Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 6:34
Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
34. Then said they ] They said therefore.
Lord, evermore give us this bread ] ‘Lord’ is too strong, and makes the request too much like the prayer of a humble believer. Our translators wisely vary the rendering of Kyrie, using sometimes ‘Lord,’ and sometimes ‘Sir.’ Here, as in the conversation with the Samaritan woman, ‘Sir’ would be better. Not that the request is ironical; it is not the mocking prayer of the sceptic. Rather it is the selfish petition of one whose beliefs and aspirations are low. As the Samaritan woman thought that the living water would at any rate be very useful (Joh 4:15), so these Jews think that the true bread is at least worth having. He fed them yesterday, and they are hungry again; He talks to them of food that endureth; it will be well to be evermore supplied with this food, which is perhaps another manna with greater sustaining powers. They do not disbelieve in His power, but in His mission.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Joh 6:34-35
Lord, evermore give us this bread
I.
THE VAIN PRAYER. Because
1. It recognizes not the Giver in the bread.
2. It recognizes not the Bread of Life in the giver.
II. THE ANSWER OF JESUS aims to disclose their spirit
1. By insisting on the figure of the bread in His person.
2. By enlarging the figure: bread for hunger and thirst.
3. By explaining the figure: Come to Me, Believe on Me. (J. P.Lange, D. D.)
Three sayings of Christ
I. ABOUT HIMSELF (Joh 6:35).
II. ABOUT THOSE WHO COME TO HIM (Joh 6:37).
III. ABOUT THE WILL OF HIS FATHER (Joh 6:39-40). (Bp. Ryle.)
The true hunger of the soul awakened and satisfied in Christ
I. MANS HUNGER. There is in every finite existence one great appetite. No creature is independent; it must draw life from another. In man, who is a complex being, there are various kinds of hunger.
1. Natural.
(1) Bodily hunger. Even as an upright creature man was made dependent on the fruits of the ground; and now his first question is, How am I to get bread. How much thought and labour are expended on it! It has impelled to every crime. Hunger pressed Israel into Egypt, and that involved mighty issues for both. Hunger brought Ruth into view and linked her with the royal ancestry of Christ. The greatest spiritual conflict in the world was connected with a state of hunger. The central petition of the Lords prayer is Give us this day, etc.
(2) Mental hunger. Mans bodily appetite is typical of mental conditions.
(a) The heart hungers for happiness. Man, when left to himself, is an unhappy being.
(b) The intellect hungers for truth. Man has been made to inquire into, study, and know the truth of things.
(c) The will hungers for liberty. The triumph of a mans life is to prevail over the conditions which would fetter him.
(d) The conscience hungers for righteousness. We are made to act in accordance with the supreme law of the universe, the will of God. All altars, sacrifices, priesthoods are witnesses to that.
2. Unnatural. Great multitudes, instead of seeking for legitimate satisfaction, lay hold of false food, and drug themselves. For these Satan keeps a great variety of delusions.
(1) For low natures coarse animal pleasures.
(2) For intellectual natures there are the sciences, etc.
(3) For light and giddy natures there is the world and all its glory.
(4) For ambitious natures, principalities and powers.
(5) For more serious and half-religious natures penancies, pilgrimages, rites, ceremonies, and good works. The result of eating such false bread is that the mere hunger of the soul is deadened, and a false appetite created, which grows with what it feeds on, and this bread of death instead of supporting the soul consumes it.
3. Supernatural; the longings which exist with any degree of strength only in the renewed nature. Along with the other tastes there may be a love of sin, but this partly consists of a hatred of sin and a love of all that is good, a counting of all things but loss, so that we may gain Christ.
II. THE DIVINE PROVISION.
1. On what ground does God provide for our bodily hunger? For the sake of Christ. He has tasted death for every man, and thus secured an ample day of grace and every blessing, temporal as well as spiritual. Thus in a literal sense Christ is the Bread of Life.
2. Christ is the true food for the human mind.
(1) We can only see the true beauty and deep spiritual meaning of nature through Him.
(2) He is the Bread of Life to the conscience. In Him the sins of the past are washed away and the law magnified and made honourable.
(3) He is the Bread of Life to the heart. The heart that loves not is dead–but Jesus has revealed and communicates the love of God. (F. Ferguson, D. D.)
Bread and water
You call these common things. Their excellence has occasioned their commonness, and their commonness corresponds to a common want in humanity.
I. LET US APPLY THIS SOCIALLY. Look on the greatest feast ever prepared. What are its delicacies? Simply an adaptation, decoration or adulteration of bread and water, and the seated guests are compelled to say, This is well enough now and then, but only now and then, let us have something plain. Bread and water survive. Empires of soups, etc., which are the image and superscription of the cooks, who is bound like other fashionable slaves to produce something fresh, rise and fall; but bread and water are Gods, and they endure.
II. THE APPLICATION OF THIS IS OBVIOUS IN THE HIGHER SPHERES OF CULTURE. Reading and writing are the bread and water of the mind. Your duty to your child is done when you have given this; let him get the rest for himself. But fine cookery is imitated in fine intelligence, and sometimes with like results–mental indigestion. Hence we have imperfect French, caricatured German, and murdered music, and the native tongue and history passed by. When will people learn to prize bread and water and see that it is better to know a little well, than to know next to nothing about a great deal?
III. THESE ILLUSTRATIONS PREPARE FOR THE HIGHEST TRUTH OF ALL, viz., that Jesus Christ is the bread and water, without which man cannot live. He never says that He is a luxury which the rich only can afford. An adventurer would not have seen in metaphors so humble a philosophy so profound.
1. Man needs Christ as a necessity and not as a luxury. You may be pleased to have flowers, but you must have bread. Jesus has often been presented as an ornament, a phenomenon; but He preached Himself, and would have others preach Him, as bread and water.
2. What has been the effect of omitting to declare Christ as bread and water? Leaving the simplicity of Christ, we have elaborated theological sciences, worked out a cunning symbolism, filled the Church with many coloured garments, and constituted splendid hierarchies. All this means that man is a fool, and prefers vanity to truth. Poor souls are left to believe that they can only get to Christ through priests, catechisms, and ecclesiastical mumbling. Take the pure Bible and read it for thyself, and thou shalt see the Lord and eat heavenly bread.
3. History furnishes a most graphic confirmation of these views. J.S. Mill says: Let rational criticism take from us what it may, it still leaves us the Christ. Exactly: it leaves us bread. It modifies the theological cook and confectioner, but it leaves the living water. Men cant get rid of Christ, because they cant get rid of themselves. The Lord allows the chaff to be blown away, but saves every grain of wheat; yet nervous people think that the wheat is lost because the chaff is scattered. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Bread the symbol of Christ
He is to the soul what bread is to the body–its food.
I. Bread is NECESSARY food. Other things may be dispensed with, but all need bread,
II. It is food that SUITS all–old and young, weak and strong.
III. It is the most NOURISHING kind of food: nothing does so much good or is so indispensable to bodily development.
IV. It is food that we NEED DAILY. Other foods are at best only occasionally required.
V. It is the only food we are NEVER TIRED OF; hence it is on every table, unlike every other kind of food. (Bp. Ryle.)
The bread of life a representation of the Saviour
1. All life is valuable in its degree. Vegetable life is superior to dead matter, animal to vegetable life, rational to animal, the life of God to human life.
