Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 6:63
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life.
63. that quickeneth ] Literally, that maketh alive or giveth life. The latter would perhaps be better to bring out the connexion with ‘they are life’ at the end of the verse.
the flesh ] Not, ‘ My Flesh,’ which would contradict Joh 6:51. The statement is a general one, but has reference to Himself. ‘My Flesh’ in Joh 6:51 means ‘My death’ to be spiritually appropriated by every Christian, and best appropriated in the Eucharist. ‘The flesh’ here means the flesh without the Spirit, that which can only be appropriated physically, like the manna. Even Christ’s flesh in this sense ‘profiteth nothing.’ (Comp. Joh 3:6.) Probably there is a general reference to their carnal ideas about the Messiah: it is “in our Lord’s refusal to assume the outward insignia of the Messianic dignity, and in His persistent spiritualisation of the Messianic idea” that we must seek “the ultimate cause” of the defection of so many disciples. S. pp. 141, 142.
the words ] Or, the sayings: see on Joh 5:47.
that I speak ] The true reading is; that I have spoken, in the discourse just concluded.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
It is the Spirit that quickeneth – These words have been understood in different ways. The word Spirit, here, evidently does not refer to the Holy Spirit, for he adds, The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit. He refers here, probably, to the doctrine which he had been teaching in opposition to their notions and desires. My doctrine is spiritual; it is fitted to quicken and nourish the soul. It is from heaven. Your doctrine or your views are earthly, and may be called flesh, or fleshly, as pertaining only to the support of the body. You place a great value on the doctrine that Moses fed the body; yet that did not permanently profit, for your fathers are dead. You seek also food from me, but your views and desires are gross and earthly.
Quickeneth – Gives life. See the notes at Joh 5:21.
The flesh – Your carnal views and desires, and the literal understanding of my doctrine. By this Jesus shows them that he did not intend that his words should be taken literally.
Profiteth nothing – Would not avail to the real needs of man. The bread that Moses gave, the food which you seek, would not be of real value to mans highest wants.
They are spirit – They are spiritual. They are not to be understood literally, as if you were really to eat my flesh, but they are to be understood as denoting the need of that provision for the soul which God has made by my coming into the world.
Are life – Are fitted to produce or give life to the soul dead in sins.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 63. It is the spirit that quickeneth] It is the spiritual sense only of my words that is to be attended to, and through which life is to be attained, 2Co 3:6. Such only as eat and drink what I have mentioned, in a spiritual sense, are to expect eternal life.
The flesh profiteth nothing] If ye could even eat my flesh and drink my blood, this would not avail for your salvation. These words contain a caution that the hearers should not understand his words in the strict literal sense, as if his body were really BREAD, and as if his flesh and blood were really to be eaten and drank.
The words that I speak Or, I have spoken. Instead of , I speak, I read , I have spoken, on the authority of BCDKLT, thirteen others; the Syriac, all the Arabic, all the Persic, Coptic, AEthiopic, Gothic, Slavonic, Vulgate, all the Itala; Origen, Eusebius, Athanasius, Basil, Cyril, Chrysostom, Tertullian, Ambrosias, Augustin, Gaudentius, and Vigilius Taps. This is an important reading, and plainly shows that our Lord’s words here do not refer to any new point of doctrine which he was then inculcating, but to what he had spoken concerning his being the living bread, and concerning the eating of his flesh, and drinking of his blood, in the preceding verses.
Are spirit, and they are life.] As my words are to be spiritually understood, so the life they promise is of a spiritual nature: see Bishop Pearce.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
As it is not the bread or flesh that a man eateth for the sustenance of his animal or natural life, that doth the main work, but the soul of a man within him, which putteth forth its virtues and powers in causing the digestion, concoction, and alteration of it, without which it nourisheth not the body; so the flesh of Christ eaten carnally can be of no profit for the nourishment of the soul: nor can the flesh of Christ considered alone, or by any virtue in it, profit; it only profiteth by virtue of the Divine nature, which being personally united to the human nature, addeth all the virtue and merit to the sufferings and actions of the human nature; so as the human nature of Christ hath all its quickening virtue from the Divine nature. It is not therefore the carnal eating of my flesh that I intended, that is a very gross conception of yours; nor can any such thing as that do you good: but the words that I speak to you, they are spiritual, and such by the belief of which you may obtain a spiritual and eternal life; for by believing those words, and obeying them, you shall come to believe in me, which is that eating my flesh and drinking my blood which I intended, not any corporeal or carnal eating.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
63. the flesh profiteth nothingMuchof His discourse was about “flesh”; but flesh assuch, mere flesh, could profit nothing, much less impart that lifewhich the Holy Spirit alone communicates to the soul.
the words that I speak . . .are spirit and . . . lifeThe whole burden of the discourse is”spirit,” not mere flesh, and “life“in its highest, not its lowest sense, and the words I have employedare to be interpreted solely in that sense.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
It is the Spirit that quickeneth,…. It is the spirit of man that quickens him; or which being breathed into him, he becomes a living soul; for the body, without the spirit, is dead; it is a lifeless lump: and it is the Spirit of God that quickens dead sinners, by entering into them as the spirit of life, and causing them to live: and it is spiritual eating, or eating the flesh, and drinking the blood of Christ in a spiritual sense, which quickens, refreshes, and comforts the minds of believers; it is that by, and on which they live, and by which their spiritual strength is renewed: unless, by spirit, is meant the divine nature of Christ, by which he was quickened and raised from the dead, and ascended up into heaven, and was declared to be the Son of God with power:
the flesh profiteth nothing; the human nature of Christ, though profitable, as in union with the Son of God, to be given for the life of his people, and to be an offering, and a sacrifice for their sins, yet not as alone, or as abstracted from the divine nature; nor would his flesh and blood, corporeally eaten, could, or should it be done, be of any avail to eternal life; nor is any other flesh, literally understood, profitable of itself for life; for man lives not by bread, or meat, or flesh alone, but by the word and blessing of God upon it, and along with it; nor flesh, in a figurative sense, as creature acts and performances, self-righteousness, obedience to the ceremonial law, carnal descent, and birth privileges:
the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life; the doctrines which Christ had then been delivering concerning himself, his flesh and blood, being spiritually understood, are the means of quickening souls. The Gospel, and the truths of it, which are the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ, are the means of conveying the Spirit of God, as a spirit of illumination and sanctification, into the hearts of men, and of quickening sinners dead in trespasses and sins: the Gospel is the Spirit that giveth life, and is the savour of life unto life, when it comes not in word only, or in the bare ministry of it, but with the energy of the Holy Ghost, and the power of divine grace.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
That quickeneth ( ). Articular present active participle of for which see 5:21. For the contrast between (spirit) and (flesh) see already 3:6.
