Bible Study series: John 6:25-59. Jesus’s words offended the shallow followers. But his true followers remained with him.
Friendly greetings and a warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together how to apply these truths to our lives.
I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click here:
For the Greek text, click here:
At that link, I provide a lot more commentary.
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: John 6:25-59
25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” 26 In reply, Jesus said to them, “I tell you the firm truth: You do not seek me because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves of bread and were fully satisfied. 27 Do not work for food that spoils but for food which lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, for God has set his seal of approval on him.” 28 So they said to him, “What should we do, so that we work the works of God?” 29 In reply, Jesus said to them, “This is the work of God: that you believe in the one whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then which sign do you perform so that we may see it and believe you? What would you work? 31 Our ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” [Exod. 16:15; Num. 11:7-9; Ps. 78:23-25; Neh. 9:15] 32 So Jesus said to them, “I tell you the firm truth: It was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread from God is the one coming down from heaven and giving life to the world. 34 So they said to him, “Sir, always give us this bread.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. The one coming to me will never be hungry, and the one believing in me will never thirst.
36 “But I say to you: Though you have seen me, yet you do not believe. 37 Everyone whom my Father gives to me will come to me, and I will in no way throw out the one coming to me, 38 because I have come down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of the one who sent me. 39 This is the will of the one who sent me: That everyone whom he gives me I will not lose any of them, but I will raise them up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father: everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
41 The Jews began to grumble about him because he said, ‘I am the bread coming down from heaven.’ 42 And they were saying, “Isn’t this Jesus, son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it that he now says that he has come down from heaven?” 43 In reply, Jesus said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the one who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And everyone shall be taught of God.’ [Is. 54:13] Everyone who listens to the Father and learns comes to me. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the one who is from the Father—he has seen the Father. 47 I tell you the firm truth: The one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness and died. 50 This is the one who is the bread coming down from heaven, so that anyone may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread coming down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and the bread which I will give is my flesh, on behalf of the life of the world.
52 Then the Jews began to quarrel with each other, saying, “How can this one give his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, I tell you the firm truth: unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. 54 The one eating my flesh and drinking my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is the true food and my blood is the true drink. 56 The one eating my flesh and drinking my blood dwells in me and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father has sent me, so I also live because of the Father, and the one feeding on me—that one will also live because of me. 58 This is the bread coming down from heaven, not like the bread which your ancestors ate and died. The one eating this bread will live forever. 59 He said these things in the synagogue, teaching in Capernaum. (John 6:25-59)
Comments
25:
The crowds took the boats to Capernaum to find Jesus. Recall that they had recently experienced the feeding of the five thousand, and now they are looking for Jesus to see him work another feeding miracle. Let’s hope this does not indicate that people lived in poverty and food was difficult to come by. Whether they got food easily or with difficulty, they were still obtuse and spiritually dull. They could not connect the miraculous feeding with Jesus being the bread of heaven. And now Jesus is about teach them about spiritual bread of heaven—he is the bread of heaven.
No doubt that the people of Capernaum heard he was back in his adopted hometown, so they too added to the crowd that followed him. However, v. 59 says he was teaching in the synagogue. Maybe at v. 41, when the Jews began to grumble, the scene shifts over to the synagogue, without John notifying us.
“Rabbi”: it simply means teacher at this time. It does not have the connotation of an official office, as it does in later Judaism.
1. Titles of Jesus: Rabbi and Teacher
26:
The signs Jesus was doing indicates miraculous signs, and we have to assume that he was working signs that went unrecorded in the details but are summarized (2:11, 23; 3:2; 6:2). But the synagogue audience, some of whom were the crowds who followed him, boiled down these signs to one thing: eating until they were fully satisfied.