2. This latter was mans once; but it was forfeited, and is now restored by the Spirit. Hence Scripture loves to present religion under the notion of life; not as a picture that is only resemblance, not as mechanism that is only form.
3. The relation in which Christ stands to this life. He is bread, its nourishment; bread, i.e., bruised corn. He becomes our Saviour by His death.
4. Bread is nothing to us unless eaten, so unless we eat the flesh of the Son of God, etc.
I. THE WAY IN WHICH WE DERIVE ADVANTAGE FROM HIM. By coming to Him or believing on Him.
1. This reminds us that Christ is accessible. Where two or three, etc.
2. It teaches us that faith is not a notion, but a principle always attended with an application of the soul to the Redeemer.
3. This application is not a single address, but a continued exercise. Cometh.
II. THE HAPPINESS HIS FOLLOWERS SHALL ENJOY.
1. They shall never hunger nor thirst again after the world. Having tasted the provisions of Gods house, their language is, Lord, ever more give us this bread. A covetous, sensual, ambitious Christian is one the Scripture knows nothing of.
2. They shall not hunger and thirst in vain. The new creature has appetites, but ample provision is made for them.
3. They shall not hunger and thirst always. The days of imperfect enjoyment will soon be over.
Conclusion; The subject is a standard by which we may estimate
1. Christ.
2. Faith.
3. The Christian. (W. Jay.)
The bread of life
I. IN WHAT SENSE IS OUR LORD THE BREAD OF LIFE?
1. He evidently intimated that there was in Him that which, if properly received, would communicate eternal life (Joh 6:51; Joh 6:53).
2. He obviously points to His sufferings and death as that from which we were to derive our life.
3. For Him to be to us the bread of life depends on two things
(1) That we receive the full pardon of our sins;
(2) that we have a meetness for glory by the sanctification of our souls.
II. WHO ARE THOSE WHO DERIVE BENEFIT FROM HIM? Not all, but only those who come in faith.
1. Before we can do this we must have a sense of our need of Him.
2. Those will not come to Him who fail to see His perfections, believe in His atonement, and hear His invitation.
3. There must be moral effort. Labour. We must evidently turn our backs resolutely on the sins we loved.
4. We must come to Him by the prescribed means–meditation on His Word and importunate prayer.
III. WHAT IS THE BENEFIT of which He speaks. The believer shall never hunger or thirst
1. After sin.
2. Nor anxiously after holiness; only with such a sweet desire as serves to animate the spirit on its road to that state where it will thirst no more. (B. Noel, M. A.)
Bread is for common use
I remember what bread was to me when I was a boy. I could not wait till I was dressed in the morning, but ran and cut a slice from the loaf–all the way round, too–to keep me until breakfast; and at breakfast, if diligence in eating earned wages, I should have been well paid. And then I could not wait for dinner, but ate again, and then at dinner; and I had to eat again before tea, and at tea, and lucky if I didnt eat again after that. It was bread, bread, all the time with me, bread that I lived on and got strength from. Just so religion is the bread of life; but you make it cake–you put it away in your cupboard and never use it but when you have company. You cut it into small pieces and put it on china plates, and pass it daintily round instead of treating it as bread, common, hearty bread, to be used every hour. (H. W. Beecher.)
The soul needs to be often fed
When people are being strengthened of God, they are not content with one meal on the Sabbath; they want another, and perhaps a prayer-meeting or a Sunday-school for a dessert. They are not content with just two or three minutes prayer in the morning; they like, if they can, to slip out of business and get a word with God in the middle of the day. They delight to carry a text of Scripture in their memories to sweeten their breath all the day, and they cannot be happy unless they meditate upon the Word. I think you make a great mistake when you go galloping through the whole Bible, reading half a dozen chapters every day; you do much better when you get a text and ruminate upon it, just as the cows chew the cud. Turn the Scripture over and over, and get all the juice, sweetness, and nourishment out of it, and you will do well. The spiritually hungry man says, I must go and hear some servant of God, and hear what God, the Lord, will speak to me. I must get as much of the heavenly food as I possibly can, for I need it so greatly. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Hunger a sign of health
Men who are mending find themselves hungry between meals. Oh, the doctor says, that is a capital sign. You will get on now. I love to see Gods people when the Lord is strengthening them, for then they leave off being dainty and fault-finding, and prove the truth of Solomons proverb, that to the hungry man every bitter thing is sweet. Then they come to Monday night prayer-meetings and week evening services. They used to be able to do very well from Sunday to Sunday, and I have known some of them get on with one meal on the Lords day, and like it all the better if that was quickly served and soon over. When the gracious Lord strengthens His people they become very sharp-set. Somebody said on Sunday morning to me, Did you not feel it sweet preaching? I replied, I always feel it sweet preaching the gospel of the grace of God. Ah, but, he said, the people swallowed it all just as it came from your mouth, and they seemed so hungry after it. Truly this makes a preacher happy. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ the best food
The old Grecians that had fed altogether on acorns before, after that bread came in amongst them they made no reckoning of their mast any more, but kept it only for swine. And leathern and iron money began to grow out of request amongst the Lacedemonians after that gold and silver came into use. So when a man hath once found the favour of God in his heart, and the love of God in Christ hath once lighted on it, and got assurance of it, he ceaseth then to be greedy of the worlds trash, which is in regard of it but dross or pebble-stones to gold and diamonds, as mast to the best bread corn; yea, rather of far less worth or value to that than either of these are to it. (Fuller.)
Feeding on Christ
If anybody were to say to me, I have a man at home who stands in my hall, and has stood there for years, but he has never eaten a mouthful of bread all the time, nor cost me a penny for food, I should say to myself, Oh, yes, that is a bronze man, I know, or a plaster cast of a man. He has no life in him, I am sure; for if he had life in him, he would have needed bread. If we could live without eating, it would be a cheap method of existence; but I have never found out the secret, and I do not mean to make experiments. If you are trying it, and have succeeded in it so far that you can live without Christ, the bread of life, I fear your life is not that of Gods people, for they all hunger and thirst after Jesus, the bread of heaven. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
False food
During the Irish famine of 1849 the Duke of Norfolk invented a curry-powder of which he boasted that if taken by the starving peasants it would destroy all cravings of hunger. How many remedies for the souls hunger arc mere mockeries of unsatisfying! Curry-powder is poor food at the best. (H. O. Mackey.)
Christ an incorruptible food
Christ is incorruptible meat and drink. All earthly meat and drink is of a fading, perishing nature. The best bread grows mouldy in a little time; the best flesh in time putrefies and taints; the best wine grows eager and sour in a little time, and becomes unfit for the body of man; the very manna itself, when it was kept till the morning of the next day, contrary to Gods command, bred worms, and stank (Exo 16:20). But Jesus Christ knows no corruption. His flesh and blood is now as sweet and pleasant, after so many ages, as it was the first hour it was eaten and drank (chap. 8:27). And it will be as far from corruption at the end of the world as now it is. The manna in the golden pot corrupted not, though kept for many generations. Christ is manna in that golden pot; the humanity in the golden pot of the Divinity shall see no corruption. (Ralph Robinson.)
Soul-satisfying bread
I. THE LORD JESUS IS TO BE RECEIVED BY EACH ONE OF US PERSONALLY FOR HIMSELF. Bread which is not eaten will not stay hunger. Water in the cup may sparkle, but it cannot slake thirst unless we drink it. How do we receive Christ.