The words ( ). Those in this discourse (I have just spoken, ), for they are the words of God (John 3:34; John 8:47; John 17:8). No wonder they “are spirit and are life” ( ). The breath of God and the life of God is in these words of Jesus. Never man spoke like Jesus (7:46). There is life in his words today.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “It is the spirit that quickeneth,” (to pneuma estin to zoopoioun) “The spirit is (exists at the one quickening,” or imparting life, eternal life to the soul of the believer who has been dead in trespasses and in sin, Eph 2:1; Eph 2:5; 2Co 3:6; 1Co 15:45, even quickens from physical death, Rom 8:11; Eph 4:30.
2) ”The flesh profiteth nothing: (he sarks ouk ophelei ouden) “The flesh (natural man) profits not a thing,” Joh 1:13; Joh 8:15; nor can anything originate from its nature and desires, 1Co 2:14; For “that which is born of flesh is (exists as flesh),” all of which has corrupted God’s ways, Joh 3:6; Gen 6:12; Rom 3:4-23.
3) “The words that I speak unto you,” (ta hermata ha ego lelaleka humin) “The words which I have spoken to you all,” regarding my identity as the water and bread of life, as the life-giver, Joh 6:4-6; They were and are the words by which every man shall one day be judged, whether or not he obeys the claims and call of the Lord on and for Him in this life, Joh 12:44-48.
4) “They are spirit, and they are life.” (pneuma estin kai zoe estin) “They are (exist as) spirit and they are (exist in essence of nature as) life,” to the one who receives them, to the obedience of faith, Rom 10:9-11. By believing in or receiving Jesus Christ as one’s personal Savior one receives power to become children of God, Joh 1:11-12; Rom 1:16; Joh 6:47.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
63. It is the Spirit that quickeneth. By these words Christ shows the reason why the Jews did not profit by his doctrine to be, that, being spiritual and quickening, it does not find ears well prepared. But as this passage has been variously expounded, it will be of importance first to ascertain the natural meaning of the words; from which it will be easy to perceive Christ’s intention. When he affirms that the flesh profiteth nothing, Chrysostom improperly, in my opinion, refers it to the Jews, who were carnal I readily acknowledge that in heavenly mysteries the whole power of the human mind is utterly unavailing; but the words of Christ do not bear that meaning, if they be not violently tortured. Equally forced would be that opinion, as applied to the apposite clause; namely, it is the illumination of the Spirit that quickeneth. Nor do I approve of the views of those who say, that the flesh of Christ profiteth, so far as he was crucified, but that, when it is eaten, it is of no advantage to us; for, on the contrary, we must eat it, that, having been crucified, it may profit
Augustine thinks that we ought to supply the word only, or by itself, as if it had been said, “ The flesh alone, and by itself, profiteth not, ” (173) because it must be accompanied by the Spirit This meaning accords well with the scope of the discourse, for Christ refers simply to the manner of eating. He does not, therefore, exclude every kind of usefulness, as if none could be obtained from his flesh; but he declares that, if it be separated from the Spirit, it will then be useless. For whence has the flesh power to quicken, but because it is spiritual? Accordingly, whoever confines his whole attention to the earthly nature of the flesh, will find in it nothing but what is dead; but they who shall raise their eyes to the power of the Spirit, which is diffused over the flesh, will learn from the actual effect and from the experience of faith, that it is not without reason that it is called quickening
We now understand in what manner the flesh is truly food, and yet it profiteth not It is food, because by it life is procured for us, because in it God is reconciled to us, because in it we have all the parts of salvation accomplished. It profiteth not, if it be estimated by its origin and nature; for the seed of Abraham, which is in itself subject to death, does not bestow life, but receives from the Spirit its power to feed us; and, therefore, on our part also, that we may be truly nourished by it, we must bring the spiritual mouth of faith.
As to the sentence breaking off in so abrupt a manner, it is probable that this was done because Christ saw that it was necessary to act in this manner towards unbelievers. By this clause, therefore, he suddenly closed the sermon, because they did not deserve that he should speak to them any longer. Yet he did not overlook those who are godly and teachable; for they have here, in a few words, what may abundantly satisfy them.
The words which I speak to you. This is an allusion to the preceding statement, for he now employs the word Spirit in a different sense. But as he had spoken of the secret power of the Spirit, he elegantly applies this to his doctrine, because it is spiritual; for the word Spirit must be explained to mean spiritual Now the word is called spiritual, because it calls us upwards to seek Christ in his heavenly glory, through the guidance of the Spirit, by faith, and not by our carnal perception; for we know that of all that was said, nothing can be comprehended but by faith. And it is also worthy of observation, that he connects life with the Spirit He calls his word life, from its effect, as if he had called it quickening; but shows that it will not be quickening to any but those who receive it spiritually, for others will rather draw death from it. To the godly, this commendation bestowed on the Gospel is most delightful, because they are certain that it is appointed for their eternal salvation; but at the same time, they are reminded to labor to prove that they are genuine disciples.