“I tell you the firm truth”: it literally read, “amen, amen, I tell you.” Truth” comes from the word amēn (pronounced ah-main and comes into English as amen). It expresses the authority of the one who utters it. It could be translated as “Truly, truly I tell you” or “I tell you with utmost certainty.” (Bruce has “indeed and truly I tell you”). Jesus’s faith in his own words is remarkable and points to his unique calling. It means we must pay attention to it, for it is authoritative. He is about to declare an important and solemn message or statement. The clause appears only on the lips of Jesus in the NT.
27:
Jesus uses a limited negative: “don’t work for food that spoils.” He does not mean it literally, or else we will not work at all for our food. He means “don’t work (only) for food that spoils.”
Now let’s move on to deeper truths.
Jesus goes into symbolic mode. Two different kinds of food, literal and symbolic. Maybe it would be more accurate to say the food that leads to eternal life. After a short time, food gets moldy. It spoils. But there is a food that will never spoil. Go for this food.
Variation on the theme of eternal things contrasted with perishable things:
19 Don’t store up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust disfigure and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust disfigure and where thieves don’t break through nor steal. 21 For where your treasure is there will be your heart. (Matt. 6:19-21)
The Synoptics and John are not so far apart on major concepts.
“eternal life”: this is more than mere existence. This is life of the next age, that age, which has broken into this age or right now. In other words, eternal life happens now, but we must be careful not to believe that everything in the new age, in everlasting life, is happening now. This is called over-realized eschatology (study of ends times and new ages). Not every new-age blessing becomes realized or accomplished right now. But let’s not remain negative. We get some benefits of the next age or new age right now. We get some benefits of eternal life, right now.
5 The Kingdom of God: Already Here, But Not Yet Fully
“life”: this is more than mere existence. This is life of the next age, that age, which has broken into this age or right now. The next age has broken into this age and given us new life. It is eternal life right now.
Jesus will soon reveal that he is the bread of heaven and he gives eternal life to everyone who believes him (vv. 32-33, 35).
“Son of Man”: It both means the powerful, divine Son of Man (Dan. 7:13-14) and the human son of man—Ezekiel himself—in the book of Ezekiel (numerous references). Jesus was and still is in heaven both divine and human. It could be translated more accurately as Son of Humanity.
4. Titles of Jesus: The Son of Man
God has sealed him or set his seal of approval on him. The Father approved of him. Here is John the Baptizer’s testimony of Jesus at his baptism:
32 Further, John testified, saying: “I saw the Spirit like a dove coming down from heaven and remained on him. 33 I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize in water—he told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit coming down and remaining upon him—this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit!’ 34 And I saw and testify that this one is the Son of God.” (John 1:32-34)
Here is Matthew’s version when the Father approved him with a voice from heaven:
16 And being baptized, Jesus instantly got up out of the water, and look! Heaven opened up to him and he saw the Spirit of God coming down as a dove and coming upon him. 17 And listen! A voice from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I delight!” (Matt. 3:16-17)
28-29:
The crowd—representatives from the crowd in the synagogue—are still carrying on a dialog with Jesus, in one statement and reply after another.
Then they ask him about the work of God, because he told them to work for the food that never spoils. What should they do to perform these works? My translation is literal: “work the works of God.” Or it could be “work the works for God.” Jews were used to doing the works which God required. They may still be talking about bringing down bread from heaven. Is there any way that the crowds can work for an endless supply of manna, like the children of Israel got while they were in the wilderness? Then Jesus told them—the unconverted and the non-followers of him—that the work of God is to believe in the one whom God has sent, that is, in Jesus, the bread from heaven. The opponents ask about the works (plural) of God, but Jesus changes it to the work (singular) of God (or for God). They should not focus on saying the right prayer to bring down manna, but their first work is to believe in the one whom the Father sent. Jesus is saying that the only work (singular) of God (or for God) that we do to acquire food that lasts forever, which is given by the Son of Man–not earned–is to believe in Jesus, whom the Father has sent. So this passage totally supports Paul’s theology of grace through faith. John says the food is given (grace) by the Son of Man, God’s only agent (John 14:6).