1. By coming to Him, which represents the first act of faith. We return to the Christ from whom we have been alienated with a motion of the heart performed by desire, prayer, assent, consent, trust, obedience.
2. Believing on Him, in the sense of trusting Him.
3. Eating and drinking Him. It is monstrous that this should be taken literally, for what greater crime could there be than to eat the flesh of our Saviour? What He meant was receiving Him into our hearts. Now, in eating
(1) The food as a whole goes into our mouths; so as a whole Christ is received into our belief and trust.
(2) We masticate it, and even in this way the believer thinks of Jesus and discovers His preciousness.
(3) It descends into the inward parts to be digested; so Christ is to dwell and rest in the affections till His comfort is fully drawn forth.
(4) The food is next assimilated; so the great truths of Christ are inwardly received till our whole nature draws from them satisfaction and strength.
(5) As a man who has feasted well, and is no more hungry, rises from the table satisfied, so we feel that in our Jesus our entire nature has all it wants.
(6) The two points about Christ which He says are respectively meat and drink are
(a) His flesh, i.e., His humanity. Our soul feeds on the literal historical fact that God was in Christ, and was made flesh and dwelt among us.
(b) His blood, which clearly refers to His atoning death.
II. WHERE JESUS IS RECEIVED HE IS SUPREMELY SATISFYING
1. To our highest and deepest wants, not to mere fancies and whims. Hungering is no shame; thirst is not sentiment.
2. Christ meets the hungering of conscience, which feels that God must punish sin, but is appeased as it perceives that it has been punished in Christ.
3. Men, when awakened, have a hunger of fear, but when they find that Christ has died for them, fear expires and love takes its place.
4. The heart has its hunger, but in Christ its roving affections find rest.
5. There are vast desires in us all, and when we are quickened they expand, and yet are satisfied.
6. This perfect satisfaction is found only in Christ.
(1) Some have tried to be satisfied with themselves.
(2) Some have gone to Moses.
(3) Some have dosed themselves into a torpor with the narcotics of scepticism.
(4) Many stave off hunger by indifference, like the bears in winter, which are not hungry because they are asleep.
Conclusion: All believers bear witness that Jesus Christ is satisfying to them.
1. They never seek additional ground of trust beyond Christ.
2. They never want to shift their confidence.
3. Christ satisfies in the hour of death. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The I am of Christ
This form of expression is not found in the synoptists. It occurs not unfrequently in St. John, and the figures with which it is connected furnish a complete study of the Lords work.
I. I am the LIGHT OF THE WORLD (chap. 8:12).
II. I am the BREAD OF LIFE (verses 35, 41, 48, 51).
III. I am THE DOOR (10:7, 9).
IV. I am THE GOOD SHEPHERD (10:11, 14).
V. I am THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE (11:25).
VI. I am THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE (14:6). VII. I am THE TRUE VINE (14:1-5). (Bp. Westcott.)
Spiritual assimilation
It is not what a man eats, but what he digests, that nourishes him. Now, so it is with that truth which is food for the mind, which is the souls nutriment. There is a certain kind of truth which needs only to be heard, only to he received: facts about the sun or earth, about light and heat and electricity. All that you need to do in respect to these truths is to get them, to store them away in your mind. Thus, for instance, the sun is ninety-two millions of miles from the earth. Receive these facts, and you need go no farther with them. There is no necessary after process of assimilation. They are of themselves nourishment for the mind, without any such after process. But not so is it with moral truth–that truth designed to regulate and govern human action. This is worth nothing, unless it is wrought into the life; unless it be so assimilated as to lose the form of abstract truth, and become principle; unless it passes into, is converted into life. This is the way with bread, when it does any good. It does not remain bread. It turns to flesh and blood and bone. The bread of yesterday is the myriad-hued, the myriad-sided life of to-day. It is the eloquence of the orator, and the strength of the drayman. It is the skill of the artist, and the energy of the ploughman. And it is all this, through the wonderful process of assimilation, through the mysterious force of a transubstantiation, stranger than priest ever taught, or poet ever fancied. Now, the truth of this analogy furnishes an explanation of the fact that so many persons in the world have a great deal of Bible know- ledge, an abundance of moral truth, without having much of spiritual life. In such Cases, truth has remained truth. Doctrine lies within them, as so much doctrine. So moral truth remains as so much unassimilated knowledge in the minds of thousands. And this analogy, besides an explanation, suggests also the great duty we owe to our moral or spiritual being. It is this. The duty of assimilating the moral truth which we have received, of turning it into life. This should be our daily work. Is time nothing, and eternity everything? Do we believe this? Then we should be more careful for an estate there, than for building up one here. Is it true, that with- out holiness no one shall see the Lord? Do we believe this? If so, how important that this truth should be turned into a principle of action in our daily life. And we should come to place very little, if any, value upon the mere possession of truth. Many a post mortem examination discloses plenty of unused food within the body. Still, the man died–died, because his system did not take up and use the bread. So, many a post mortem moral examination, no doubt, will exhibit an abundance of moral truth within the soul. And farther than this I think we should go here. We should come to place comparatively little value upon doctrines, which we are unable to convert into life-force, from which we cannot gather spiritual guidance and strength. If the truth which we possess is not digestible, it is very poor stuff. But, without further amplification here, I ask your attention to the great matter suggested by the text–THE CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL ASSIMILATION.
1. And the first I mention is, something to be assimilated. The process denoted by this word is only the changing of one substance into another. Thus, the tree takes the air and the sun-light, and the rain, and turns them into tree, into roots and trunk, branches and fruit, into its own peculiar life. Every leaf on your vine in spring-time is an open mouth, asking for these surrounding substances, that it may convert them into life for itself. It does not want light and heat and moisture, as such. It does not lay them up as such, counting them treasures. No, but silently, surely, swiftly, it assimilates them to itself. The sunbeam, when your flower gets hold of it, is no longer a sunbeam. No; but it is blood in the veins of your rose, it is the blush upon its cheek, it is sweet odour filling the air. Now, not otherwise is it with the life of the soul. This life, like all others, grows by the process of assimilation. But there must be something to be assimilated; and what this something is the text distinctly affirms. It is Christ, who is the bread of life, the bread which is turned into life within the soul. Christ, and not something else; not philosophy, not art, not knowledge. Where in the history of the world has any of these supported moral life? Look at ancient Egypt, ancient Greece. Christ is its food; but this means the true Christ, and a whole Christ. The soul cannot live on the Pope, or what of Christ may come through the Pope. It needs a whole Christ. Then, again, take the case where Christ is shorn of His sympathy, of His boundless love, of His ineffable yearning, and the same result is apparent. The soul starves. Its bread again is only half bread. Then there is another half Christ, the sentimental one. A Christ who is no sin-bearer, who holds no relation to the Divine law as its atonement–a Christ, of whom it can, only by the widest possible metaphor, be said, that He was made a curse–a Christ with no blood I And the same sad result of spiritual life is here again witnessed. Souls are starved.