(173) “ Comme s’il estoit dit, La chair seule et par soy ne profite de rien.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(63) 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 life at the close of the verse. It is the spirit that giveth life . . . the words . . . are spirit and are life. These words are immediately connected with the thought of the Ascension, which was to precede the gift of the Spirit. (Comp. Joh. 7:39; Joh. 16:7 et seq.). We are to find in them, therefore, a deeper meaning than the ordinary one that His teaching is to be, not carnally, but spiritually under-stood. They think of a physical eating of His flesh, and this offends them; but what if they, who have thought of bread descending from heaven, see His body ascending into heaven? They will know then that He cannot have meant this. And the Descent of the Spirit will follow the Ascension of the Son, and men full of the Holy Spirit will have brought to their remembrance all these words (Joh. 14:26), and they will then know what the true feeding on Him is, and these very words which He has spoken will carry their lessons to the inmost being, and be realised, not simply in a spiritual sense, but as spirit and as life.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
63. The spirit that quickeneth It is the inspired Power, the impregnating Spirit, in his words, by which their souls ought to be quickened and rise into a living faith.
The flesh The carnality which the sensual perverts would put into his words.
Profiteth nothing Being akin to their vain expectation to be fed in the body by the Messiah’s constant miracle.
The words are spirit And should be interpreted in the highest sense of the Spirit, not by the low demands of appetite.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“It is the Spirit who makes alive, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life”.’
This now brought Him to the essence of the matter. “It is the Spirit who makes alive. The flesh is of no benefit’. Jesus in the flesh alone can do nothing for them, and when He has spoken of flesh He has not been talking about literally eating physical flesh, but about flesh being offered in sacrifice from which they must spiritually benefit (something well illustrated in the Old Testament sacrifices). What they need is a work of the Spirit through His words, life from Himself through the Spirit, a life that survives death so that the one who receives it never dies. Nothing else counts for anything. That alone is true life.
And it was because He would die and rise again that He could give them that life. They must not look at His earthly life, but at what He will be able to give them through His death and resurrection. That was why they need not worry about death, either His or theirs. For His words ‘are Spirit and are life’. Let them listen and the Spirit would work in their hearts, and they would then receive a life that never dies or ceases. That is why He had come. Through the Spirit at work, both through His ministry and directly in men’s hearts, and as a result of His coming sacrifice on the cross and His subsequent resurrection, they may partake of such benefits of His death. Then they would enjoy the promised ‘life of the age to come’ and know that they would be raised up at the last day.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 6:63. It is the Spirit that quickeneth, As a key to his former discourse, our Lord added, “As in the human frame, it is the indwelling spirit which quickens every part of it; and the flesh, how exactly soever organized and adorned, if separate from that, profits nothing, but is an insensible and inactive corpse; so also the words which I speak unto you, are spirit; that is to say, they are to be taken in a spiritual sense; and ifyou receive them in faith, my Spirit shall accompany them, and then you will find that they are life toyour souls. Whereas, to take them in a literal sense, would be most unprofitable and monstrous. It is indeed strange that you should think of them in this sense; but I know there are some of you who believe not, and would shelter your infidelity under these mean and disingenuous cavils.”
We will here, as promised on Joh 6:30 consider our Saviour’s discourse in reference to thesign which the Jews asked of him. The day after our Lord had first miraculously fed the great multitude, while he was teaching them in expressions borrowed from that miracle, and urging them to believe on him, they said, What sign shewest thou, &c. thus intimating, that it would be soon enough to receive him as the Messiah, when he assumed the kingdom in the manner which they imagined was fixed by Daniel’s prediction. See Dan 7:13-14 and on Mat 12:38.that without this no miracles of another sort could prove his claim; and they particularly insinuated, that his having given one meal to a multitude by miracle, was nothing extraordinary, but far inferior to that of Moses, who fed many more for a longer time with manna from heaven. His discourse on this occasion is much larger, and more complex, than any ofthe answers which he gave to the same demand at other times. There are many reasons for this; they expressed their contempt of the miracle of the loaves, as well as asked for a sign. He spake figuratively in allusion to that miracle, on purpose to inculcate its fitness for proving, that he was able to bestow eternal life. Several particular difficulties were moved in the course of his sermon; so that his answer to the demand of a sign is interspersed with a variety of other subjects. Many things, however, which he said, tended directly to shew them that they were mistaken in the nature of the sign which they expected, and to lead them into right apprehensions of the manner and purpose of the Messiah’s coming. Thus, though he came not down in the manner which they imagined Daniel had foretold, he assures them several times, that he actually came down from heaven, Joh 6:32-33; Joh 6:35; Joh 6:38; Joh 6:58.Particularly, when they insinuated that this could not be, because he was descended of earthly parents, he affirms very expressly, that, notwithstanding this, he did come down from heaven, and intimates that, accordingto the ancient prophets, the Messiah ought not to come from heaven in such a manner as they expected, which would have made the Jews flock to him eagerly, without the need of any extraordinary means. See Joh 6:41-51. Our Lord uses such expressions as may at the same time imply, that they exaggerated the miracle of the manna most extravagantly. In order to lead them to rectify their mistake, he further informs them plainly, that the salvation and life which he would bestow, were very different from the temporal deliverance and prosperity which they expected under the Messiah. Whence they might easily collect, that the manner of the Messiah’s appearance would likewise differ from their notion, which suited only a temporal king. He constantly represents what he promises, as salvation and life, which would be completed and consummated for the faithful at the last day, in consequence of their being raised