ — The manna which their fathers ate (John 6:31) seemed to them a greater work than this which He has done. Its true relation to Him is shown in the fact that those who ate it afterwards died; whereas He is the true spiritual food for the world,... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM THE LIVING BREAD. — The words are again repeated (comp. John 6:35; John 6:48), but with a new fulness of meaning. He spoke before of bread which was “of life,” characterised by life, producing life. He now speaks of this bread as “living,” containing the principle of life in itself. (Comp. John... [ Continue Reading ]
THE JEWS THEREFORE STROVE AMONG THEMSELVES. — They have passed beyond the murmuring of John 6:41. They understand that He means, though His own words have not yet expressed it, that His flesh is to be eaten, and is thus to supply the principle of life. They contend one with another as to how this ca... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN JESUS SAID UNTO THEM. — This is hardly strong enough for the original. It is rather, _Jesus therefore said unto them._ The words follow upon those he has heard from them. Some of them have spoken of eating His flesh. Others may even have pressed this to the _reductio ad horribile._ Eat His fles... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOSO EATETH MY FLESH, AND DRINKETH MY BLOOD. — The thought advances from the negative to the positive. The previous verse stated the condition without which they could not have life. This verse declares that they who thus eat and drink possess that life now, and that it is eternal. (Comp. Note on J... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR MY FLESH IS MEAT INDEED. — Better, _for My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink._ This verse further explains that he who eateth the flesh and drinketh the blood hath eternal life, for he has the true elements of life. It is an answer, too, to the question. How can this Man give us His... [ Continue Reading ]
DWELLETH IN ME, AND I IN HIM. — _Abideth_ gives the sense more fully. (Comp. John 14:2; John 15:4 _et seq.;_ John 17:23; 1 John 3:24; 1 John 4:16.) It is one of those deeper thoughts which meet us only in the words of the beloved disciple. The union which results from the communication of life is no... [ Continue Reading ]
I LIVE BY THE FATHER... HE SHALL LIVE BY ME. — The preposition “by” here is ambiguous, and it is better, therefore, to render the words, _I live by reason of the Father_... _he shall live by reason of Me._ For the thought of the Father as the original source of life, and as giving this principle of... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS IS THAT (better, _the_) BREAD WHICH CAME DOWN... _i.e.,_ of this nature, which He has expounded from John 6:32 onwards. The tense is now in the past, pointing to His historic coming, because He has asserted that He is the bread. (Comp. John 6:33; John 6:38.) NOT AS YOUR FATHERS DID EAT MANNA,... [ Continue Reading ]
AS HE TAUGHT IN CAPERNAUM. — If we accept the identification of Capernaum with _Tell-Hûm,_ which is in every way probable (comp. Note on Matthew 4:13), we have good reason for believing that modern discovery has traced out the foundations of the synagogue in which this discourse was spoken. It was a... [ Continue Reading ]
MANY THEREFORE OF HIS DISCIPLES — i.e., of the disciples in the wider sense; those who more or less fully were accepting His teaching, and were regarded as His followers. From John 6:64, the Apostles would seem to be included in the more general designation. In John 6:67 they are separately addresse... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN JESUS KNEW IN HIMSELF THAT HIS DISCIPLES MURMURED. — The tenses in the original describe the scene in the present: Jesus as _knowing,_ the disciples as _murmuring._ The knowledge is in Himself, uninformed by them, and His teaching is addressed to the thoughts of their hearts. They were placing... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT AND IF YE SHALL SEE ...? — Our version adds the word “what,” as will be seen from the italics, but it rightly expresses the sense. Literally, we should read, _If then ye should behold the Son of Man ascending up where He was before?_ The Ascension would be the proof of the coming down from heav... [ Continue Reading ]
IT IS THE SPIRIT THAT QUICKENETH. — The word “quickeneth,” though it has almost passed from everyday use, will probably hold its place in theological use, and convey for the most part the true meaning. If it is retained here, it must, however, be noted that it is a compound of the word rendered “lif... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE ARE SOME OF YOU THAT BELIEVE NOT. — Later, the word “disciple” became synonymous with the word “believer,” but there are those now following Him just as they would follow any Rabbi, and, regarding Him as a merely human teacher, they fall short of the faith which was the first qualification for... [ Continue Reading ]
NO MAN CAN COME UNTO ME. — Unless the fields had been prepared it was in vain to sow the seed. No effort on the sower’s part could make them receptive. The fact that they believed not, declared that their hearts were not prepared, but did not affect the goodness of the seed. This defection did not s... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM THAT TIME. — The addition of the word “time” has given a definite and questionable meaning to the Greek, which is indefinite. “From that” probably means on that account, because of the words He had spoken. The actual departure was the result of the teaching, which tested their faith and found i... [ Continue Reading ]
WILL YE ALSO GO AWAY? — We have to think of the disciples grouped round Him, the Twelve — now a distinct body, and so well known that St. John names them for the first time without a note — being nearer to Him than the rest, and of these the first four (see Note on Matthew 10:2) the nearest. Many go... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN SIMON PETER ANSWERED. — The look may have been directed to Peter, or here, as elsewhere, his natural character makes him spokesman for the Twelve. And striking is his speech. “Go away? To whom? They had left all to follow Him, and find all in Him. The Baptist is not living, and they know no oth... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WE BELIEVE AND ARE SURE. — Better, _We have believed and are sure._ (Comp. John 1:41.) Go away? The faith which first burned in their hearts has passed into the calm certainty of settled knowledge. THOU ART THAT CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD, has found its way into this place from the confes... [ Continue Reading ]
ONE OF YOU IS A DEVIL. — But even the brightness of His hope in them is not uncrossed by a shadow; and this shadow is seen in its fearful darkness by the light of the truth, which, like a flash of inspiration, has come to Peter’s heart, and has been spoken in the names of all. No human joy is for th... [ Continue Reading ]
JUDAS ISCARIOT THE SON OF SIMON. — The best MSS. read, _Judas, the son of Simon Iscariotes._ On the name see the list of the Apostles in Matthew 10:4. If we accept the most probable interpretation of Iscariot as _Ish K’rîoth,_ a man of _K’rîoth,_ — and this is supported by the variation of MSS. in t... [ Continue Reading ]