Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 6:31
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
31. manna ] More exactly, the manna.
He gave them bread from heaven to eat ] A rough quotation of ‘had rained down manna upon them to eat’ (Psa 78:24). They artfully suppress the nominative (which in the Psalm is ‘God’), and leave ‘Moses’ to be understood. Possibly Neh 9:15 is in their thoughts; if so, there is the same artfulness. On ‘it is written’ see on Joh 2:17. ‘From heaven’ is literally ‘out of heaven.’
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Our fathers – The Jews who were led by Moses through the wilderness.
Did eat manna – This was the name given by the Jews to the food which was furnished to them by God in their journey. It means literally, What is this? and was the question which they asked when they first saw it, Exo 16:14-15. It was small like frost, and of the size of coriander-seed, and had a sweetish taste like honey. It fell in great quantities, and was regarded by the Jews as proof of a continued miracle during forty years, and was incontestable evidence of the interposition of God in favor of their fathers. The manna which is sold in the shops of druggists is a different substance from this. It is obtained from the bark of certain trees in Armenia, Georgia, Persia, and Arabia. It is procured, as resin is, by making an incision in the bark, and it flows out or distils from the tree.
As it is written – The substance of this is written in Psa 78:24-25.
He gave them – This was regarded as a miraculous interference in their behalf, and an attestation of the divine mission of Moses, and hence they said familiarly that Moses gave it to them.
Bread from heaven – The word heaven, in the Scriptures, denotes often the region of the air, the atmosphere, or that region in which the clouds are. See Mat 16:3; The sky (heaven) is red and lowering. Also Mat 3:16; Luk 4:15; Luk 5:18. The Jews, as appears from their writings (see Lightfoot), expected that the Messiah would provide his followers with plenty of delicious food; and as Moses had provided for the Jews in the wilderness, so they supposed that Christ would make provision for the temporal wants of his friends. This was the sign, probably, which they were now desirous of seeing.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 31. Our fathers did eat manna in the desert] Their argument seems to run thus: Thou hast, we grant, fed five thousand men with five loaves and two small fishes; but what is this in comparison of what Moses did in the desert, who for forty years fed more than a million of persons with bread from heaven: do something like this, and then we will believe in thee, as we have believed in Moses.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Here they magnify Moses; he did not bring them a law only, but confirmed it by signs from heaven to be the will of God, by obtaining for them bread to be mined from heaven to satisfy their hunger, Exo 16:15; Num 11:7; which is also confirmed by the psalmist, Psa 78:25. This Moses did for the whole congregation of Israel forty years together. From hence they would seem to conclude, that they had more ground to believe Moses than Christ, who, though he had indeed lately fed five thousand with five loaves, yet had done no such thing. Not considering that Moses, in what he did, was but an instrument to obtain of God by prayer such a miracle, for supporting his people in the wilderness; and that what he had done, was done by a creating power inherent in himself, by which he multiplied that little proportion of bread which they had, to make it sufficient to feed such a quantity as five thousand, besides women and children; to which effect it bare no proportion.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
31. Our fathers did eat manna,&c.insinuating the inferiority of Christ’s miracle of theloaves to those of Moses: “When Moses claimed the confidence ofthe fathers, ‘he gave them bread from heaven to eat’not for a fewthousands, but for millions, and not once only, but daily throughouttheir wilderness journey.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Our fathers did eat manna in the wilderness,…. Which was a sort of food prepared by angels in the air, and rained down from thence about the tents of the Israelites; it was a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground; it was like a coriander seed, and the colour of it was the colour of bdellium: it was so called, either from , “to prepare”, because it was prepared, and got ready for the Israelites; or from the first words that were spoken upon sight of it, , “what is it?” for they knew not what it was: and this the Jewish fathers fed upon all the while they were in the wilderness, till they came to Canaan’s land, and they only; it was food peculiar to them: “our fathers did eat”; and so the Jews f observe on those words in Ex 16:35:
“”and the children of Israel did eat manna forty years”; the children of Israel, , “not another”. And the children of Israel saw, and said, what is it? and not the rest of the mixed multitude.”
