《Lange’s Commentary on the Holy Scriptures – John (Ch. 4~Ch. 8》(Johann P. Lange) 04 Chapter 4

To Philip.—To this disciple the question must have been a peculiar test. See the note on John 1:45. It is possible, however, that Philip was the one who first solicited the Lord to send the people away, Matthew 14:15.—According to Bengel, Philip had charge of the res alimentaria. Meyer urges against this that Judas was the treasurer [ John 13:29], which is not a sufficient reason; with better reason he refers also to the individuality of Philippians, as exhibited in John 14:8, which, however, he calls verstandesmässig [jejune and calculating, and somewhat skeptical, like Thomas. Chrysostom also infers from John 19:8, that Philip was weaker in faith or tardier in spiritual apprehension than the rest. Alford takes the circumstance as simple matter of fact, implying perhaps that he was nearest the Lord, at the moment .—P. S.] John’s omission of the circumstance that Jesus had previously been teaching this multitude and healing their sick (see on Matt.), making the Lord ask immediately: “Whence shall we buy bread [ἀγοράσωμεν, conjunct. deliberat.]?” is of course only an abridgment of the history sustained by many examples (see John 6:1; Lücke, Neander), not a difference, as Meyer holds, nor a sign of defective testimony, according to Baur. By the circumstance that Andrew had already made the acquaintance of a baker’s errand boy, or bread vender in the caravan, John himself indicates that the scene did not occur abruptly. Also by the aorists. [John represents the Lord as first suggesting the question how to feed the multitude; the Synoptists relate that the disciples came to the Lord and asked Him to dismiss the multitude from this desert place into the villages where they might buy themselves food. John’s narrative is abridged. But in every important point the agreement is complete. See the remarks of Alford in loc.—P. S.]

John 6:6. To prove him.—Plainly a test of faith; which Meyer without reason denies, and then himself confirms; Philip must be more ready to experience the power of faith. But it was also a test of love which the disciples stood bitter than the test of faith. [For he himself knew.—Jesus did not need the counsel of Philip.—P. S.]

John 6:7. Two hundred denaries’ worth.—A hundred denâries were equivalent to about fourteen dollars and a half. Comp. on Mark 6:37. Grotius supposes, this was the contents of the treasury. John represents it as the prompt calculation of the quick-minded Philip. The representation in Mark is not inconsistent with this; yet seems to imply that the disciples are ready to apply all their fund to the feeding of the people. Yet, according to Philippians, even the high estimate of two hundred denâries would not suffice.

John 6:8. Andrew … saith unto him.—Here again, as in John 12:22, Andrew appears near Philip and in like manner in an act of friendly interest and assistance.—Andrew seems to be a master in mediation and advice, John 1:40 sqq, and John 12:22. On that other occasion also he supplements Philip. But why is it said: “One of His disciples?” Wassenbergh considers the apparently superfluous and disturbing words to be a gloss. But John intends to mark that it was one of the disciples who first, though with trembling heart, directed his eye to that little store with which Jesus wrought the miracle.

John 6:9. There in one here. ΙΙ αιδάριονἕν. One little boy; one young slave; one little apprentice.^[FN45] The last, most likely a bread vender or sutler accompanying the caravan. The sense is: there is only one little trader here, and he has only so much.

Barley-loaves.—The food of the poorer classes. Tr. Pesachim [fol. III:2]: “Rabbi Johannan said the barley is fine. He was answered: say this to horses and asses [nuntia hoc equis et asinis].” Two small fishes.—O̓ψάριον [Lat. opsonium], a diminutive of ὅψον [from ὀπτάω, or ἔψω, to cook, to roast], any thing cooked or roasted, to go as a relish with bread (προσφάγιον): generally fish [little fish], as here. [Of later Greek usage. In the New Testament ὀψάριον is peculiar to John who employs it five times ( John 6:9; John 6:11; John 20:9-10; John 20:13). The Synoptists use here the word ἰχθύες.—P. S.]