John agrees with Paul, who writes:
22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Rom. 3:22-24, NIV)
Now the hyper-grace teachers tell us that belief or faith is this one “work,” believing in Jesus, and is all that is required of them. Of course they are wrong. Believing in Jesus is the first step for the nonbelievers; then, when they believe and are born again, they are required to do good works.
Jesus himself:
14 You are the light of the world the light of the world. A town sitting above on a mountain cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do they light a lamp and place it under a container, but on a lampstand, and it shines on everyone in the house. 16 In this way, let your light shine before people, so that they see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (Matt. 5:14-16)
Parable of the Talents, told by Jesus himself:
19 After a long time, the master of those servants settled accounts with them. 20 And the one receiving five talents approached and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted me with five talents. Look! I have earned five other talents.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Excellent, good and faithful servant! You were faithful over little; I shall set you over many things. Go into the joy of your master. 22 The one having two talents also approached and said, ‘Master, you entrusted me with two talents. Look! I earned two other talents.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Excellent, good and faithful servant! You were faithful over little; I shall set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your master.’ (Matt. 25:19-23)
In this parable, the two servants got a large amount of money and multiplied it. And they heard praise from the master of the household. (Let’s not discuss what happened to the third servant who buried his money in the ground!) The point is that we are called to be productive members of the kingdom.
Paul writes the classic and powerful statement:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph. 2:8-10, NIV)
It is stunning to me how much of the Bible the hyper-grace teachers neglect, as they obsess over one doctrine in Scripture and skip over all the others. See Acts 20:27 for how Paul proclaimed the whole counsel of God. He was balanced.
Justification: How It Was Done, How We Get It, and Its Results
30-31:
An exegete, referenced by Mounce (comment on v. 31; also see Carson, comment on v. 27), says that Jesus is following a set homily (sermon-teaching). It opens with a statement which is repeated at the end. A secondary citation is brought in which develops the main commentary. Verse 31 is the main text; vv. 32-33 supply a paraphrase of the text; vv. 35-50 represent the homily of the text that discusses sequentially the themes of “bread,” “from heaven,” and “eating.” You can make of this idea what you will.
The synagogue audience questions him or lure him to make more bread. Which sign do you perform, Jesus? Hint: Please give us more bread! Then one of them—a Bible student—actually quoted from Scripture, probably the verse in Exodus, but the other listed verses tell the same story in different wording. The concept is there. Can Jesus cause bread to come down from heave, as God caused manna to rain down, so they can eat daily without working?
Here is the most important verse, because it introduces the bread from heaven:
15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. …” (Exod. 16:15, NIV)
Now some supporting verses:
23 Yet he gave a command to the skies above
and opened the doors of the heavens;
24 he rained down manna for the people to eat,
he gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Human beings ate the bread of angels;
he sent them all the food they could eat. (Ps. 78:23-25, NIV)
Next:
5 In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock; you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted hand to give them. (Neh. 9:15, NIV)
Water from the rock supports Jesus’s statement in v. 34 that drinking from the water he gives will satisfy the thirsty soul (Num. 20:9-11).
32-33:
Then these two verses are the most important and clarifying ones so far. They are so solemn that Jesus uses his introductory formula: “I tell you the firm truth.” See v. 26 for more comments.
Moses was not the source of the bread of heaven or out of heaven, but Jesus’s Father is giving them the true bread from heaven. Who or what is the true heavenly bread? This bread comes down from heaven and feeds the world with life. Recall that the world is a dark place, which needs to be invaded.
Jesus refers to his coming down from heaven for the first time in v. 33 (see also v. 38, 41, 50, 51, 58).
“While manna could be said to come ‘from heaven,’ in the sense that God provided it miraculously, it was not ‘true bread from heaven.’ It satisfied physical hunger but was unable to meet the deeper spiritual hunger of the human heart” (Mounce, comment on v. 32).