again from their graves; and therefore, obviously, as wholly spiritual and eternal. He seems even anxiously to keep this in view; (see Joh 6:39-40; Joh 6:44; Joh 6:47; Joh 6:50-51; Joh 6:54; Joh 6:58.) nay, he tells them expressly, that far from being such a triumphant Messiah as they looked for, he was to die, and that the blessings which he promised would result from his death. The meat that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world, Joh 6:51. He assures them likewise, that he would ascend again into heaven, What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? Joh 6:62. This is equivalent to the mention of his resurrection on similar occasions: it is an intimation that he would be proved the Messiah by an appearance as remarkable as the sign which they demanded; and it is an intimation of the true nature of his kingdom, and the manner of his entering of it. Finally, to this intimation, he subjoins the caution in the present 63rd verse, It is the Spirit, &c. which certainly implies a warning that his present discourse was designedly figurative, and therefore ought not to be grossly interpreted: but it may likewise imply a hint, that these mistakes about the Messiah, and particularly their expectation of what their called a sign from heaven, proceeded from their understanding the figurative expressions of the ancient prophesies in too strict and literal a sense, and that his account of himself and his kingdom was really agreeable to the spirit and truemeaning of them. Thus the substance of our Lord’sdiscourse on this occasion, is the same with that of his answer to the demand of a sign at all other times, though the form be different; and it had the directest tendency to shew them that they were mistaken; and to warn them against suspending their faith on a sign, the expectation ofwhich had no foundation except in their own imaginations; and against rejecting him, in opposition to the strongest evidence, merely because this fancied sign attended him not.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 6:63-64 . Instead of appending to the foregoing protasis its mournful apodosis (see on Joh 6:62 ), Jesus at once discovers to His disciples with lively emotion (hence also the asyndeton) the groundlessness of the offence that was taken. It is not His bodily form , the approaching surrender of which for spiritual food (Joh 6:51 ) was so offensive [250] to them, but His spirit that gives life; His corporeal nature was of no use towards . But it was just His bodily nature to which they ascribed all the value, and on which they built all their hope, instead of His life-giving Divine Spirit, i.e. the Holy Spirit given Him in all fulness by the Father (Joh 3:34 ), who works in believers the birth from above (Joh 3:6 ), and with it eternal life (comp. Rom 8:2 ; 2Co 3:6 ). Hence His death, through which His as such would disappear, was to them so offensive a . Observe further, that He does not say and , but expresses the above thought in a general statement, the personal application of which is to be to Himself. Comp. Hofmann, II. 2, p. 252. Note once again that does not contradict what was previously said of the life-giving participation in the flesh of Jesus; for this can take place only by the appropriating of the spirit of Christ by means of faith, and apart from this it cannot take place at all. Rom 8:2 ; Rom 8:6 ; Rom 8:9 ; Rom 8:11 ; 1Co 6:17 . Comp. 1Jn 3:24 . The flesh, therefore, which “profiteth nothing,” is the flesh without the Spirit; the Spirit which “quickeneth” is the Spirit whose dwelling-place is the flesh, i.e. the corporeal manifestation of Christ, the corporeity which must be offered up in His atoning death (Joh 6:51 ), in order that believers might experience the full power of the quickening Spirit (Joh 7:39 ). When Harless, following Luther, understands by the flesh which profiteth nothing, the of Christ in His humiliation , and by the quickening Spirit, “ the spirit which perfectly controls the flesh of the glorified Son of man ,” he imports the essential point in his interpretation, and this, too, in opposition to the N. T., according to which the conception of is quite alien to the of the Lord, Phi 3:21 ; see 1Co 15:44-50 ; so that the cannot possibly be regarded as flesh pervaded by spirit (comp. 2Co 3:18 ). In no form is ever ascribed to the exalted Lord. The antithesis here is not between carnal flesh and glorified flesh, but simply between flesh and spirit. According to others, is the human soul , which makes the body to have life (Beza, Fritzsche in his Nov. Opusc . p. 239). But must, according to the import of the preceding discourse, be taken in a Messianic sense. Others say: is the spiritual participation , the material (Tertullian, Augustine, Rupertius, Calvin, Grotius, and most others; also Olshausen, comp. Kling and Richter); but thus again the peculiar element in the exposition, viz. the partaking of the Lord’s Supper , is foisted in. [251] Others, interpolating in like manner, interpret as the spiritual, and as the unspiritual, sensuous understanding (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius Zigabenus, Mosheim, Lampe, Klee, Ammon, etc. [252] ); comp. Tholuck. Others differently still. [253] “Quantopere sit hic locus variis expositionibus exagitatus, vix credibile est,” Beza.
, . . .] This does not mean that we are to hold to His words instead of to His corporeal flesh (Rckert, Keim), His words which remain as a compensation to us after His death (Lcke, De Wette, B. Crusius). It stands (seeing that has already its full antithesis in what precedes) in close connection with the following ., and therefore a comma only is to be placed after . “ The words which I have spoken unto you ” (meaning the discourse in the synagogue just ended [254] ), “so far from containing any real ground for , are rather spirit and life, i.e. containing and revealing the divine spirit in me, and the Messianic life brought about by me; but the real guilt of the offence lies with you, for among you are many who believe not .” He, namely, who does not believe in Him as the true Messiah, who secures by His death the life of the world, but expects Messianic salvation by His corporeal manifestation alone, which is not to die, but to triumph and reign to him who is such a of Jesus the discourse concerning feeding upon His flesh and blood can only be a stumbling-block and an offence. And of such there were , Joh 6:60 .
and stand in emphatic antithesis.
] The two predicates are thus impressively kept apart, and the designation by the substantive is fuller and more exhaustive (comp. Joh 3:6 ; Rom 8:10 ) than would be that by the adjective ( , Euthymius Zigabenus).
, . . .] an explanation added by John himself of the preceding words, , . . ., which imply a further knowledge; comp. Joh 2:24-25 .
] result of their wavering; for they are , who, from an imperfect and inconstant faith, have at last come to surrender faith altogether. They had been (Mat 13:21 ). Here we have with the relative, then with the participle accompanied by the article (Joh 3:18 ), both quite regular.