John 6:10. Much grass in the place.—A mark of the eastern spring about the time of the passover.^[FN46] [After the rainy season.]—The men. Constituting, no doubt, according to the idea of the festival caravans, the great mass. They appear here as heads of families, around whom in many cases women and children were grouped. [οἱἅνδρες, a touch of accuracy; the men alone were arranged in companies and numbered, while the women and children were served promiscuously. (See Meyer and Alford in loc.) According to Mark the multitude reclined on the green pasture ground by parties or in groups of hundreds and fifties. They probably formed two semicircles, an outer semicircle of30 hundreds, and an inner semicircle of40 fifties. A wise symmetrical arrangement for the easy and just distribution of the food.—P. S.]

John 6:11. Given thanks.— Matthew 14:19. According to the best authorities, the distribution by the disciples, which is in the Textus Rec. supplied here from Matthew, is left by John to be supposed. See the Textual Note.

[Εὐχαριστήσας, for which the other Evangelists use εὐλογεῖν, is in accordance with the blessing or grace of the father of a Jewish family at meals, and has here a special bearing on the miracle. John describes the distribution (διέδωκε τοῖς ἀνακειμένοις) as being the act of Christ, without, however, excluding the intervention of the disciples as mentioned by Matthew, Mark and Luke. John 6:11 is the place for the miracle, but the exact moment and manner of its performance eludes the grasp of the senses. It must have taken place immediately after the prayer of Christ as He distributed the bread through the apostles to the eaters. The evangelists show their good sense in omitting a description of what is indescribable. Augustine’s and Olshausen’s ingenious idea of a divinely hastened process of nature (to which must be added an accelerated process of art, or the combined labors of the reaper, miller and baker, by which wheat or barley is changed into bread) does not help the understanding of the matter, and has only the value of an analogy. We cannot conceive, philosophically, of supernaturally, yet visibly growing loaves, and of supernaturally growing or multiplying fishes. A miracle, like the primitive creation, can only be apprehended by faith, which, is the organ of the supernatural. It Isaiah, indeed, not a strictly creative act by which things non-existing are called into existence, for a miracle is always performed on matter already existing, but it is as great and difficult as a creative Acts, and is produced by the same divine power which, in one case, originates nature, and, in the other, acts from above and beyond nature upon (not against) nature. Comp. my notes on the miracle at Cana, chap2, pp106 f, 109 f, and the notes on Matthew pp267.—P. S.]

John 6:12. The gathering of the fragments here appears as directed by the Lord. [A lesson of economy, which is consistent with the greatest liberality. “Make all you can, sate all you can, give all you can.” κλάσμαα (from κλάω, to break, as fragments from frango), broken pieces, not crumbs. More fragments were left than the original supply of five loaves, which would not have filled five baskets.—P. S.]

John 6:13. Filled twelve baskets with the fragments.—[Probable reference to the twelve apostles, each of whom gathered the fragments and brought his basket full. Basket, the ordinary furniture of a travelling Jew for carrying his food. Some commentators refer the number to the twelve tribes of Israel as the type of the church which is fed by the bread of life to, the end of time.—P. S.] Meyer urges that the twelve baskets were filled only with the fragments of the bread, and adds: Mark 6:43, states otherwise. Yet he would conceive the miracle only as a creative Acts, which operates here on quantity, as it operated on quality in the changing of the water into wine.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. On the miracle and the different explanations of it, see the Com. on Matt., chap14. [Am. ed, pp266, 268, where the rationalistic, the mythical, the symbolic, and the orthodox views of the miracle are fully noticed. Comp. also my remarks on John 6:11 (p210), and Prof. van Oosterzee in the Com. on Luke, p146.—P. S.] Not simply “a miracle of satisfying would Lange consider it,” as Tholuck inaccurately states. [Dr. Lange admits an actual increase of the substance and nourishing quality of the bread by a power which went forth from the Logos, but assumes at the same time a modal or mystic medium in a corresponding moral and religious disposition awakened by Christ among the eaters, so that it was a heavenly feast of the soul as well as a literal meal for the body. See his remarks below, and in Matthew, p267, also his Leben Jesu, III. p786, where he says: “Christ fed the people with His bread, His faith, His divine power and the blessing of His love.”—P. S.] Meyer: “A creative act.” But we have here, by all means, a miracle of the Song of Solomon, the Redeemer, not an absolutely creative act [ex nihilo]. If we know what creative Isaiah, we also know that all the days of creation were applied to it, till there was first the herb, not to say bread; therefore (1) a miracle of the increase of force in the element of divine power; then (2) of the increase of substance in the element of love; the whole being (3) a miracle of the heavenly kingdom, in which one fares very ill if he leaves the heart out of account.