“world”: The Greek noun (kosmos) could refer to the physical universe (17:5; 21:25). Or it could refer to humanity as a group. What we call humanity or humankind is, in John, the world. This is why God invades the kosmos. “The ‘world’ is the place or realm where God is at work, the place that is the main focus of God’s attention. God’s saving light invades the dark world. Jesus came to the dark world to save as many as those who believe in him and in his name. In sum, “it appears that the personification of the ‘world’ in John is the portrait of a class of people.” It is the dimension of a relational encounter between God and people (Klink, comment on 1:10, pp. 100-01).
God is at work in the world. So once again, Jesus is not completely revealing who or what this bread is.
I like Carson’s summary of the bread of God, which is synonymous with bread of heaven (compare “kingdom of heaven” in Matthew and “kingdom of God” in Mark and Luke). (1) The metaphors help us transition from Jesus provides bread from heaven (vv. 27ff.) to Jesus being the bread from heaven (vv. 35ff.); (2) the recipients expand from the Jewish world to the whole world, that is, to lost men and women without distinction, opening up to the notion that the deciding factor is being a member of the race, to one who is taught of God; (3) the phrasing is about the revealer, who has narrated God to us (1:18), who alone can tell of heavenly things (3:11-13).
34-35:
So the crowd and their spokesman or spokesmen ask for this never-spoils bread, always, every day. It’s some sort of angelic bread that they can literally eat every day without its spoiling. Now Jesus delivers the clarifying and world-changing pronouncement or statement. “I am the bread of life.” Manna fed the ancient Israelites for each day, but whoever feasts on Jesus, spiritually speaking, of course, will never get hungry, and the believers in him won’t need daily manna, because he is the bread of life—the life that leads to eternity, the kingdom, both here and now and in That Age, the age to come.
Jesus said he is the bread of heaven, so the bread symbolizes him. I write “person” because even when Jesus talks about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, he is not speaking of literal things, but his person, his presence, by faith and by the power of the Spirit.
The one coming to him—and surrendering and believing in him—will never hunger again and never thirst again, but the feasting and drinking is done by faith in him. He satisfies fully by his Spirit and his Father’s will.
As for never thirsting again, Jesus is referring to the impartation of the Spirit:
38 The one believing in me, just as the Scripture says: Out of his inner most being rivers of living water will flow. 39 But he said this about the Spirit whom those believing in him were about to receive, for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:38-39).
He already taught this to the unnamed woman at the well:
13 In reply, Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks from this water will thirst again. 14 But whoever drinks from the water which I will give will not thirst forever, but the water which I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I do not thirst and nor pass by here to draw.” (John 4:13-15)
This is the first of seven “I am” statements: I am the bread of life. In Exod. 3:14, in the Septuagint (pronounced sep-TOO-ah-gent, a third to second century BC translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek), the Greek reads: “the LORD says, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’” This is high Christology.
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JESUS’ SEVEN “I AM” SAYINGS IN JOHN |
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| 1 | I Am the Bread of Life (6:35, 48) and Living Bread (6:51) |
| 2 | I Am the Light of the World (8:12) |
| 3 | I Am the Gate (10:7, 9) |
| 4 | I Am the Good Shepherd (10:11, 14) |
| 5 | I am the Resurrection and the Life (11:25) |
| 6 | I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life (14:6) |
| 7 | I am the True Vine (15:1, 5) |
| BTSB, p. 2163, slightly edited | |
Or Jesus may indirectly refer to the “I am he” passages in Is. 40-55, as he did at John 8:24. Here is a list (all NIV and emphasis added):
Who has done this and carried it through,
calling forth the generations from the beginning?
I, the Lord—with the first of them
and with the last—I am he.” (Is. 41:4)
10 “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord,
“and my servant whom I have chosen,
so that you may know and believe me
and understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
nor will there be one after me.
11 I, even I, am the Lord,
and apart from me there is no savior.
12 I have revealed and saved and proclaimed—
I, and not some foreign god among you.
You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “that I am God.
13 Yes, and from ancient days I am he.
No one can deliver out of my hand.