2. The second condition is a good moral atmosphere. This implies two things. First, that your homes should be favourable to Christian life; and second, that your daily business, outside the home, should be such and so conducted as to be the same. No church, no religious privileges, can do much for any man or woman, who either has no home, or whose home is a bad one. Why, suppose you only gave your body one or two hours a week of pure atmosphere. Could you preserve health? Could you live? If you go from the church into an atmosphere of frivolity and selfishness, of acrimony and impurity, you will be sure to arrest the process of spiritual assimilation. Shun evil and corrupt association. It is said that the Upas-tree is girt in with a circle of dead and rotting carcases of bird and beast. So, upon every side of these corrupt rings, are strewn the dead consciences, the lost souls of men. See to it, then, that you breathe the atmosphere of love and of kindness, of purity and of honesty, day by day.
3. The third condition of spiritual assimilation is activity, the exercise of the new and true life. Duty is a Divine and immutable condition of moral growth. He that saveth his life shall lose it. Selfish idleness will kill any soul. Something you must do for this world in which you live, if you would do the best for yourself.
4. A fourth condition of spiritual assimilation is thought, intelligence. Better believe half of what you do, intelligently, with your whole soul, than believe it all, languidly, ignorantly.
5. The last condition of spiritual assimilation which I mention, and the great one, is the presence of the vital principle–the vital principle which philosophy cannot find out, which chemistry cannot detect. See those two trees. One of them lifts up its bare and shrunken branches; the other is covered with leaves, and the birds sing among its branches. Yet the air, the sunshine, the moisture, all within reach of both of these trees. What makes the difference? Why, in one the vital principle is present, from the other it has departed. Take two members of the same family again. One stands before the cross, only to fall in worship. The other hunts through the soil, wet with the blood of the Saviour, for gold, and lifts up his face to blaspheme, when he finds it not. The cross is life to the one, but death remains in the case of the other.
Two or three remarks in conclusion.
1. It is Christ who is the Bread of Life–not the Church, not truth, not doctrines; but Christ the personal Christ.
2. Christ being the Bread of Life, character becomes a good test of the soundness of faith. He who is pure, who is Christlike in conduct, must have partaken of Him who is the only bread of such a life.
3. Many of us are daily guilty in this matter. We transgress, year after year, the plainest laws of spiritual health and of moral growth. (S. S. Mitchell, D. D.)
The Bread of Life
Every one acknowledges the golden cornfields to be full of the highest spiritual teaching. It is as if He who gave us the Written Word, which we call the Bible–the Book–specially designed the harvest-field to be to it a sort of companion volume; and to that purpose filled it to overflowing with the most striking and beautiful illustrations, which should be at the same time bright enough to catch the attention of the most untutored, and profound enough to richly repay the deepest study of the thoughtful and learned. Nor would our Saviour allow this beautiful supplementary volume to be neglected or overlooked. Let us listen for a moment to what science has to tell us of the character and position of corn in the economy of nature. Corn belongs to the second great order of plants–the lily order; and according to the evolutionists theory it is either a lilyin the making, or in a degenerate and degraded form. This latter theory is the generally accepted one. In process of the ages the corn-plant which was, and is still, of the lily order, gradually developed the invaluable property of producing corn, and did ibis at the expense of its beauty. It separated itself from its beautiful sisters, laid aside the glory of the coloured vesture and elegance which belonged to it as of right, and took instead the russet garments in which we see it now clad; and all in order that it might be of service in its day and generation, and give its own life and substance for the life and support of others. If this were so, what a wonderful little parable we have in its history of the law of self-sacrifice, and of the blessing and reward attending such sacrifice: for what if it that really happens to the corn as a result of its self-surrender? We call it now the staff of life. That is its usual and well-fitting title. To be singled out from all other plants in the world as the very staff of human life were, I say, marvellous honour for so small and insignificant a plant. But more than that; in giving its life as the staff of ours it, becomes itself a partaker of a nobler nature. In eating it we incorporate its nature with ours, so that it becomes part of our very selves–bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh–and in a very real sense it comes in this way to participate with us in theenjoyment of human life. What a striking illustration we have here, then, of some of our Saviours words! Jesus said, He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal; and the life-history of the corn emphasizes this truth in a way so remarkable that no one can help being impressed by it. But we have not exhausted this lesson even yet, nor have we reached a thousandth part of the honour God has designed to bestow upon the self-abasing little plant; for when the Lord Jesus Himself came down from heaven to give His life for the world, and one day stood and looked around Him for a figure by which He might signify something of His own Person and office, He could find nothing better to His purpose than the little corn-plant in its so-called degraded form and russet-dress. I am the Bread of Life, He said, I am the living Bread which came down from heaven. We can well appreciate the aptness of that simile. The plant that had laid aside its lily-dress, and put off all its glory–clothing itself in russet-brown, and stooping very low, that it might give its life for the many–and, moreover, that could even then only become life-giving bread by being first bruised and crushed and broken–I say we can well perceive how fitting a type in all these particulars it was of Him who made Himself of no reputation, etc. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, etc. (John Crofts, M. A.)
The Bread of Life
1. Every living thing is a feeding thing. That it feeds is the test and signal that it lives.
2. Moreover, every living thing, whatever it may be, whether lowest in the scale of existence, or highest, must have food appropriate to itself, or it cannot live. There is a pathetic story which comes to us from the earlier explorations of the vast island of Australia. In the central deserts of that island there grows a strange plant called the nardoo, bearing leaves like clover. The Englishmen Burk and Wells, who were making these explorations, in the failure of other food, followed the example of the natives, and began to eat the leaves and roots of this plant named nardoo. It seemed to satisfy them; it seemed to fill them with a pleasant sense of comfort and repletion. But they grew weaker every day, and more emaciated; they were not hungry, for the plant seemed to satisfy the calling of hunger. But all the effects of an unfilled hunger began to appear in them; their flesh wasted from their bones, their strength leaked till they scarcely had the energy of an infant; they could not crawl on in their journey more than a mile or two a day. At last one of them perished of star- vation; the other was rescued in the last extremity of it. On analysis, it was discovered that the bread made of this plant lacked an element essential to the sustenance of a European. And so, even though they seemed fed, the explorers wasted away, and one of them died, because they were feeding on a sustenance inappropriate.
3. Now all this is true of mans higher and moral nature. The mistake men are constantly making is, that they seek to feed their higher nature upon wrong food, which may satisfy for the time, but in the long run cannot keep back the pangs of a noble spiritual hunger.
4. This is what Christ came into the world to be to men–the appropriate, satisfying, sustaining, upbuilding food for their highest nature.
(1) Christ, the Bread of Life, feeds and fills the human hunger for Divine sympathy.
(2) Divine forgiveness.
(3) Divine helping.
Lessons:
1. Do not refuse the Bread of Life because there are some things in Him you cannot understand, any more than you refuse the bread upon your tables, though there are mysteries in it that no science can explain.
2. See the adaptation to our needs of the great truth of our Lords Divine-human nature. He could not be the Bread of Life to us did He not possess such a nature.