2. In John this miracle gains a peculiar significance from its relation to the miracle of the turning of water into wine. Wine and bread. It receives further light from the history which follows.

3. The miracle of the miraculous feeding an illustration of the truth that Christ is the bread of eternal life to His people in the “desert place” of this world, on their journey to the “feast” of the heavenly Jerusalem. In this spiritual sense the miracle is continued from day to day. On its relation to the Lord’s Supper, see the Excursus at the close of the Exegesis of this passage.—P. S.]

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

See the Com. on Matthew,, Mark, and Luke, on this passage.

Jesus hastens from the tribunal of the Jews away beyond the sea into the mountain of God.—So the pious heart has a right to betake itself, from the pain which legalistic jealousy has ready for it in human schools and temples, to the great temple of God. (But to find refuge and elevation in nature is one thing, and to run wild in nature is another.)—Over the sea and upon the mountain: the great, bold course of Christ: In His life; in history; in the leading of His people.—The passover-feast, the passover-journey, and the passover-sermon of Christ before the passover of the Jews; the Lord ever in advance of His people. (The whole chapter.)—The trial of Philip’s faith.—What he saw, and what he did not see.—The character of Philip.—The arithmetic of Philip and the arithmetic of the Lord.—In the reckoning of men there is always a deficit, in the reckoning of Christ there is always a surplus.—How the Lord has led His apostles to interest themselves even in the bodily wants of men.—How He has trained His ministers and messengers to care also for the poor and sick.—The sentiment of Andrew, compared with the sentiment of Philip. (The one would begin with much, the other seems at least inclined to begin with little.)—How in a Christian consultation we gradually come nearer the right.—The little bread vender; Christ founds His great miracle on a small, every day incident.—“Make the men sit (lie) down:” a word of perpetual application.—When once a Christian people sit down together in peace and quietness, then the Lord works His wonders.—So He still works His miracle when the people sit down at His bidding (in the church, at the holy Supper, etc.).—Christ’s giving of thanks, the seal of His confidence.—The wonder-working table-blessing of Christ.—The divine miracles of faith at the supper in the desert.—The miraculous feeding; miraculous1, in the sitting down of the people at the bidding of Christ; 2, in the thanksgiving of Christ before the feeding; 3, in the distribution and breaking of the bread according to the appetite of all; 4, in the satisfaction of all; 5, in the surplus (more at the end than at the beginning).—Even the superfluity of God we should carefully economize.—The effect of the miraculous feeding on those who were fed: 1. Their true interpretation (that this is that Prophet, i.e., the Messiah); 2, their false application of it (desiring to make Him a king to their mind).—The Lord must withdraw Himself as often from the homage of men, as from their persecution.—Christ escaped to the mountain, and He alone: 1, the humble One, who offers up to the Father His miracle-working blessing; 2, the self-possessed One, whom no fanaticism of men excites; 3, the exalted One, above the ambition of the world; 4, the holy One, who mingles not His affairs with human doings.—“They would make him a king:” in the midst of this temptation, in which nobles fall by thousands, He stands erect, because He is the King.