Now these Jews object this miracle to Christ, and intimate, that he indeed had fed five thousand of them with barley loaves, and fishes, for one meal; but their fathers, in the times of Moses, to the number of six hundred thousand, and more, were fed, and that with manna, very sweet and delightful food, and for the space of forty years; even all the white they were in the wilderness: and therefore, unless he wrought as great a miracle, or a greater than this, and that of the like kind, they should not think fit to relinquish Moses, and follow him; and in proof of what they said, they produce Scripture,
as it is written in Ps 78:24, or rather in Ex 16:15; and perhaps both places may be respected:
he gave them bread from heaven to eat; they leave out the word Lord, being willing it should be understood of Moses, to whom they ascribed it, as appears from the following words of Christ, who denies that Moses gave it; and add the phrase “from heaven”, to set forth the excellent nature of it, which is taken from Ex 16:4, where the manna, as here, is called “bread from heaven”.
f Zohar in Exod. fol. 75. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Ate the manna ( ). The rabbis quoted Ps 72:16 to prove that the Messiah, when he comes, will outdo Moses with manna from heaven. Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah and able to give bread for eternal life (verse 27). Lightfoot (Biblical Essays, p. 152) says: “The key to the understanding of the whole situation is an acquaintance with the national expectation of the greater Moses.” They quote to Jesus Ex 16:15 (of. Num 11:7; Num 21:5; Deut 8:3). Their plea is that Moses gave us bread “from heaven” ( ). Can Jesus equal that deed of Moses?
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Manna. Properly, the manna, referring to the familiar historic fact. A passage is cited from a Hebrew commentary on Ecclesiastes, as follows : “As the first Redeemer made the manna to descend, as it is written, ‘Behold I will rain bread from heaven for you’; so the later Redeemer also shall make the manna to descend, as it is written, ‘May there be abundance of corn in the earth. ‘”
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; (hoi pateres hemon to manna ephagon en te eremo) “Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness,” during their long journey from Egypt. Now that was a miracle, a sign that lasted for forty years. Is this the kind of sign they wanted, would require of Jesus? Apparently so, yet many did not believe or trust in God even then, Luk 19:31.
2) “As it is written,” (kathos estin gegrammenon) “Just as it is (exists) having been written,” historically recorded and recounted. They laid down their own yardstick demands that He “outdo” Moses, Psa 78:26-32. If they, like Israel of old, believed not the signs of more than two or three witnesses He had already done, they would not believe for any other, Joh 8:24.
3) “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” (arton ek tou ouranou edoken autois phagein) “He gave (doled out) to them bread from out of heaven to eat repeatedly.” They simply found fault with His not raining the bread He gave them down from heaven. They would prescribe what He must do to meet their lofty intellectual requirements, see? To them He must duplicate the “bread from heaven” sign, just for them, Exo 15:4; Psa 78:22-25; Isa 55:8-9; 2Co 4:3-4.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
31. Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness. Thus we see that Christ put his finger on the sore, when he told them that they came like brute beasts to fill their belly; for they discover this gross disposition, when they demand a Messiah by whom they are to be fed. And as to the magnificent terms in which they extol the grace of God in the manna, they do this cunningly, in order to bury the doctrine of Christ, by which he condemned them for immoderate desire of corruptible food; for they contrast with it the magnificent title bestowed on the manna, when it is called heavenly bread But when the Holy Spirit bestows on the manna the honorable appellation of the bread of heaven, (Psa 78:24,) it is not with this intention, as if God fed his people, like a herd of swine, and gave them nothing more valuable; and, therefore, they are without excuse, when they wickedly reject the spiritual food of the soul, which God now offers to them.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(31) Our fathers did eat manna.He claims to be the Messiah; but the Messiah was to be greater than Moses, and the sign He has shown is less. The Messiah was to cause manna again to fall from heaven, as their Rabbis taught. They had eaten food which, if miraculously multiplied, was still the food of earththe common bread and common relishand this on the grassy sward not far removed from the habitations of men. Their fathers had eaten the manna which came direct from God, and was gathered from the granite rocks of the desert; and the Psalmist had told, and Hebrew children loved to chant, that bread from heaven was that which He gave them to eat.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
31. Our fathers did eat manna Just so. In the middle of the second month after their start from Egypt, the Israelites went forth one morning and found a small round thing upon the ground, and they cried, (Man-hu?)
“What is this?” And they found that it was bread rained from the skies; and their question, Man-hu? manna, became its name. Exo 16:14-15. And this bread was their food until their arrival under Joshua at Gilgal. “The manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten or the old corn of the land, neither had the Children of Israel manna any more.” Jos 5:12. The only trace left on earth of its existence was, (Exo 16:32,) an omer thereof, kept by Jehovah’s command, “for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth out of the land of Egypt.” The different vegetable productions to which, from some apparent suiting to the Scripture description the name manna has been applied, have no other title to the name than resemblance.