] neither “from the first beginning ” (Theophylact, Rupertius); nor “ before this discourse , and not for the first time after the murmuring” (Chrysostom, Maldonatus, Jansenius, Bengel, etc.); nor even “ from the beginning of the acquaintance then existing ” (Grotius, De Wette, B. Crusius, Maier, Hengstenberg, etc.; comp. Tholuck, “from the very time of their call”); but, as the context shows (see especially , . . .), from the beginning, when He began to gather disciples around Him (comp. Joh 1:43 ; Joh 1:48 , Joh 2:24 ), consequently from the commencement of His Messianic ministry. Comp. Joh 16:4 , Joh 15:27 . From His first coming forth in public, and onwards, He knew which of those who attached themselves to Him as did not believe, and in particular who should be His future betrayer. On this last point, see the note following Joh 6:70 . Were we, with Lange and Weiss, to render: “ from the beginning of their unbelief ,” this would apply only to disciples in constant intercourse with Him, whom He always could observe with heart-searching eye, a limitation, however, not justified by the text, which rather by the very example of Judas, as the sole unbeliever in the immediate circle of His disciples, indicates a range beyond that inner circle.
[250] Godet, according to his rendering of ver. 62: “which you will see to vanish at my ascension.”
[251] Kahnis ( Abendm . p. 122) has explained the passage in this sense seemingly in a manner most in keeping with the words: “What imparts the power of everlasting life to them who feed upon my flesh, is not the flesh as such, but the spirit which pervades it.” According to this view, the glorified flesh of Christ, which is eaten in the Supper, would be described as the vehicle of the Holy Spirit, and the latter, not the flesh itself, as that which gives life. Comp. also Luthardt. But it is self-evident that the thought of glorified flesh has to be imported from without.
[252] So also Luther: “Ye must indeed have the Spirit likewise, or obtain a spiritual understanding, because it is too high and inconceivable for the flesh.” See the striking remarks of Calovius against this interpretation.
[253] Wieseler, on Gal . p. 446, takes in the sense of original sin; sinful human nature can do nothing for man’s salvation; the Spirit of God produces this. But must take its stricter definition from the foregoing discourse; and if it were intended as in Joh 3:6 , would be far too little to say of it. This also tells against the similar interpretation of Hengstenberg: “The is the Spirit represented through Christ, and incarnate in Him, and the humanity destitute of the Spirit.”
[254] The usual but arbitrarily general rendering brought with it the reading . Tholuck and Ebrard have the right reference. Comp. , ver. 65.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Ver. 63. It is the Spirit that quickeneth ] Had those carnal Capernaites but stayed out our Saviour’s sermon, they might have been satisfied for the sense of his words, that they so stumbled at, and had not patience to hear him here expounding himself. Quoniam Christiani (Pontificii) manducant Deum, quem adorant, sit anima mea cum philosoplis, said Averroes; who, had he consulted with sound divines, might have known more.
It is the Spirit that quickeneth ] i.e. The Godhead united to the hmnan nature conveyeth life to the believer. That being the fountain, this the conduit; and union being the ground of communion. Wicked men want the spirit and life of Christ, who though he took every man’s flesh, yet that of itself profiteth them nothing. A communione naturae ad communicationem gratiae non valet argumentum.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
63. ] , , do not mean the spiritual and carnal sense of the foregoing discourse , as many Commentators explain them: for our Lord is speaking, not of teaching merely, but of vivifying: He is explaining the life-giving principle of which He had been before speaking. ‘Such eating of My flesh as you imagine and find hard to listen to, could profit you nothing, for it will have ascended up, &c.; and besides, generally, it is only the Spirit that can vivify the spirit of man: the flesh (in whatever way used) can profit nothing towards this.’ He does not say ‘ My Flesh profiteth nothing,’ but ‘ the flesh.’ To make Him say this, as the Swiss anti-sacramentalists do, is to make Him contradict His own words in Joh 6:51 .
. viz. the words and , above . They are and : spirit, not flesh only: living food , not carnal and perishable . This meaning has been missed by almost all Commentators: Stier upholds it, iv. 281 (2nd edn.): and it seems to me beyond question the right one . The common interpretation is, ‘ the words which I have spoken ,’ i.e. ‘ My discourses ,’ are , ‘ to be taken in a spiritual sense ,’ (? this sense of ,) ‘ and are life .’ But this is any thing but precise, even after the forcing of .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
the spirit. App-101.
quickeneth = giveth life. Greek. zoopoieo. See note on Joh 5:21.
the flesh. See note on Joh 1:13.
nothing. Greek. ouk ouden. A double negative. words. Greek. rhema. See note on Mar 9:32.
speak = have spoken, and do speak.
spirit. See App-101.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
63.] , , do not mean the spiritual and carnal sense of the foregoing discourse, as many Commentators explain them: for our Lord is speaking, not of teaching merely, but of vivifying: He is explaining the life-giving principle of which He had been before speaking. Such eating of My flesh as you imagine and find hard to listen to, could profit you nothing,-for it will have ascended up, &c.; and besides, generally, it is only the Spirit that can vivify the spirit of man: the flesh (in whatever way used) can profit nothing towards this. He does not say My Flesh profiteth nothing, but the flesh. To make Him say this, as the Swiss anti-sacramentalists do, is to make Him contradict His own words in Joh 6:51.
. -viz. the words and , above. They are and :-spirit, not flesh only:-living food, not carnal and perishable. This meaning has been missed by almost all Commentators: Stier upholds it, iv. 281 (2nd edn.): and it seems to me beyond question the right one. The common interpretation is, the words which I have spoken, i.e. My discourses, are , to be taken in a spiritual sense, (? this sense of ,) and are life. But this is any thing but precise, even after the forcing of .