Starke: Hedinger: God uses all sorts of means, most rarely curiosity, for the conversion of sinners.—The nearer a feast, the more the children of God seek to dress their hearts for Him; they keep the feast in honor of Him.—Jesus is so high that He can overlook all His children, and can know what each one wants.—Cramer: The Lord cares for all, and is kind even to the unthankful.—Nova Bibl. Tub.: It is the weakness of our unbelieving heart, that, in our necessities, we always consider only their greatness and the slenderness of the means of relief, and not the infinite Wisdom of Solomon, power, and goodness of God. If we have possessions, we have heart; but lack of money brings lack of faith.—Quesnel: We sin as well when we think that God will pass by the ordinary means of His providence as when we limit the providence of God to outward means.—Zeisius: Christ can make bread in the desert, and abundance in want.—Canstein: Whenever we eat, we ought to pray and thank God.—Cramer: Every creature, and therefore food, is sanctified by prayer and the word of God, 1 Timothy 4:5.—Happy are those ministers of the word who receive from the Lord what they deliver to their hearers.—He to whom God in trusts temporal blessings, should not keep them to himself, but share them with others.—To eat and be filled, is the blessing of God; and to eat and not be filled, is His curse, Haggai 1:16.—Osiander: The common mass is unintelligent; now it will exalt one to heaven, and soon after it will thrust the same one down to hell. Let no one intrust himself to the favor of the multitude.—Hedinger: In the beginning of illumination, in the first glow, a man usually falls to extravagant undertakings, not according to the rule of divine prudence.—Zeisius: Flee, according to the example of thy Saviour, from that which the world, with its carnal mind, holds high, and seek that which is above.—Gossner: Jesus purposely caused the bread to pass through the hands of the disciples, that they might grasp it in their hands, who in their unbelief had seen it to be too little.

Braune: The creative power of God which every year makes much grow from little, the harvest from the seed, even to superabundance, here also works. As it wrought in the beginning of the world, and works yearly in secret, here it comes forth openly.—The gathering frugality, which saves at the right time, belongs to the art of beneficence.—Jesus is the Redeemer from the sin which man loves, from the devil in whom man does not believe, from the death of which man does not think, from the hell which man does not fear; therefore He is not a Redeemer for all. Were He but a Redeemer from hunger and from labor for a living (by means of material abundance), then He would be acceptable to all. The people wished to make Him a king; He was to be their work; they wished to have their hand in everything, even where they did not understand, and nothing should have honor which they did not give,—not even Jesus, the Prophet, the Messiah.—Lisco: Philip and Andrew both looked at the visible; the one at the insufficient money, the other at the insufficient food.

Heubner: The power of Jesus to draw men to Himself. The power to do good draws more than the power to punish.—Unbelief everywhere looks at the small means and the feeble power. But God can accomplish much with little.—The purpose and the wonderful help of God are ever revealing themselves to the astonishment and shame of unbelief.—Jesus has regard for order and division, by means of orderly arrangement the multitude was easily viewed. So everywhere in the kingdom of God. Men are divided, every one in his place.—In the hand of Jesus everything becomes blessing.—The disciples were hodmen of Jesus; and so are we.—To cover political plans under the cloak of religion, is scandalous abuse of religion.—The Christian should strive to keep clear of worldly distinction.

John 6:1-15, the pericope for Lætare Sunday. How Jesus performs His miracles: 1. With holy design2. In love, only to relieve the actual stress of want and suffering3. With divine power4. With quietness and dignity5. With earnest precaution.