3. Learn the essential meaning of religion. The essential meaning of my physical life is, that I come into contact with food. The essential meaning of my religious life is, that I as really and as utterly come into the Food of my spiritual nature–Christ. (W. Hoyt, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 34. Lord, evermore give us this bread.] Either meaning, “Let the miracle of the manna be renewed, and continue among us for ever:” or, “Let that bread of which thou hast spoken, become our constant nourishment.” The Jews expected that, when the Messiah should come, he would give them all manner of delicacies, and, among the rest, manna, wine, and spicy oil. From the following extract, we may see where Mohammed got his Paradise. “Many affirm, says Rab. Mayemon, that the hope of Israel is this: That the 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. There the houses shall be all builded with precious stones; the beds shall be made of silk; and the rivers shall flow with wine and spicy oil. He made manna to descend for them, in which was 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 man tasted bread, the old man honey, and the children oil. So shall it be in the world to come, (i.e. the days of the Messiah.) He shall give Israel peace, and they shall sit down in the garden of Eden, and all nations shall behold their condition; as it is said, My servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry, &c., Isa 65:13.” See Lightfoot.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Most interpreters agree that they spake this seriously, that is, that they were willing enough to have such bread (if any such were to be had); but yet not conceiving aright the nature and excellency of the bread our Saviour mentioned; and this occasioned his clear explication of it in the following verse.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
34. Lord, evermore give us thisbreadspeaking now with a certain reverence (as at Joh6:25), the perpetuity of the manna floating perhaps in theirminds, and much like the Samaritan woman, when her eyes were but halfopened, “Sir, give Me this water,” &c. (Joh4:15).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then said they unto him,…. At least some of them:
Lord, evermore give us this bread; that is so divine and heavenly, and has such a quickening virtue in it: these words are said by them either seriously, and to be understood of bread for their bodies, of which they imagined Christ was speaking; and so sprung from ignorance of his sense; and from sensuality in them who followed him for the loaves; and from a covetous disposition, being desirous of being supplied with such excellent food without charge; and from idleness, to save labour and pains in working for it; and from a vain desire of the continuance of this earthly life, being willing to live for ever, and therefore would have this bread evermore; and from a gross opinion of plenty and delicacy of corporeal food in the times of the Messiah; [See comments on Lu 14:15]; or else these words are spoken ironically, by way of derision, as if there was no such bread; and if there was, that Christ could not give it. However, the words may be improved, when considered as a petition coming from, and suitable to, a sensible and enlightened soul: for such who are sensible of their famishing condition by nature, and of their need of Christ, the bread of life, and whose taste is changed, and have tasted how good this bread is, will earnestly desire always to be supplied with it, and to live upon it; for nothing is more grateful to them, and more nourishing and satisfying to their souls; they are never weary of it; it is always new and delightful to them, and they always stand in need of it, and wait in the use of means and ordinances for it; and this has always an abiding, lasting, virtue in it, to feed their souls, and nourish them up to everlasting life. Josephus i says of the “manna”, which was a type of this bread, that there was such a divine quality in it, that whoever tasted of it needed nothing else: and the Jews also say k, that
“in the manna were all kinds of tastes, and everyone of the Israelites tasted all that he desired; for so it is written in De 2:7, “these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee, thou hast lacked nothing”, or “not wanted anything”; what is anything? when he desired to eat anything, and said with his mouth, O that I had fat to eat, immediately there was in his mouth the taste of fat.–Young men tasted the taste of bread, old men the taste of honey, and children the taste of oil.”
Yea, they say l,
“whoever desired flesh, he tasted it, and whoever desired fish, he tasted it, and whoever desired fowl, chicken, pheasant, or pea hen, so he tasted whatever he desired.”
And to this agrees what is said in the apocryphal book of Wisdom, 16:20,21:
“Thou feddest thine own people with angels’ food, and didst send them from heaven bread, prepared without their labour, able to content every man’s delight, and agreeing to every taste; for thy sustenance (or manna) declared thy sweetness unto thy children, and serving to the appetite of the eater, tempered itself to every man’s liking.”
All which must be understood of that pleasure, satisfaction, and contentment which they had in it; for it was a very uncommon case to eat it, and live upon it as their common food for forty years together: and no doubt but that there was something remarkable in suiting it to their appetites, or giving them appetites suitable to that, to feed upon it, and relish it for so long a time: twice indeed in that length of time we read they complained of it, saying, that they had nothing but this manna before their eyes, and their souls loathed it as light bread, Nu 11:6, and lusted after the flesh, and the fish they had eaten in Egypt. And so it is with some professors of Christ, and his Gospel; for there is a mixed multitude among them, as there was among the Israelites, who disrelish the preaching of Christ, and the truths of the Gospel respecting his person, blood, and righteousness, and salvation by him; they cannot bear to have these things frequently inculcated and insisted upon; their souls are ready to loath them as light bread, and want to have something else set before them, more suitable to their carnal appetites: but to such who are true believers in Christ, who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, Christ, the true manna, and bread of God, is all things to them; nor do they desire any other: they taste everything that is delightful, and find everything that is nourishing in him.
i Antiqu. l. 3. c. 1. sect. 6. k Shemot Rabba, sect. 25. fol. 108. 4. l Bemidbar Rabba, sect. 7. fol. 188. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Lord (). Used now instead of Rabbi (25) though how much the people meant by it is not clear.
Evermore give us this bread ( ). Second aorist active imperative second singular like in Mt 6:11 (urgent petition). What kind of bread do they mean? The Jewish commentaries and Philo speak of the manna as typifying heavenly bread for the soul. Paul in 1Co 10:3 seems to refer to the manna as “spiritual food.” Like the woman at the well (4:15) they long “always” to have “this bread,” a perpetual supply. It is probably to this crowd as the water in 4:15 was to the woman.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “Then said they unto him, Lord,” (eipon pros auton kurie) “Then they said to him, Lord,” master, much as the Samaritan woman responded when He disclosed to her that He could give her eternal flow that would quench her burning thirst, Joh 4:14-15.
2) “Evermore give us this bread.” (pantote dos hemin ton arton touton) “Give to us always this bread,” this life enabling bread, this kind of bread; And He did, to everyone who asked in earnestness and sincerity, Psa 145:18-19; Rom 10:13.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
34. Give us always this bread. There is no doubt that they speak ironically, to accuse Christ of vain boasting, when he said that he was able to give the bread of life. Thus wretched men, while they reject the promises of God, are not satisfied with this evil alone, but put Christ in their room, as if he were chargeable with their unbelief.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(34) Lord, evermore give us. . . .Comp. Note on Joh. 4:15. It would be better to read Sir for Lord here, as there. They, as the Samaritan woman, think of the satisfaction of physical need. They do not realise that man does not live by bread alone. The manna fell from heaven and gave life to their fathers; He has spoken of bread of God coming in the same way, and giving life. He has given them bread on earth, which they ate yesterday, but they hunger again to-day. Could He give them evermore this bread?
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
34. Lord This title, like the Rabbi of Joh 6:25, indicates a yet remaining reverence for the Feeder of the five thousand.
Give us this bread They are themselves in ambiguous suspense, arising from the Lord’s restrained language in the preceding verse. But whatever miraculous supply he has at command, they would like to receive, not transiently, like the late great repast, but permanently evermore. In his next response the Lord relieves them from this ambiguity for ever.
In the remainder of this discourse (Joh 6:35-71) three groups of character clearly present themselves. In the foreground are the men who have thus far replied to him, the Jews of Joh 6:41. With them is the present contest lace to face. In the background is a body of converts by his miracles, the disciples of Joh 6:60 and Joh 6:66. A large minority of these are shaken and carried off into the ranks of his opposers. Aside of both these, foreground and background, are the twelve, intense spectators of the scene, awhile tremulous but finally firm.