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 6:63. , the spirit) It is not the Godhead alone of Christ, nor the Holy Spirit alone, which is meant, but universally the Spirit, in contradistinction to the flesh. That, which is spirit, is life-giving.- , the flesh) His speech is not in this passage concerning the corrupt flesh, concerning which no one doubts, but that it profits nothing: nor yet does Jesus take away from His own flesh the power of giving life; otherwise He would set aside His whole discourse, just delivered, which for certain refers to His flesh, Joh 6:51; Joh 6:53-56, as also the whole mystery of the incarnation: but the sense is, mere flesh profiteth nothing, namely, such as the Jews were supposing that flesh to be, of which Jesus was speaking. Comp. 2Co 5:16, Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. He speaks supposing a condition, and that supposed condition an impossible one, if He were mere flesh; as also He speaks [supposing a contingency impossible to arise], Joh 6:38, as to His own will, I came not to do Mine own will, but, etc. Comp. note on ch. Joh 5:31; Joh 5:19; Joh 5:22. The flesh is the vehicle of all Divine life-giving virtue, in the case of Christ and of believers; and Christ, after He was put to death in the flesh, and quickened in the Spirit, especially put forth His efficacious power; 1Pe 3:18, Christ suffered for sins-that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit; Joh 12:24, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit; Joh 16:7, If I go not away, the Comforter will not come; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.- , profiteth nothing) for quickening. Where the life is not from God, there no real profit is derived.- ) , the words, and the things comprehended in them. The correlatives are, the words and to believe: Joh 6:64, Some of you-believe not.-, I have spoken) He does not say, I speak, but I have spoken [Engl. Vers. loses this, I speak]. For already they were disaffected towards [turned away from] Him, Joh 6:60-61.-, spirit) although they [the words] speak of the flesh.-, and) and so therefore.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 6:63
Joh 6:63
It is the spirit that giveth life;-The trouble was in getting these people to see and understand that he was telling them great spiritual truths and not material and fleshly. The spirit in man is the permanent and abiding principle of his being. Gods spirit quickens this spirit of man, giving life to it-eternal life. The flesh and fleshly relations are temporal and will pass away.
the flesh profiteth nothing:-The flesh gives no real profit. The fleshly relation to Abraham on which they relied was no profit.
the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life.-The words of Jesus were the teachings of the Spirit and would bring life to them who received them. In Christ Jesus the Spirit of God dwells. He is the ever-present representative of the Godhead dwelling in his body here on earth. (Eph 2:2). After man sinned and the world was sin-defiled, God found no true dwelling place on earth among men until the spiritual temple was built. Then, through the Spirit, he dwelt in that temple with his children on earth. There was a material, typical building, the earthly temple; but this was only a shadow of the heavenly power or essence. His word is full of spirit and imbued with life-giving power. The word of God is the seed of the kingdom.” In the seed the germinal, or life principle, dwells. (Jas 1:18; 1Pe 1:23). The germinal principle of life dwells in the seed, and the word of God is an incorruptible seed; it never can be despoiled of its life principle. The Spirit of God dwells in and works through the laws he has given. (Rom 8:2). The quickening principle dwells dormant in the seed until it comes into favorable surroundings, then it germinates or is quickened into a new being. The word of God, as the seed, is received into the heart and it germinates into life. The Spirit of God not only quickens into life, but promotes the growth of the life imparted.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
the spirit: Gen 2:7, Rom 8:2, 1Co 15:45, 2Co 3:6, Gal 5:25, 1Pe 3:18
the flesh: Rom 2:25, Rom 3:1, Rom 3:2, 1Co 11:27-29, Gal 5:6, Gal 6:15, 1Ti 4:8, Heb 13:9, 1Pe 3:21
the words: Joh 6:68, Joh 12:49, Joh 12:50, Deu 32:47, Psa 19:7-10, Psa 119:50, Psa 119:93, Psa 119:130, Rom 10:8-10, Rom 10:17, 1Co 2:9-14, 2Co 3:6-8, 1Th 2:13, Heb 4:12, Jam 1:18, 1Pe 1:23
Reciprocal: Pro 16:22 – a wellspring Isa 55:11 – shall my Jer 23:29 – like as Eze 47:9 – shall live Mat 4:4 – but Mar 2:11 – General Luk 4:32 – General Luk 24:32 – Did Joh 4:41 – because Joh 6:54 – eateth Act 5:20 – all Act 7:38 – lively Act 10:22 – and to Act 11:14 – words Rom 4:17 – who quickeneth 1Co 12:13 – to drink 1Co 13:3 – profiteth 2Co 3:17 – the Lord 2Co 5:16 – yet Eph 2:5 – quickened Phi 2:16 – the word Col 2:13 – he Jam 1:21 – the engrafted
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
WORDS OF LIFE
The words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life.
Joh 6:63 (R.V.)
In Johns Gospel the prooemium, standing where it does, effects a great purpose. A great life is not sufficiently recounted by anecdotes and dates. How can we link its facts together, and present to ourselves and others an organic whole? John, in the prooemium of his Gospel, presents us with that which proves itself the right key by fitting all the wards of the lock, by supplying a principle which harmonises all the facts. The prooemium does this for all in our Lords earthly life.