Schleiermacher: The Lord even feeds and nourishes those who truly gather round Him.—Draeseke: It is not we that make Him king, but He that makes us kings, because citizens in His kingdom.—Reinhard; Thoughts on the constancy with which Jesus holds to the great end of His life.—Marheineke: The Christian insolitude.—Greiling: We should learn from Jesus to do much with little.—Schultz: On the earthly blessing which God diffuses among men. Schuderoff: The earthly mind always miscalculates.—Lisco: The gospel for the day, a history of the feeding, seems to have been appointed for this Sunday^[FN47] not so much on account of the incidental remark that “the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh,” as because Jesus was called by the people, whom He had miraculously fed, “the Prophet that should come into the world;” for it is plainly the design of the last three Sundays of Lent to hold before us the threefold office of our Mediator, the suffering Jesus, as Christ: Prophet, Priest, and King.—Ibid: In Christ is full satisfaction for us.—The behaviour of Jesus towards weak and insincere friends: 1. He condescended to the necessities of their weakness2. He avoided their well-meant, but impure homage.—Bachmann: How urgently the Lenten season invites us take the bread of life.—Ahlfeld: The Lord makes everything come out gloriously: (1) Where man is at his wits’ end, (2) God goes right on.—Kraussold: Our daily bread a guide-board to heaven—Ibid.: How faithfully the Lord cares for His people.—Rautenberg: The eating of the bread from heaven: (1) How it is performed; (2) how much it includes.—Ibid.: Christ’s kingdom is not of this world: This (1) brings Him suffering in this world; (2) draws my heart from this world; (3) remains my comfort, when all things fail—Harless: The need, which receives the blessing of the Lord: 1. The need2. The testing3. The confirming4. The blessing.—Rautenberg: The miracle at the table of the Lord: 1. The love which prepares the table2. The food which it offers3. The satisfaction which it gives.—Jaspis: Jesus, ever the helper of the poor.—J. J. Rambach: The victory of faith in the exigencies of life.—Ahlfeld: How goes it with the Christian who goes with Christ? 1. He cleaves to his Lord, and forsakes Him not2. The Lord may hide from him His face for the time, till3. He at last breaks to him the bread of grace.—Wiesmann: The miraculous feeding shows us that Christ has for His people: (1) A warm heart; (2) a clear eye; (3) an open hand.—See the next section.

[Hilary: There is no catching by eye or touch the miraculous operation; it only remains for us to believe that God can do all things (consistent with His nature and character).—Augustine [Tract. in Joh. 24; Serm. 130, 1): Christ multiplied in His hands the five loaves, just as He produces harvest out of a few grains: there was a power in His hands; and those five loaves were seeds, not indeed committed to earth, but multiplied by Him who made the earth. (The same idea is revived by Olshausen, but the comparison is only serviceable as a remote analogy. See the Exegesis.)—Trench: Here is a miracle of creative accretion, by which Christ proclaimed Himself the bread of the world, the inexhausted and inexhaustible source of all life for the spiritual needs of hungering souls in all ages.—The twelve baskets, an apt symbol of Divine love which after all its out-goings upon others, abides itself far richer. Comp. 2 Kings 4:1-7; Proverbs 11:24 : “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth.”—Analogies of this miracle: the manna in the wilderness; the multiplying of the widow’s cruse of oil and her barrel of meal by Elijah, 1 Kings 17:16; Elisha satisfying a hundred men with twenty loaves of barley, 2 Kings 4:42-44.—Ryle: Learn from this miracle: 1) Christ’s almighty power; 2) a lesson about the office of ministers—to receive humbly and to distribute faithfully what Christ provides and blesses; 3) the sufficiency of the gospel for the wants of mankind.—P. S.]

Footnotes:

FN#1 - John 6:2.—[Two readings, but the same sense, ἐθεώρουν and ἑώρων. john uses ὁρᾶν only in the perfect. See Tischend. and the crit. Note of Meyer.—P.S.]

FN#2 - John 6:2.—αὐτοῦ is wanting in the principal MSS.

FN#3 - John 6:5.—The subjunctive aorist ἀγοράσωμεν [instead of the indicative future of the Recepta, ἀγοράσομεν is established by A. B. D. [Cod. Sin.], etc.

FN#4 - John 6:7.—[διακοσίων δηναρίων ἄρτοι. Denarius is a Roman silver coin, at first equal to ten asses (hence the name), afterwards increased to sixteen, and equivalent to the Greek drachm. From the parable of the laborers in the vineyard it would seem that a denarius was then the ordinary pay for a day’s labor, Matthew 20:2. Its value was about equal to7 English pence, or15 American cents. The E. V. should have retained the Latin term, as the Evangelists did in Greek, or it should have rendered it shilling, rather than penny, which is too far below the value.—P. S.]

FN#5 - John 6:7.—[The rec. inserts αὐτῶν after ἕκαστος. Omitted by א. A. B. L, and the recent edd.—P. S.]