To the opposers, confronting him, Jesus declares that theirs is not the sort of character that the Father has given to him for salvation, 35-47; and (not so much for them as for his disciples, his twelve, and for us) he describes himself as the dying Saviour, who gives us life by his death, under the successive figures of bread and flesh. The bread is suggested by the miraculous feeding; the body and flesh by his bodily walking the sea.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘They said therefore to him, “Lord, evermore give us this bread continually”.’
They then simply asked Him to provide them with what He was talking about ‘for evermore’. This reply can be taken in two ways. Firstly as indicating their response in line with what they have thought all along, a desire for a continual supply of food from the Messiah. Or, secondly, as an indication that they recognise His meaning and are humbly responding to His words. There were in fact probably people present there who held each view, the God-seekers and the self-seekers. It is ever so.
‘Lord, give us this bread continually.’ John probably wants us to see the second meaning as true for the majority for from this point on the crowds will be forgotten and the concentration will be on the message. Note that here they are using ‘Lord’ to mean ‘sir’, but it cannot be doubted that John wants his readers to catch the higher meaning and see it as their submission to ‘the Lord’.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 6:34-35. Lord, evermore give us this bread. It is reasonable to imagine, as we have observed a little before, that the people who now heard our Lord were of different characters: many of them, no doubt, were obstinately perverse, heard him with prejudice, and wrested all his words; but others of them might be men of honest dispositions, who listened to his doctrine with pleasure, and were ready to obey it. This latter sort, therefore, having heard him describe the properties of this celestial bread, were greatly struck with the thoughts of it, and expressed an earnest desire to be fed with it always. To these our Lord replied, in words of boundless comfort, “I am the bread of life,the bread of God which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. He that cometh to me, and makes his application to me, shall never hunger; and he that perseveringly believeth on me, shall never thirst, but may depend upon it that he shall find the most restless desires of his soul satisfied; and, conscious of the noblest refreshment and nourishment already received, shall grow up to a state of everlasting complete satisfaction and enjoyment.” Thus our Lord assigned one of the many reasons why he called himself the bread of life. See Joh 6:47-48; Joh 6:51. The conclusion from this part of his discourse is so evident, that he left his hearers to draw it for themselves. It was this: “Since matters are so, I am manifestly greater than Moses, even in respect of that for which you extol him most. He gave your fathers manna, which was a bodily food only, and nourished nothing but the natural life; but I am myself the bread of life, the food of the soul, making men both holy and happy.” See on Ch. Joh 4:14.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 6:34 ff. ] emphatically takes the lead.
The request is like that in Joh 4:15 , but here, too, without irony (against Calvin, Bengel, Lampe), which would have implied unbelief in His power to give such bread. To explain the words as prompted by a dim presentiment concerning the higher gift (Lcke, B. Crusius, and most other expositors), is not in keeping with the stiffnecked antagonism of the Jews in the course of the following conversation. There is no trace of a further development of the supposed presentiment, nor of any approval and encouragement of it on the part of Jesus. The Jews, on the contrary, with their carnal minds, are quite indifferent whether anything supersensuous, and if so, what, is meant by that bread. They neither thought of an outward glory , which they ask for (Luthardt), for they could only understand, from the words of Jesus, something analogous to the manna , though of a higher kind, perhaps “a magic food or means of life from heaven” (Tholuck), nor had their thoughts risen to the spiritual nature of this mysterious bread. But, at any rate, they think that the higher manna, of which He speaks, would be a welcome gift to them, which they could always use. And they could easily suppose that He was capable of a still more miraculous distribution, who had even now so miraculously fed them with ordinary bread. Their unbelief (Joh 6:36 ) referred to Jesus Himself as that personal bread of life, to whom, indeed, as such, their carnal nature was closed.
Joh 6:35-36 . Explanation and censure.
] with powerful emphasis. Comp. Joh 4:26 .
. ] , Joh 6:33 . Comp. Joh 6:68 .
. ] of a believing coming (Joh 5:40 ); comp. Joh 6:47 ; Joh 6:44-45 ; Joh 6:65 . For . and , as also their correlatives . and ., do not differ as antecedent and consequent (Weiss), but are only formally kept apart by means of the parallelism . This parallelism of the discourse, now become more excited, occasioned the addition of the , which is out of keeping with the metaphor hitherto employed, and anticipates the subsequent turn which the discourse takes to the eating of the flesh and drinking of the blood. We must not imagine that by this a superiority to the manna is intended to be expressed, the manna being able to satisfy hunger only (Lcke); for both . and . signify the same thing the everlasting satisfaction of the higher spiritual need. Comp. Isa 49:10 .
] But I would have you told that , etc. Notice, therefore, that on ., . . ., does not refer to a previous declaration, as there is not such a one (Beza, Grotius, Bengel, Olshausen, B. Crusius, Luthardt, Hengstenberg, Baeumlein, Godet, and most others: to Joh 6:26 ; Lcke, De Wette: to Joh 6:37-40 ; Euthymius Zigabenus: to an unwritten statement; Ewald: to one in a supposed fragment, now lost , which preceded chap. 6; Brckner: to a reproof which runs through the whole Gospel); on the contrary, the statement is itself announced by ( dictum velim ). See, for this use of the word, Bernhardy, p. 381; Khner, II. 443. 1. In like manner Joh 11:42 . In classical Greek, very common in the Tragedians; see especially Herm. ad Viger . p. 746.
. . .] ye have even seen me (not simply heard of me, but even are eye-witnesses of my Messianic activity), and believe not . On the first , comp. Joh 9:37 , and see generally Khner, ad Xen. Mem . i. 3. 1; Baeumlein, Partik . p. 149 ff.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1638
THE LIVING BREAD
Joh 6:34. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
A FANCIED approbation of the Gospel will consist with rooted enmity against it. But such an approbation always arises from carnal, or partial views of the truth. Many love God under the idea that He is such an one as themselves. Thus the Samaritan woman desired the living water, that she might have no more occasion to go to the well [Note: Joh 4:15.]. Thus also the people, whom our Lord was now addressing, seem to have misapprehended our Saviours meaning. They had desired him to confirm his Divine mission by some miracle equal to what Moses had wrought for their forefathers in the wilderness [Note: ver. 31.]. Our Lord assured them that He himself was the true bread, of which the manna was only a type and figure. They, little knowing what they asked for, desired him to give them the bread of which he spake. The petition however, in itself, was good. That you may be led to offer it in a more intelligent manner, we shall set before you,
I.
The excellence of that bread
Our Lord enters very minutely into this subject. He institutes a comparison between the manna, and himself as the bread of life; and shews the superiority of the true bread,
1.
In its origin
[They supposed that the manna had been given them from heaven: whereas it came only from the clouds [Note: ver. 32.]; and was as earthly in its nature as if it had been formed like common bread. But Christ himself was the true bread [Note: ver. 48.]: and He came down from heaven. His abode from all eternity had been in the bosom of his Father. And he was now come down from thence to be the food of his chosen people [Note: ver. 51.].]
2.
In its properties
[The manna, like any other bread, was suited only to the body; nor could it give life to that, but only maintain its life; and after all, the bodies which it nourished would die at last [Note: ver. 49.]. But the true bread was intended for the soul. Nor would it merely support it when alive, but quicken it when dead [Note: ver. 33.]. Yea, the soul, once quickened by it, should never die [Note: ver. 50, 58.]. Christ himself being their life, they should live by him here [Note: ver. 57.], and with him for ever [Note: Col 3:4.].]