When I act, who can reverse it?” (Is. 43:10-13, see v. 25)
Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you. (Is. 46:4)
“Listen to me, Jacob,
Israel, whom I have called:
I am he;
I am the first and I am the last.
13 My own hand laid the foundations of the earth,
and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I summon them,
they all stand up together. (Is. 48:12-13)
12 “I, even I, am he who comforts you.
Who are you that you fear mere mortals,
human beings who are but grass,
13 that you forget the Lord your Maker,
who stretches out the heavens
and who lays the foundations of the earth,
that you live in constant terror every day
because of the wrath of the oppressor,
who is bent on destruction? (Is. 51:12-13)
This is high Christology.
Let’s get back to the bread metaphor.
“Jesus corrects their misunderstanding. He is not the giver of the bread—God the Father does that—He is the bread itself (Mounce, comment on v. 35, emphasis original)
“Spiritual food both satisfies and creates the desire for more. What is permanently satisfied by eating the bread of life is the deep-seated hunger in the hearts of people created in the image of God. He created us for fellowship with himself, and nothing short of that intimate association will ever satisfy” (Mounce, comment on v. 35).
36:
In this section of his speech, peppered by their dialog, he now talks about what it means to come to him. So the crowd has seen Jesus but do not believe in him. Of course they are spiritually obtuse and cannot connect this signs and the miraculous feeding. Abraham speaking in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus: “But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead!’” (Luke 16:31).
“As Jesus charged the citizens of Jerusalem with unbelief (5:36-38), so now he repeatedly charges his fellow Galileans with the same sin (cf. v. 26). True, in one sense, Jesus can acknowledge to them, you have seen me … but they have seen only a mightily endowed man, a potential king (6:14, 15), not the Son of God who perfectly expresses the Father’s words and deed (5:19ff); they have seen only bread and power, not what they signify. This crowd has witnessed the divine revealer at work, but only their curiosity, appetites and political ambitions have been aroused, not their faith (Carson, comments on v. 36).
37:
The Father gives people to his Son, but which people? Just a select few or everyone? Read in isolation it seems to be select few, but the previous verses speak of believing in Jesus, so we have to factor in faith in Jesus (v. 40). So everyone who believes has been given by the Father to the Son, yet the call goes out to “anyone”; however, not everyone responds in faith but maintains his life in the world and move on past the call of the gospel.
“Throw out” or “throw outside” or “eject out” is how the Greek literally reads. Jesus will not throw out anyone, after they have entered the kingdom and exercised faith to receive eternal life.
This section reminds me of these verses in Matt. 11:25-27:
25 At that time, Jesus answered and said, “I acknowledge to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the ‘wise’ and ‘understanding’ and revealed them to infants. 26 Yes, Father, because in this way it was well pleasing to you. 27 All these things have been given to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father and anyone to whom the son of Man decides to reveal him.” (Matt. 11:25-27)
And this similar one in Luke 10:21-22
21 At that very time, he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden this from the wise and intelligent and revealed it to children. Yes, Father, because this way is your good will for you. 22 Everything has been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is, except the Son and to whomever the Son wills to reveal him.” (Luke 10:21-22)
These two passages are sometimes called the “Johannine bold from the blue” (“Johannine” is the adjective for John). John’s Gospel, in comparison with the Synoptics, is not so far off that we do not have the core of Jesus’s teaching in the Fourth Gospel.
38:
Jesus will not throw anyone out because the Father has given them to his Son. The one coming to Jesus will not be rejected, and we have to assume that this coming is genuine and in faith. Jesus has come down from heaven, which parallels v. 33, which says that the bread coming down from heaven is Jesus himself, who gives life to the world.
39:
The will of the Father is now clarified. Jesus won’t toss out anyone coming to him in genuine faith—and not to get daily physical food. Yes, he taught us to pray for a daily food (Matt. 6:11), but in this context, he is steering the people in the synagogue away from the physical needs of life because their lives will be put in order when they have faith in him.