FN#6 - John 6:9.—The ἕν [of the Recepta: a single lad], omitted by B. D. L, might have more easily dropped out [after the preceding παιδάρι—ον] than crept in. It is wanting also in the Cod. Sin, thrown cut b 4 Tischend, bracketed by Lachm. and Alford.—P. S.]

FN#7 - John 6:10.—[The rec. inserts δέ after εἶπεν, without good authority.—P. S.]

FN#8 - John 6:10.—[The verbs ἀναπίπτω (f. ἀναπεσοῦμαι, aor2. ἀνέπεσον) and ἀνάκειμαι signify in the N. T. the ancient custom of reclining at table, upon the couch or triclinium, which was usually higher than the low table. The English equivalent is to sit at table or at meat. In this case they lay upon the ground. Mark and Luke describe the manner. See Mark 6:39-40.—P. S.]

FN#9 - John 6:11.—[οὖν, therefore, is much better supported than δέ of the text. rec., and is adopted by Lachm, Tischend, Alf. (Lange, in his version, follows here the text. rec., but usually the readings of Lachm. Probably an oversight.)—P. S.]

FN#10 - John 6:11.—The words: “the disciples, and the disciples to” [τοῖς μαθηταῖς, οἱ δέ μαθηταί, text. rec]. are wanting in A. B. L. [and in the Cod. Sin.], etc., and in almost all the Versions. They have been supplied from Matthew 14:19.

FN#11 - John 6:14.—[The text. rec. inserts ὁ Ἰησοῦς after σημεῖον,—beginning a church lesson, omitted by the critical editors.—P. S.]

FN#12 - John 6:15.—Πάλιν (omitted by Tischendorf), with reference to John 6:3, is sufficiently supported by A. B. D. [In the 8 th crit. ed, Tischendorf has restored πάλιν, probably influenced by Cod. Sin. He also now reads φεύγει instead of the usual ἀνεχώρησεν with the remark that the latter is a correction from Matthew, and φεύγει was thrown out as not being consistent with the dignity of Jesus. Certe φεύγει alienissimum est a correctors.—P. S.]

FN#13 - John 6:16.—[Dr. Lange puts a period here, and several editions of the Greek a semicolon, instead of the comma of the Recepta.—E. D. Y.]

FN#14 - John 6:17.—The reading οὔπω, not yet, in B. D. L, etc., and in the Versions and the fathers [and Cod. Sin, instead of the οὐκ of the rec. adopted] by Lachmann [Tischend, Alf.], is hardly an explanatory gloss (Meyer), but was more probably dropped on account of its difficulty. See the Exegesis.

FN#15 - John 6:21.—[Cod. Sin. reads ἦλθον for ἤθελον. See the Exeget. Notes.—P. S.]

FN#16 - John 6:22.—[This “when” is simply an anticipation of the ὅτε at the beginning of John 6:24. It is the English Version’s solution of the grammatical difficulty of the whole sentence, John 6:22-24. The Vulgate and Luther avoid the difficulty by following the reading εἶδον or εἶδεν, instead of the participle ἰδὼν (see below). Lange’s ingenious construction I have not attempted to represent in the text. It will be found in full in the Exegesis. But the substance of it may be carried along in the very words of the English Version, as I have indicated.—E. D. Y.]

FN#17 - Ibid.—Cod. A. [B. L.], Chrysostom, the Versions, Lachmann [Tischend, Alf.] read εἶδον; D. [א.]: εἶδεν. A grammatical conjecture. [Meyer defends the text, rec. ίδών, and says that the definite tense was inserted to ease the grammatical structure.—P. S.]

FN#18 - Ibid.—The words ἐκεῖνο εἰς ὁ ἐνέβησαν οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ [text. rec. א.* D.] are wanting in A. B. L, the Vulgate and the Itala, and appear as an elucidation with many variations. [Omitted by Lachm, Tischend, Alf.]

FN#19 - John 6:23.—[The parenthesis of this verse in the Text. Rec. is removed by Dr. Lange, or rather is extended to the whole passage from ὁ ἑστηκώς πέραν τ. θ., John 6:22, to the end of John 6:23. See his construction in the Exegesis. Meyer entirely obliterates the parenthesis.—E. D. Y.]