3.
In its uses
[The manna was very confined as to its use. It was for one nation only; whereas the true bread is intended for the use of all mankind [Note: ver. 33. before cited.]. It is more extensively necessary. The Israelites might as easily have been supported by other food. And we can find many substitutes for bread. But without Christ, no man can live [Note: ver. 53.]. Neither earth nor heaven can provide a substitute for him. That bread is equally needed by every child of man. It is also more extensively suitable. Persons may be so disordered as to be incapable of enjoying, or even digesting, common bread. But in whatever state we be, Christ is the proper food of the soul. He is a bread, which is suited both, as milk, to babes, and, as strong meat, to them that are of full age [Note: ver. 5456.]. Further, it is more extensively satisfying. The manna could supply but one want. Whatever abundance of bread we have, we may need a variety of other things, for want of which we may even perish. But if we have Christ, we have all things. We can want nothing which is good for the body [Note: Mat 6:33.]; nor any thing that relates to the soul [Note: ver. 35.]. He is food to the hungry, clothing to the naked, riches to the poor, health to the sick, life to the dead [Note: Rev 3:18. 1Co 1:30.]; He is all and in all [Note: Col 3:11.].]
Such a glorious account of this bread being given by Christ himself, it becomes us to inquire into,
II.
The means by which it may be obtained
Every provision for the body must be obtained by labour; but this for the soul must be accepted as a free gift
[We are extremely averse to stand indebted to another for our spiritual sustenance. We should be much better pleased to earn it by our own industry. But all our exertions for this end are fruitless. If we were to obtain an interest in Christ by our own works, salvation would no longer be of grace [Note: Rom 11:6.]. We are therefore cautioned against every attempt to gain it in that way [Note: Gal 5:2-4.]. We are expressly told that the Israelites were left for ever destitute of this bread, because they would persist in these self-righteous methods of obtaining it [Note: Rom 9:30-32.]. We are exhorted to receive it freely, without money and without price [Note: Isa 55:1-2.].]
Nevertheless we are not to decline all kind of labour for it
[We are to seek this bread in prayer [Note: The text.], and in the use of all Gods appointed ordinances. We are to exert ourselves as much in order to obtain it, as if the acquisition of it were the sole effect of our labour. But we are at the same time to depend as much upon God for it, as if we used no endeavours whatever to procure it. Nor is there any inconsistency in such a view of our duty. Our Lord himself says, Labour for the meat which the Son of man shall give you [Note: Joh 6:27.].]
Application
[Let us seek it by prayer and faith Let us be thankful that it is sent us in such rich abundance Let us gather it fresh every day and hour [Note: Exo 16:16.] Nor once attempt to hoard it for future use [Note: Exo 16:19-20.]. There is a fulness in Christ to satisfy our every want Nor shall we ever be refused if we plead with him as we ought to do [Note: Mat 15:26-28.]. Let us remember, that in our Fathers house there is bread enough and to spare [Note: Luk 15:17-18.]. And rest assured, that by feeding upon Christ, we shall find him to be meat indeed and drink indeed [Note: Joh 6:55.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
Ver. 34. Lord, evermore give us this bread ] This they speak jeeringly, as the woman of Samaria did in like case, Joh 4:15 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
34. ] Ch. Joh 4:15 is exactly parallel. The Jews understand this bread, as the Samaritan woman understood the water, to be some miraculous kind of sustenance which would bestow life everlasting: perhaps they thought of the heavenly manna, which the Rabbis speak of as prepared for the just in the future world: see quotations in Lcke, 2:132, also Rev 2:17 .
, emphatic: not now only, but always.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Lord. App-98.
evermore.Greek. pantote, see notes on Joh 6:35.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
34.] Ch. Joh 4:15 is exactly parallel. The Jews understand this bread, as the Samaritan woman understood the water, to be some miraculous kind of sustenance which would bestow life everlasting:-perhaps they thought of the heavenly manna, which the Rabbis speak of as prepared for the just in the future world: see quotations in Lcke, 2:132, also Rev 2:17.
, emphatic:-not now only, but always.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 6:34. , Lord) They speak with some degree of reverence, as at Joh 6:25 [Rabbi]; and even faith itself might have arisen in them from Joh 6:35, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst: but presently they start back again from faith: Joh 6:36; Joh 6:42, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He saith, I came down from heaven? Those declarations are especially to be observed, by the hearing of which the Jews were inclined to believe: ch. Joh 7:40, If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink; he that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Many of the people, therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet: Joh 8:30, He that sent Me is with Me; the Father hath not left Me alone, for I do always those things that please Him. As He spake these words, many believed on Him.-, evermore) To this is to be referred the following verse, at its close, never hunger-never thirst.- , this bread) They still suppose that His speech is concerning the nutriment of the body; and it is this that they seek: Joh 6:26, Ye seek Me-because ye did eat of the loaves.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 6:34
Joh 6:34
They said therefore unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.-When they heard such great good would come from it they asked for this bread that they might not die, but live the fleshly life forever. This is the same effect it had upon the woman at the well in Samaria. She asked for the water that she might have to draw no more, for the well was deep. These people desired the bread that would perpetuate life without labor, but they had no conception that it meant to give up all the fleshly enjoyments and to deny self and live the life of holiness that Jesus lived. Upon this many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. (Verse 66). The desertion was so general that Jesus asked of his apostles, Would ye also go away? Simon Peter answered. To whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. The meaning is, these people were willing to eat the food he provided, and to enjoy the blessings he bestowed, but when they saw that his teaching meant a denial of self to serve and honor him-a walk with Jesus in a life of humility and self-denial-they forsook him. It is yet true that the great masses of mankind are willing to enjoy the blessings of God, but not to obey him. They are willing to reign with him, but not to suffer with him. But none may reign with him unless they are willing to suffer with him. None can enjoy the blessings unless they are willing to serve him here.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
evermore: Joh 6:26, Joh 4:15, Psa 4:6
Reciprocal: Joh 6:58 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
4
Give us this bread. This request seems to by-pass the highly figurative personal pronoun, and hold to the thought that the bread Jesus was talking about was something to
be given and received, which indeed it was, except they appeared not to suspect what it was.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 6:34. They said therefore unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. We cannot see in these words the mere expression of a desire that earthly wants may be satisfied (comp. Joh 4:15). This would have incurred rebuke (comp. Joh 6:26), and not led to clearer teaching, such as is found in the coming verses. Jesus, moreover, is not dealing with the Jews (who meet us at Joh 6:41), but with the multitude,people who were indeed no more than half enlightened, but whose minds were not shut against the truth. His words in the following verses are altogether such as He was wont to address to men who truly sought the light, though not fully conscious of what they sought.
Joh 6:35. Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life,the bread, that is, that contains life in itself, and thus is able to give life unto the world. The Father giveth the true bread (Joh 6:32 in giving His Son; the Son of man giveth eternal life (Joh 6:27) in imparting Himself. To this declaration everything has been leading,the bread of the miracle, the manna, every reproof (Joh 6:26), every encouragement (Joh 6:27).