When they have this knowing and saving faith, he will raise them up on the last day (see v. 40 for more explanation on the “last day”).
40:
Once again, Jesus drives home the will of the Father, as if the synagogue audience, representing the crowd, did not get it the first time, in v. 39. People seeing the Son clearly, presumably with the eyes of faith, and believing in him have eternal life. So yes, the Father gives to the Son those coming to the Son, but they have to come with clear vision of who Jesus is and by faith in him. Thus, we see cooperation between the sovereignty of God and the faith of humans. God’s sovereignty does not run roughshod over human faith and the human heart—for now. At the Second Coming, in That Age, people will be compelled to bow the knee and confess his Lordship, but right now, in This Age, he gives them enough rope to hang themselves or to reach out and grab the lifeline, and then he pulls them up, by his grace. Even the offer of the saving rope is grace. And now we have to reach out in faith a hold on and allow him to pull us up.
Now let’s discuss the last day (vv. 39, 40, 44, 54; 11:24; 12:48). As I noted in my comments on 5:28-29:
When Jesus came the first time and was in the process of inaugurating the kingdom of God, the kingdom came subtly and mysteriously. When he comes a second time, his inaugurated kingdom will be fully accomplished.
The last day happens at the Second coming. During the time of This Age, the kingdom is working behind the scenes and in people’s hearts and wherever the gospel of the kingdom is preached.
Posttribulational Premillennialism?
What Is Midtribulational Premillennialism?
What Is Pretribulational Premillennialism?
In John 5:28-29 and Matt. 13:41-43 and 25:31-46 Jesus talks about judgment in the above diagrams.
Bible Basics about the Final Judgment
41:
Now “the Jews” enter the picture, and v. 59 says that he was teaching these things in the synagogue. So we go from the crowds (vv. 22-25) to the synagogue. It could be that John shifted the scene from the crowds outside to the “Jews” in the synagogue, or a crowd could have been standing outside and inside, filling the synagogue. Either way, the Jews here seem to be the local leaders. They were the ones who quoted from Scripture in v. 31.
Their grumbling has echoes coming from the ancient Israelites grumbling against Moses and Aaron, who were their representatives before God (Exod. 16:2 and all over the Torah!).
42:
They are in disbelief about Jesus’s heavenly origins. They know Joseph—hinting that he may still be alive, though many believe that he died before Jesus began his ministry—and Mary, who followed him to the cross (John 19:25-27), so she was very much alive. Familiarity breeds contempt, at least in the authority figures. Carson on whether Joseph was still alive: “The language does not necessarily mean that Joseph was still alive. The crowd’s point is simpler. They say, in effect, ‘We know who Jesus’ parents are. What right then does he have to claim nobler, even divine, heritage?’ The Jews think they know all there is to know about Jesus’ paternity, but they speak in ignorance not only of his virginal conception but of his true identity. Repeatedly Jesus insists that his opponents do not know his (heavenly) Father at all (4:22; 8:19, 55; 15:21; 16:3; 17:25). Indeed, it will transpire that Jesus knows their ‘father’ (8:42ff) far better than they know his!” (comment on vv. 41-42).
The rhetorical question, according to Greek verbiage, expects an affirmative answer.
Capernaum suffers a denunciation from Jesus, in a list of other Israelite towns who were also denounced for their refusal to repent at his teaching and turn to him:
23 And you Capernaum: Will you be exalted to the heavens? You will go down to Hades! Because if the miracles done in you had been done in Sodom, it would remain to this day! 24 However, I tell you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day judgment than for you!” (Matt. 11:23-24)
And here we see why the town had to hear the proclamation of woe. They disrespected his heavenly origins.
43-44:
Jesus bluntly tells them to stop grumbling and complaining. In v. 46 he will reinforce his revelation to them that he has come down from the Father. Here in v. 44 he makes an interesting statement about being drawn by the Father, the one who sent Jesus. It means that you cannot strut into the kingdom on your own willpower; you have to be wooed and invited and drawn. So what does this word “drawn” mean in this context?