Written Quoted nearly correctly from Psa 78:24-25: “God rained down manna for them to eat. Man did eat angels’ food.” Psa 105:40: “He satisfied them with the bread of heaven.” If Jesus will give them this true Mosaic sign, they will pledge their full allegiance to him as king of the Jews.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Joh 6:31-33. Our fathers did eat manna, &c. By extolling the miracle of the manna, by calling it bread from heaven, and by insinuating that it was Moses’s miracle, the Jews endeavoured to disparage Christ’s miracle of the loaves, which they affected to despise as no miracle in comparison of the former. It was only a single meal of terrestrial food, at which nine or ten thousand had been fed; whereas Moses with celestial food fed the whole Jewish nation, in number upwards of two millions; and that not for a day, but during the space of forty years in the wilderness: wherefore, as if Jesus had done no miracle at all, they said to him, What sign shewest thou?What dost thou work?And Jesus replied, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not the bread, , from heaven. “It was not Moses, who in ancient times gave you themanna, neither was the manna bread from heaven; for it dropped from the air only, and is so called by the Psalmist on account of the thing which is typified: but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. By the miracle of the loaves, my Father has pointed out to you the true spiritual heavenly bread, which he himself giveth you, of which the manna was only a symbolical representation, and which is sufficient to sustain not a single nation only, but the whole world: Joh 6:33 for the bread of God is that which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.” The passage should be read in this ambiguous manner, or the explication which our Lord gives in Joh 6:35 is entirely superseded. The purport of it is, “The manna which dropped from the air, and kept those who made use of it alive only for a day, cannot be called the bread of God; but that is the bread of God which cometh down from God, and maketh the eater holy and happy like God.” See on Chap. Joh 1:9.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
31 Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
Ver. 31. Our fathers did eat manna in the desert ] Here they bewray themselves, and confirm what our Saviour had said of them, Joh 6:26 , viz. that they followed him only for provender. Sic sorex suo perit indicio. So the fish sepia a is discovered and taken by the black colour that it casteth up purposely to conceal itself.
a A cuttle fish which secrets a pigment of a rich brown colour (used in monochrome water-colour painting). D
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Joh 6:31 . This is proved by the suggestion added in Joh 6:31 . ; they demanded that He as Messiah should make good His claim by outdoing Moses. Schoettgen and Lightfoot quote from Rabbinical literature a relevant and significant saying: “Qualis fuit redemptor primus (Moses) talis erit redemptor ultimus (Messias). Redemptor prior descendere fecit pro iis Manna, sic et Redemptor posterior descendere faciet Manna, sicut scriptum est,” Psa 73:16 . See other instructive passages in Lightfoot. According to this expectation that the Messiah would feed His people supernaturally the crowd now insinuate that though Jesus had given them bread He had not fulfilled the expectation and given them bread from heaven. (For the expression “bread of heaven” see Exo 14:4 and Psa 78:23-24 .) To this challenge to fulfil Messianic expectation by showing Himself greater than Moses Jesus replies (Joh 6:32 ), . A double denial; not Moses, but “my Father” s the giver, and although the manna was in a sense “bread from heaven” it was not “the true bread from heaven,” . This my Father is now giving to you; .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Our fathers, &c. See Exo 16:15. Over half a million able for war; probably three millions in all. Num 2:32.
manna = the manna.
as = according as.
He gave, &c. Quoted from Psa 78:24. This was their hope and belief; and this was the “sign “looked for in “the days of Messiah”. So the Midrash (a Commentary on Ecc.): “The former Redeemer [Moses] caused manna to descend for them; in like manner shall our latter Redeemer [Messiah] cause manna to come down, as it is written: ‘ There shall be a handful of corn in the earth’ (Psa 72:16). “See Lightfoot, vol. ail, p. 293.