He that is coming to me shall in no wise hunger. The original words are chosen with exquisite delicacy. The figure is not that of one who has achieved a toilsome and lengthened journey (as if the words ran, he that at length has reached me), but that of one whose resolve is taken, and who sets out in the right way,he that is coming unto Jesus shall cease to hunger. Other passages may speak of the disciple as one who has come to Jesus; this with equal truth represents him as one who is coming towards Jesus, whose aim and desire and constant thoughts are towards his Lord. The hunger of the spirit ceases, the restless want and search for satisfaction are at an end; the true bread, that which gives real sustenance, is received.
And he that believeth in me shall in no wise ever thirst. In these words we have an image similar to the last, but not the same. The quenching of thirst is even a stronger figure than the satisfaction of hunger, and thus (as usually in the poetry of the Old Testament) the thought of the second member is an advance upon that of the first. It may seem remarkable that ever is not joined with both members of the verse; but (as the other words also show) the first simply expresses once for all the cessation of hunger,hunger is at an end; whilst the second suggests the continuous presence of that which banishes thirst. Faith is really set forth in both clauses. The first presents it in the simplicity and power of the act of will,the will turned towards Jesus; the second brings it into prominence as the continuous movement of the soul towards union with Him. It is not right therefore to interpret the coming as part of the believing, or to take either as denoting a momentary act belonging to the beginning only of the Christian life. Each figure, with a force peculiarly its own, expresses the abiding relation of the true disciple to his Lord; but only by a combination such as is here given could we have vividly presented to us both the immediate and the continuous satisfaction of spirit which Jesus imparts. There is probably another reason for the introduction of the figure of thirst. It is not with the manna alone that Jesus is now healing. He had fed the multitudes with bread, but the meal at which He entertained them as His guests was designed to be the symbol of the Paschal feast (see the note on Joh 6:4). It was natural therefore thus to enlarge the symbols, that his feast may be kept in mind, and the way prepared for the words of later verses (Joh 6:53-56).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here, 1. How the carnal Jews hearing of the bread which Christ had commended so highly, and conceiving of it carnally, desire they may partake of it constantly; Lord, evermore give us this bread. The commendation of spiritual things may move the affections, and quicken the desires, of natural persons: but if their desires be not spiritual and serious, diligent and laborious, constant and abiding, they are no evidence of the truth of grace.
Observe, 2. Christ discovers another excellent effect of this bread of life, which he had been recommending; that such as feed of it shall never hunger more; that is, inordinately; after the perishing satisfactions of this world; but shall find an all-sufficient fulness in him, and complete refreshment from him, for the preserving and perpetuating of their spiritual life: He that cometh unto me shall never hunger, &c.
Observe, 3. How justly Christ upbraids the Jews for their obstinate infidelity: Ye have seen me, says our Saviour, yet ye believe not. Ye have seen me in the flesh, you have heard my doctrine, you have seen my miracles: I have done amongst you those works which never any man did, to convince you that I am the Messiah, yet you will not own me to be such, nor believe on me; Oh the strength of infidelity to be such, nor believe on me; Oh the strength of infidelity and unbelief! The devil has as great an advantage upon men by making them strong in unbelief, as God hath by making his people strong in faith.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Joh 6:34-35. Then said they, Evermore give us this bread On which it seems our life depends: let us always live upon this heavenly manna. Thus said some of the wiser and better part of them, though they did not yet fully understand his meaning. Jesus said unto them Proceeding to give them a clear and full explication of the important truth he spoke of; I am the bread of life Having life in myself, and giving life to all that believe in me: nor is bread so necessary to the support of your bodies, as a believing regard to me is to the life of your souls. He that cometh unto me shall never hunger Shall not be destitute of spiritual nourishment; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst Shall find the most restless desires of his soul satisfied, and being conscious of having already received the noblest refreshment and nourishment, shall grow up to a state of complete and everlasting satisfaction and enjoyment. To come to him, and believe on him, are equivalent expressions; or are corresponding terms, explaining each other. Thus our Lord assigned one of the many reasons why he called himself the bread of life. See Joh 6:47-51. The conclusion from this part of his discourse was so evident, that he left his hearers to draw it for themselves. It was this, Since matters are so, I am evidently greater than Moses, even in respect of that for which you extol him most. He gave your fathers manna, which was bodily food only, and nourished nothing but the natural life. But I am myself the bread of life and food of the soul, making men both immortal and happy.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
4. Vv. 34-40. The two classes of hearers, the unbelievers and the believers.
Vv. 34, 35. They said therefore to him: Lord, evermore give us this bread. 35. But Jesus said to them: I am the bread of life; he that comes to me shall never hunger, and he that believes on me shall never thirst.
The Jews, still regarding the heavenly bread as a wonderful, but material food, declare themselves ready to follow Jesus always, if He will procure for them this food; and that daily. The evermore undoubtedly alludes to the gift of the manna which was renewed every morning. This bread: this food far higher than the manna itself. Here is the highest point of their carnal exaltation. But it is also the moment when Jesus breaks with them decidedly. Up to this moment, the questions and answers were directly connected with each other, and the particle , therefore, had indicated continuous progress. But the particle of Joh 6:35, which seems to me to be the true reading, marks a sudden change in the course of the conversation; the , but, of Joh 6:36 will mark the complete rupture.
The words: I am …, are the categorical answer to the: Give us, of the Jews: What you ask is accomplished: this bread is Myself. It only remains to feed on it; and the means for this end is simply to come to me with a soul which hungers and thirsts for salvation. Jesus finally explains His expression in Joh 6:27. The food which endures of which He there speaks is Himself; the work to be done in order to obtain it is faith in Him. The expression bread of life can signify: the bread which communicates life, but perhaps the relation between these two notions of bread and life is still closer. The true life, which is in God Himself, the eternal life which was in the beginning with the Father (1Jn 1:2), was incarnated in this visible being; it became in Him capable of being laid hold of, touched, tasted. But in order that this food may give us life, there must be action on our part: coming and believing.These two terms are not exactly synonymous: the first denotes the act of approaching Christ with the seriousness of a heart with a sense of sin; the second, the confiding eagerness with which this famished heart takes possession of the heavenly food in Him. The force of the negative can be rendered by: It is not to be feared that ever…The , never, is the answer to the , evermore, of Joh 6:34. The parallelism of the two clauses betrays a certain exaltation of feeling produced by the greatness of the fact declared. The figure of drinking does not properly suit the context: it is added to that of eating, perhaps because Jesus is thinking of the Passover supper. In the sequel of the discourse, we shall see that these two figurative expressions take each of them a meaning continually more distinct (Joh 6:53-57). And even here they are not absolutely identical. Hunger represents rather the feeling of weakness, of moral powerlessness; thirst, that of the sufferings of the conscience and the heart. Taken together, they express the deep uneasiness which drives the sinner to Jesus Christ. The appeasing of the thirst therefore refers rather to the peace; that of the hunger, to the new strength which the believer receives.
Coming, believing: these, then, are the conditions. But, adds Jesus with grief, it is precisely these conditions which are wanting in you.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Jesus had glorified the new bread sufficiently now for the people to request it of Him, as he had glorified the living water for the Samaritan woman. He had set them up for the revelation that He was that bread. If they were sincere in their desire for it, they would accept Him. Yet the people did not realize what they were requesting, as the woman at the well did not (cf. Joh 4:15). They were still thinking of physical bread. They wanted this new type of physical bread from then on.