I. The personality of Christ.The acceptance of views of the Person of Christ as worked out upon principles different from the Divine Society known as the Church ultimately, leads to a moral impasse of a destructive nature. An example of this is now before our eyes. A book, whose very name is startling, has lately been published in France. Its title is The Irreligion of the Future, and it is in the highest degree laudatory of irreligion. For all its hostility to religion, it sinks at times to a melancholy sentimentalism and despair, masquerading in the garb of resignationall, however, with apparently not very unsatisfactory issues, until we come to a difficulty which is supposed by many to underlie the whole purpose of the work. There are two chapters of which the headings are, Religion and Irreligion in Women, Religion and Irreligion in connection with the Fecundity and Future of Races. It is sad, says the writer, to find that one out of the three or four great peoples which, even taken by itself, counts as something in what chances there are of human happiness, sets to work in gaiety of heart to annihilate itself. In connection with the chapter of Religion and Irreligion in Women, the author turns, with the triumphant modesty of the successful missionary, to the spiritual history of a lady. She was married to a husband whom she loved, as he loved her, truly and deeply. She had, indeed, married partly from a desire to win him to Christ. One day her husband asked her if she might not think it a congenial task to read the Bible through carefully in an impartial spirit. She accepted the idea, starting with the extreme postulate that every word of the Bible was dictated by God; that it was an instrument vibrating through and through with a Divine and deathless music. She went on upon her course not without many doubts and misgivings. When the first part of her task was over, she turned to the pages of the New Testament with a throb of expectation. She came with especial delight to the Gospel according to John, which she had studied carefully in past years. Alas! she no longer found the Man without a stain, the Lamb of God. She detected blemishes, contradictions, credulities, superstitions, moral imperfections. She cried with an exceeding great, bitter cry, My belief has faded awaymy God has deceived me! May God forgive her! One naturally asks, Was this lady capable of judging the matter? Did she know anything of the language in which the original was written by John? Had she access to the sources from which she might have learned much? Had any one ever pointed out to her in that Gospel truths not yet developed, seen only in the far away like the golden trees of the distant hills? Evidently she must have heard from her husband the triumphant cry of Strauss in a company where Darwins name was mentioned. Darwin!the man who drove the miraculous out of the universe! But did he? Did he drive out anything but a shallow interpretation of the miraculous? Did she understand what Jesus said to the Jews?My Father worketh even until now, and I work, the miracle of continual creation. Was she ever taught to find in another Book by John a thought derived from a natural fact as yet unknown to the sons of men? He that hateth is in the darkness, and walketh in the darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness hath blinded his eyesthe unused eyes atrophied. Had she ever considered the appeal to womanhoodThe woman, when she is in travail hath sorrow because her hour is come; but when she is delivered of the child she remembereth no more the anguish for the joy that a man is born into the world? Is there no underlying glory there? The woman, not this or that woman, but all the sex that has not unsexed itself. The world, as it is even now, with its lachrymae rerum, its inseparable sorrows, but also its inseparable joysa healthy and serene conviction that the child is after all a little prince, with his own little place in a great assembly where he may play a not unhappy part. And so the Virgin-born surveyed a birth of births, and deaths, and their issues, with that steady unshrinking Virgin eye, which is also the eye of God. As our knowledge of John deepens, our knowledge of his interpretation deepens.
II. The only morality strong enough to support the life of a Christian nation.The same latent possibility in religion to do for races and nations in the last emergencies that which irreligion can never do is manifested again and again. Think how it was in the late great West Indian earthquake. I happen to have seen an account of it quite lately, traced by a hand of genius and vitalised by a heart of loveone in the long procession of Christian women, unveiled as well as veiled, unvowed as well as vowed, among whom strength and training bow down before decrepitude and decay, before the ghastly wound and the pestilential flesh. The writer to whom I refer brings us with her to the hospital, where the wounded and dying were taken, after a description of the earthquake which has all the appearance of a steadier eye and a less shaken observation than I have ever seen elsewhere. But I can only refer to some sentences directly bearing upon our present subject: One of the most remarkable features was the courage and real patience displayed by all the wounded. The faith of the negroes was unfaltering, and their religion stood to them like a rock. Even the little children clung to it. Soon after the dawn of the first day, I was struck by finding upon the ground scattered leaves of a Common Prayer Book. Some one had carried it at the time of the disaster, and afterwards it had been divided into hundreds of pieces and passed from hand to hand. Here, again, an earthquake in lands inhabited by higher races than the negroes, is often followed by atheistic crime as commonly as by the fire that follows its footsteps.
I have endeavoured so far to illustrate the peculiar support offered by John in the prooemium of his Gospel, (1) to the true Personality of our Lord, and (2) to its evidence to the only morality strong enough to support the moral life of a Christian nation. Now I add a reference to the words of Christ.
III. The words of Christ.In other lands a reverence, not easy to distinguish from continued worship, is offered to the Granth, the sacred book of the Sikhs, at Amritsar. Day after day a succession of readers goes on reciting from this sacred volume in measured tones, or in dispersing with a golden whisk the flies from the stand on which it is placed. Aged ecclesiastics of rank sit on one side, solemn choirs upon the other. Not far outside is a lakelet, called the Pool of Immortality, there is a great golden gate; certain doors of ivory and silver. The Granth is carried in at three oclock in the morning, and remains in the temple until eleven at night. Day and night the chamber is heavy with the scent of jasmine and marigolds. That which becometh old and waxeth aged is nigh unto vanishing away. It is not only of meats that it is written, Wherein they that occupied themselves were not profited.
One of the noted passages in Hookers Ecclesiastical Polity used to be that in which he spoke with reverential wisdom of the reading of the Lessons in our churches. Sermons, says the Churchman, with his stately wisdom, are not the only means. Many long centuries before these our days wise men doubted not to write that by him who but readeth a Lesson in the solemn assembly as a part of Divine Service, the very office of preacher is so far first executed. With their patience, therefore, be it spoken, the Apostles preached as well when they wrote as when they spoke the Gospels of Christ; and our usual public reading of the Word of God for the peoples instruction is preaching. Yes! for our Word of God is quick and powerful, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. For centuries the Apocalypse was not read in our churches. One chapter and the Epistle for Trinity Sunday, part of another for St. Michael and All Angels, a verse transported by a happy thought from the Sarum Liturgy to our Burial Service. When parts of the Apocalypse are read by a man who has made them his own, have you not seen world-worn eyes become wet with tears and like the soft eyes of a little child? Carry away the great principlesThat the prophecy of the Apocalypse is not prediction (except as regards the downfall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Kingdom of Christ); that the multitudinous objects projected before our eyes as illustrations are symbols, not pictorial; that the dates and mystic numbers are not miscellaneously collected from anticipated chapters in history. A comparison of the first chapter of Revelation with the Gospels will lead us to a perception of the Spirit and life of Christs words. The Fourth Gospel contains no narrative of the Transfiguration, but let us keep Matthews account before us, let us compare it with the opening vision of Christ in the beginning of the Revelation, we shall not hesitate to conclude that Johns spirit is looking back to the Holy Mount: Jesus was transfigured before them, and His face did shine as the sun. And, behold! a bright cloud. And a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them and said, Arise, and be not afraid. If he who said in his simple and stately way, I, John, was the son of Zebedee, he could not fail to have been thinking of the Transfiguration. It is Ibe not afraid reminds us also of another fear with sweet encouragement. But in the passage the Transfiguration seems transfigured and the glory glorified.