FN#20 - John 6:24.—The καὶ before αὐτοί is lacking in the best MSS. [and in Cod. Sin.].

FN#21 - Ibid.—[ Αὐτοὶ].

FN#22 - John 6:27.—[For the future δώσει Cod. א. D. Syr, Chrys. and Tischend. (ed8) read the present δίδωσιν—P. S.].

FN#23 - John 6:35.—[Text. rec. inserts οέ, and, after εἶπεν, א, D. Tischend. οὖν. Omitted by B. L. T, Alf.—P. S.]

FN#24 - John 6:35.—[The E. V. connects πώποτε with οὐ μὴ πεινάση as well as with οὐ μὴ διψήσει.—P. S.]

FN#25 - John 6:36.—The με, wanting in Cod. A, bracketed by Lachmann, is sufficiently attested. [It is wanting in the Cod. Sin, and omitted by Tischend, but retained by Afford. Lange translates καί in this verse correctly sogar, even.—P. S.]

FN#26 - John 6:39.—According to the best Codd. πατρός is an addition. [In the Cod. Sin. the whole clause Τοῦτο—πατρός is wanting (homæotel.)—E. D. Y.]

FN#27 - John 6:40.—Γάρ, according to A. B. C, etc. [and Cod. Sin.], instead of the δέ of the Recepta.

FN#28 - Ibid.—Most Codd, B. C. D. [Cod. Sin.], etc., Clement and other fathers, and some versions read πατρός μου, instead of the πέμψαντός με. A third reading, M. Δ., etc., πέμψαντος πατρός, aims to adjust the two. The text. rec. comes from John 6:39.

FN#29 - John 6:42.—The second οὖτος has several MSS. against it, but could have more easily dropped out than crept in. [The Cod. Sin. has the οὖτος, and reads: οὖτος λέγει’ Ἐγώ ἐκ, instead of the text. Rec.: λέγει οὐτος’ “Οτι ἐκ’—E. D. Y.]

FN#30 - John 6:45.—Οὖν, therefore, after πᾶς is not sufficiently supported.

FN#31 - Ibid.—The readings ἀκούσας and ἀκούων are both strongly attested; the former somewhat the more strongly, while the latter is favored by the probability that the tense of μαθών following would react. [The Cod. Sin. has ἀκούσας.—E. D. Y.]

FN#32 - John 6:47.—[The words εἰς ἐμέ are omitted by א. B. and other ancient MSS, and by Tischend, but inserted by other MSS. and the Versions, and retained by Lachm, bracketed by Alf.—P. S.]

FN#33 - John 6:51.—[Tischend, ed. viii, reads with Cod. Sin, etc., ἐκ τοῦ ἐμοῦ ἄρτου (Hil. ex meo pane; Cypr. de meo pane), instead of ἐκ τούτου τοῦ ἄρτου with B. C. L. The latter looks like a correction.—P. S.]

FN#34 - John 6:51.—On the omission of these words: which I will give,—in Codd. B. C. L. D, etc., see the Exegesis. [In the Cod. Sin. the whole clause: ἣν ἐγὼ—κόσμου ζωῆς, is wanting.—E. D. Y.]

FN#35 - John 6:55.—Lachmann and Tischendorf read ἀληθής [true] both times (according to B. C. K. L, etc.) instead of ἀληθῶς [truly, indeed]; the latter is probably explanatory, since ἀληθινή (Cyril, Chrysostom) is the word to be expected. [Tregelles, Alford, Westcott and Hort unanimously adopt ἀληθής. So also Tischend, 8th ed, Meyer, 5th ed, and Lange, who renders: wahrhafte, i.e., real, substantial, Speise, Trank. Cod. Sin. has here several corrections which Tischendorf notes: א* ab αληθως priore ad posterius transiluit; אc supplevit omissa ac bis αληθης dedit, nisi quod alterum (a.cb?) rursus in αληθως mutatum.”—P. S.]