heaven. Singular. See note on Mat 6:9, Mat 6:10.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Joh 6:31. , did eat) They appear to speak more moderately than if they were to say: Moses gave us [a sign], therefore our fathers believed him: do Thou also give, and we will believe Thee: comp. ver. foll.- ) Septuag., Exo 16:4, ; Psa 78:24, ; Exod. same ch. Joh 6:15, . If that [Septuag. Exo 16:14; a small round thing, Engl. Vers.], small thing, was true bread, (Num 11:7, The manna was as coriander seed,) why should not also circular loaves [as the five, with which Jesus fed the 5000] be true bread?- , from heaven) Heaven, as opposed to the earth, is taken in the widest sense in the psalm; whence manna is also called the bread of angels, or of heavenly beings: but Jesus opposes to the heaven from which the ancient manna came, the highest heaven. It is with reference to this that the Lord Himself seven times saith, that He has come from heaven: Joh 6:32-33; Joh 6:38; Joh 6:50-51; Joh 6:58; Joh 6:62.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 6:31
Joh 6:31
Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.-They follow up this request by referring to the manna that God gave to the fathers in the wilderness. This was a work, or sign, given the fathers that they might believe on God. Now what kind of work do you do that we may believe on you? It is probable that they expected him to feed them, without labor on their part, through life as a sign.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
fathers: Joh 6:49, Exo 16:4-15, Exo 16:35, Num 11:6-9, Deu 8:3, Jos 5:12, Neh 9:20, Psa 105:40
He gave: Neh 9:15, Psa 78:24, Psa 78:25, 1Co 10:3, Rev 2:17
Reciprocal: Exo 16:15 – It is manna Mat 4:4 – but Mat 6:11 – General Mat 16:1 – a sign
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1
The Jews specified the provisions from God to which they referred in the preceding verse. They meant the manna that came down from heaven, a phrase quoted from Neh 9:15. The Hebrew Old Testament has but one word for the English word “heaven,” whether the writer means the place of God’s personal abode, or that in the material universe that surrounds the earth. It is true that the manna came literally from the latter heaven, but its true source was the Heaven of God. All of this led these Jews to think that no better food could be offered them.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
[Our fathers did eat manna.] I. They seek a sign of him worthy the Messiah; and in general they seem to look towards those dainties which that nation fondly dreamed their Messiah would bring along with him when he should come; but more particularly they expect manna.
“Ye seek me (saith our Saviour), not because ye did see the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled.” Were all these so very poor that they had need to live at another man’s charge? or should follow Christ merely for bread? It is possible they might expect other kind of dainties, according to the vain musings of that nation. Perhaps he was such a kind of slave to his belly that said, “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God,” Luk 14:15.
“Many affirm that the hope of Israel is, that Messiah shall come and raise the dead; and they shall be gathered together in the garden of Eden, and shall eat and drink, and satiate themselves all the days of the world….and that there are houses built of precious stones, beds of silk, and rivers flowing with wine and spicy oil.” “He made manna to descend for them, in which were all manner of tastes; and every Israelite found in it what his palate was chiefly pleased with. If he desired fat in it, he had it. In it the young men tasted bread, the old men honey, and the children oil….So it shall be in the world to come [the days of the Messias]: he shall give Israel peace, and they shall sit down and eat in the garden of Eden; and all nations shall behold their condition; as it is said, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry, Isa 65:13.”
Alas, poor wretches! how do you deceive yourselves! for it is to you that this passage of being hungry while others eat does directly point.
Infinite are the dreams of this kind, particularly about Leviathan and Behemoth, that are to be served up in these feasts.
II. Compare with this especially what the Jews propound to themselves about their being fed with manna: “The latter Redeemer” [that is, Messiah; for he had spoken of the former redeemer, Moses, immediately before] “shall be revealed against them, etc. And whither will he lead them? Some say into the wilderness of Judah; others, into the wilderness of Sihon and Og.” [Note that our Saviour the day before, when he fed such a multitude so miraculously, was in the desert of Og, viz. in Batanea, or Bashan.] And shall make manna descend for them. Note that. So Midras Coheleth; “The former redeemer caused manna to descend for them; in like manner shall our latter Redeemer cause manna to come down; as it is written, ‘There shall be a handful of corn in the earth,’ Psa 72:16.”
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Joh 6:31. Our fathers did eat the manna in the wilderness. Amongst the miracles wrought by Moses the Jews seem (and with reason) to have assigned to the manna a foremost place. In a Hebrew commentary on Ecclesiastes there is preserved a saying of great interest in connection with this passage: As the first Redeemer made the manna to descend, as it is written, Behold I will rain bread from heaven for you; so the later Redeemer also shall make the manna to descend, as it is written, May there be abundance of corn in the earth (Psa 72:19).
As it is written, He gave them bread out of heaven to eat. Of the many characteristics distinguishing the miracle of the manna, one is here dwelt upon,neither the abundance of its supply nor its continuance, but its source: it was bread out of heaven. The bread with which they themselves had just been fed, though marvellously increased in quantity, was still natural bread, the bread of earth: bread out of heaven was the proof received by their fathers that their Benefactor was the God of heaven. What similar evidence could Jesus offer? The words here quoted from Scripture do not exactly agree with any passage of the Old Testament. In Psa 78:24 we read (following the Greek version), And He rained for them manna to eat, and gave them bread of heaven; and in Exo 16:4, Behold I rain for you bread out of heaven. The words in the verse before us are therefore substantially a quotation from the psalm, with one important change introduced from the narrative of Exodus, out of heaven for of heaven. The change is important, because it points more distinctly to the source of the supply and not its quality only, and because the expression out of heaven is taken up by our Lord and used by Him with marked emphasis.