Archbishop Alexander.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
3
Many brethren use the latter part of this verse as if Jesus said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are the Holy Spirit.” Such a use of this passage is not only a perversion of it, but it misses the very point that Jesus was making all through the chapter from verse 26. The Bit,le is nowhere spoken of as the Holy Spirit. It has been given by the work of the Holy Spirit, and it is the sword of the Spirit, but it is not the Holy Spirit itself. Jesus has been patiently laboring to show the disciples and the other Jews, that man must eat bread or die. But he wishes them to understand he does not mean temporal bread. After a number of statements along the same line, he concludes it is time to come out with the direct conclusion to his discourse on the subject of spiritual food, and he does so in this verse. It is as if he had said, “I have not been talking to you about literal flesh or literal bread, for that ‘profiteth nothing.’ I was meaning spiritual food; and to make you know just what I mean by that kind of food, I will inform you what it consists of. It is my words or teaching, for they are spirit (ual) and will sustain your spirit in the life for me.”
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 6:63. It is the spirit that maketh to live; the flesh profiteth nothing. Jesus has spoken of giving life, of the eating of His flesh, as the means of gaining eternal life. In all this He has not the flesh but the spirit in view,not the material reception of the flesh by the flesh but the appropriation of His spirit by the spirit of man. Such spiritual union of the believer with Him alone maketh to live the flesh in itself is profitless for such an end.
The words that live spoken unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. The word I is emphatic, as it repeatedly has been in this discourse. The emphasis which Jesus here and elsewhere lays upon His sayings is very remarkable. He is the Word, the expression of the Fathers nature and will; His sayings are to man the expression of Himself. The words or sayings just spoken to these disciples are spirit and are life. This is their essential nature. They may be carnalised, wrongly understood, wilfully perverted; but wherever they find an entrance they manifest their true nature. They bring into the receptive heart not the flesh but the spirit of the Son of man, and thus the man, in the true sense eating the flesh of the Son of man, has life. His words received by faith bring Himself. Thus He can in two verses almost consecutive (chap. Joh 15:4; Joh 15:7) say, Abide in me, and I in you, and If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
To convince the Jews that our Saviour did not mean a carnal and fleshly eating of his body, he tells them, That such an eating would profit nothing; but it is a spiritual eating of him by faith, that bringeth that quickening life of which he had spoken. It is the spirit, or divine nature, that quickeneth; the flesh, or human nature, alone, separated from his godhead, profiteth nothing, and can give no life.
Learn hence, That it is the godhead of Christ united to the human nature, which adds all virtue, efficacy, and merit, to the obedience and sufferings of the human nature. It is the spirit, or divine nature of Christ, that quickeneth; the flesh, or human nature alone, profiteth nothing; and therefore the carnal eating of his flesh would do no good.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Ver. 63. The first proposition is a general principle, from which they should have started and which would quite naturally exclude the mistake which they commit. Chrysostom, Luther, Reuss give to the word flesh here the sense of grossly literal interpretation and to the word spirit that of figurative interpretation. But the opposite of the spirit in this sense would be the letter, rather than the flesh; and the word flesh cannot be taken here all at once in a different sense from that which it has had throughout the whole preceding discourse. The Spirit alone gives life, Jesus means to say; as to the material substance, whether that of the manna, or that of my own body, it is powerless to communicate it. Does this saying exclude the substantial communication of the Lord’s body, in the Lord’s Supper? No, undoubtedly, since the Lord, as He communicates Himself to believers, through faith, in the sacrament, is life-giving Spirit, and the flesh and blood no longer belong to the substance of His glorified body (1Co 15:50).
From this general principle Jesus infers the true sense of His words. If He said simply: My words are spirit, one might understand these words with Augustine in the sense: My words are to be understood spiritually. But the second predicate: and life, does not allow this explanation. The meaning is therefore: My words are the incarnation and communication of the Spirit; it is the Spirit who dwells in them and acts through them; and for this reason they communicate life (according to the first clause of the verse). From this spiritual and life-giving nature of His words results the manner in which they are to be interpreted.
The Alexandrian reading: the words which I have spoken, is adopted as unquestionable by Tischendorf, Westcott, Weiss, Keil, etc., on the evidence of the most ancient Mjj. And one seems to be setting oneself obstinately against the evidence in preferring to it the received reading: the words which I speak (in general), which has in its favor only the St. Gall MS. and nine others of nearly the same time (9th century). My conviction is, nevertheless, that this is indeed the true reading. The first reading would restrict the application of these words to the sayings which Jesus has just uttered on this same day, while the pronoun , I, by making the nature of the sayings depend on the character of Him who utters them, gives to this affirmation a permanent application: The words which a being such as I am, spiritual and living, utters, are necessarily spirit and life. Weiss does not appear to me to have succeeded in accounting for this pronoun , when he adopts the Alexandrian reading.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Verse 63
It is the Spirit that quickeneth, it is spiritual food which gives true and real life; the flesh–that is, what relates to the body–is, of little value.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
6:63 {14} It is the {x} spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life.
(14) The flesh of Christ therefore quickens us, because he that is man is God: and this mystery is only comprehended by faith, which is the gift of God, found only in the elect.
(x) Spirit, that is, that power which flows from the Godhead causes the flesh of Christ (which is otherwise nothing but flesh) both to live in itself and to give life to us.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Some of Jesus’ disciples turned from Him because they preferred the material realm to the spiritual realm, for which Jesus had an obvious preference. He warned them that the Spirit gives real life (cf. Gen 1:2; Eze 37:14; Joh 3:6) whereas the flesh provides nothing of comparable importance. The words that Jesus had spoken to them dealt with spiritual realities and resulted in spiritual life. Furthermore they were words that came from God’s Spirit. Therefore they were extremely important.