FN#36 - John 6:58.—The omission of ὑμῶν by important MSS, B. C. L, etc. (adopted by Lachmann and Tischendorf), may be due to theological reasons. Likewise the omission of τὸ μάννα in C. T, etc. (adopted by Tischendorf). The former reading is supported by D, etc., the latter by B. [The Cod. Sin. lacks both ὑμῶν and τὸ μάννα. Tischend, 8th ed, Tregelles, Alford, Westcott and Hort do the same, and read simply: καθὼς ἔφαγον οἱ πατέρες καὶ ἀπέθανον, as the fathers ate and died.—P. S.]

FN#37 - John 6:60.—[Tischend, Alf, etc., read: σκληρός ἐστιν ὁ λόγος οὖτος. which is supported by א. B. C. D, etc., against the text. rec. which putsοὺ͂τος beforeὁ λόγος.—P. S.]

FN#38 - Lange inserts after flesh the gloss: as such, separately considered, and after nothing: doeth nothing towards it. See Exeg.—P. S.]

FN#39 - John 6:63.—The perfect λελάληκα is supported by decisive authorities, B. C. [Cod. Sin, Tischend, Alf, etc.]. The Recepta [λαλῶ] generalizes the word.

FN#40 - Meyer arbitrarily supplies: “having left Jerusalem.” All older commentators, as also Brückner, Hengstenberg, Godet, refer ἀπῆλθν to Capernaum or some other place in Galilee. Alford, agreeing with Lücke, says that ἀπῆλθεν ὁ Ἰησ. πέραν τῆς θαλάσσης, if connected with the preceding discourse, would be unintelligible, and can only be understood by the fragmentary (?) character of John’s Gospel as relates to mere narration, and the well known fact being presupposed, that His ministry principally took place in Galilee.—P. S.]

FN#41 - Ewald, with his usual oracular self-assurance, as if he had been present at the composition of the Gospel of John, asserts that by a sad accident a whole sheet (he does not specify the precise number of chapters and verses) between chap5,6, was lost before the Gospel came into general circulation. Die Johanneischen Schriften, I, p221.—P. S.]

FN#42 - This would require ἀπό or ἑκ Τιβεριάδος.—P. S.]

FN#43 - Τιβεριάδος is a geographical genitive, inserted for the easier understanding of Gentile readers (comp. John 21:1), who knew the lake best by that name (Pausan. v7, 3; αὑτὸς οἶδα Ἰόρδανον λίμνην Τιβερίδα ὀνομαζομένην διοδεύοντα), though Matthew and Mark always call it θαλ. τῆς Γαλιλαίας, Luke once ( John 5:1), λίμνη Γεννησαρέτ, Josephus (De bello Jud., III:108, etc.), usually Γεννησάρ or Γεννησαρῖτις. Hence the Vulg. and Beza correctly translate: “mare Galilææ, quod est Tiberiadis;” so also the E. V.—P. S.]

FN#44 - Dr. Robinson (Lex. sub Γεννησαρέτ, p141) thus describes the sea of Tiberias: “It is about 12 miles long, and5 or six broad, and is still celebrated for the purity and salubrity of its waters and the abundance of its fish. It presents, indeed, a beautiful sheet of limpid water in a deep depressed basin, with a continuous wall of hills on the sides; but the hills are rounded and tame; and although after the rainy season the verdure of the grass and herbage gives them a pleasing aspect, yet later in the year they become naked and dreary. Its position exposes it to gusts of wind.” Comp. his Researches, Boston ed. of1856, Vol. II, 380, 386, 415–417.—P. S.]

FN#45 - Wordsworth: One person, and he a child; and he has only five loaves, and they of barley; and two fishes, and they small. Then Dr. W. goes on allegorizing about the elements of the sacrament.—P. S.]

FN#46 - Wordsworth: A beautiful figure of the ‘green pasture’ ( Psalm 23), in which Christ feeds His people in the ministry of His word and sacraments, whore He prepares a table for them in the wilderness. This may do for homiletical application.—P. S.]

FN#47 - The Fourth Sunday in Lent.—E. D. Y.]

Verses 14-21

2. The Miraculous Withdrawal Over The Sea

John 6:14-21