3 The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying:
“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. (Jer. 31:3, NIV)
I agree with Borchert: “Salvation is never achieved apart from the drawing power of God, and it is never consummated apart from the willingness of humans to hear and learn from God. To choose one or the other will ultimately end in unbalanced, unbiblical theology” (comment on vv. 43-48).
For being raised up on the last day, please see v. 40.
45:
And sure enough the Jews, when they truly listen to the Father and learn from him, should come to his Son. The Jews were not getting it, though the Son was standing right in front of them, the fullest revelation. Isaiah the prophet said as much. Everyone will be taught of God, and now the Logos, the expression of God is standing right in front of them and talking to them but they are not learning and listening. They may know the law of Moses on a certain level, but they have not read the themes and patterns and types and shadows accurately and fully. If they did, they would come to Jesus. “Jesus proceeds to explain what kind of ‘drawing’ (v. 44) the Father exercises. When he compels belief, it is not the savage constraint of a rapist, but the wonderful wooing of a lover. Otherwise put, it is by an insight, a teaching, an illumination implanted within the individual, in fulfillment of the Old Testament promise, They will all be taught by God” (Carson, comment on v. 45, emphasis original).
46:
Exod. 24:9-11:
9 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up 10 and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. 11 But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank. (Exod. 24:9-11, NIV, emphasis added)
Verse 46 is a strong statement of the equality of the Father and the Son. Indeed, the Son is called the “only and unique God.” You and I have not seen God in his pure essence, who is pure spirit, in his total glory; if we did, we would die—vaporize. So these men saw God as he partly revealed himself in a limited way. I like how they ate and drank. It shows God allows some level of enjoyment in his presence.
We can listen to hear the Father and learn from him, but we must not believe that we can see the Father, up in heaven, unless God invites him, as Isaiah was invited (see Is. 6), though he did not see God’s face in all his power and glory and purity, in his full essence; otherwise, Isaiah would have died (Exod. 33:20). Only the Son of God, who is from the Father and has lived with the Father has seen God in his glory. The Son is eternal and has always been with the Father.
Please see these posts for a systematic theological overview of Jesus’s life before, during, and after the incarnation. (“Incarnation” literally means the “act of changing into flesh”: -ion = act of and “carn” = “flesh” and “in” with a change = “into”).
1. Do I Really Know Jesus? His Entire Existence in One Image
2. Do I Really Know Jesus? He Was the Preincarnate God
3. Do I Really Know Jesus? He Was God Incarnate
4. Do I Really Know Jesus? He Took the Form of a Servant
5. Do I Really Know Jesus? He Came Down from Heaven
6. Do I Really Know Jesus? Why Did He Become a Man?
7. Do I Really Know Jesus? Thirty Truths about His Life
There are many more parts in that series. The seventh part has an easy-to-read, helpful list.
Other verses that exalt Christ to the highest level:
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. (Heb. 1:2-3, NIV)
47:
I have already exegeted vv. 47-59, 63 in this post:
John 6 and Partaking of His Body and Blood
I will just say that v. 51 is in a sequence. First, one partakes of the bread (= responding to the gospel and conversion and born again experience). Second, the partaker then receives eternal life. Conversion involves the human partaking. He responds to the message Jesus proclaims. The message is sufficient to spark saving faith in the listener. Then the listener responds with saving faith. And then the listener is given eternal life.
Once again, for the rest of my commentary, go to this post:
John 6 and Partaking of His Body and Blood
GrowApp for John 6:25-59
1. How have you “eaten” the body and “drunk” the blood of Christ? That is, how have you received union with him?
2. When you believe in the Son, you have eternal life. How has this biblical truth and reality changed you?
RELATED
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
12. Eyewitness Testimony in John’s Gospel
4. Church Fathers and John’s Gospel
3. Archaeology and John’s Gospel
SOURCES
For the bibliography, click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 