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1–15. Feeding five thousand people with five loaves and two fish. – 16–21. Walking of Jesus Christ on the sea. – 22–71. The speech spoken by Christ in Capernaum about Himself as the bread of life. John 6:1. After this, Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of ​​Galilee, in the vicinity of Tiberias. "After this". Quite a long time has passed since the miraculous healing of the paralytic at Bethesda. This is evident from the fact that Christ was currently on the Sea of ​​Galilee, and it took a lot of time to reach this sea from Jerusalem, where Christ was when he healed the paralytic. Then, there is no doubt that the miracles of the feeding of the five thousand and the walking of Christ on the sea, described here by the Evangelist John, are the same as those described by the Evangelists Matthew (Matthew 14:13–34) and Mark (Mark 6:30–53). The Evangelist Luke tells only about the first miracle (Luke 9:10–17). And these miracles or signs constitute, among the weather forecasters, the highest point reached by the messianic activity of Christ in Galilee. From this we can conclude that John here skips several months, during which Christ lived in Galilee upon returning from Jerusalem from the Feast of Tabernacles (John 5:1). From the Gospels of Matthew and Mark we learn that during these months Christ had Capernaum as His permanent place of residence, from where He walked around the environs of the Sea of ​​Galilee, and that He had already sent His apostles to preach. When they returned from the trip, Christ received news of the killing of John the Baptist by Herod Antipas, and since the killer of the Baptist, who was at that time probably in his capital Tiberias, could have come to the idea of putting an end to Jesus and His disciples, who could not, of course, approve of his course of action, the Lord at that time recognized it necessary for some time to retire with the disciples from the sphere of influence of Herod to the northeastern side of the Sea of Galilee, where the tetrarchy of Philip (Matthew 14:13; Mark 6:31 et seq.). The Sea of ​​Galilee (see comments on Matthew 4:18, 15:29), called by Luke (Luke 5:1) the Sea of ​​Gennesaret, is also called the Sea of ​​Tiberias here, probably in reference to the Greek Christians, readers of the Gospel, who knew the name of Tiberias, the capital of Herod Antipas, named so in honor of the Emperor Tiberius. The Russian translation expression “in the vicinity” is redundant. John 6:2. Many people followed Him because they saw the miracles He performed on the sick. For an explanation of the story of the feeding of the five thousand, see the commentary on Matthew 14:13–21. But John has some details of this event that also require explanation. John 6:3. Jesus went up the mountain and sat there with His disciples. Christ needed to talk with the apostles who had returned from their journey (Mark 6:30–31), and therefore He retired with them to one of the mountains. John 6:4. Passover, the Jewish holiday, was approaching. John notes the approach of the Easter holiday, on the one hand, in order to explain the extraordinary gathering of people on the eastern side of the Sea of ​​Galilee: the inhabitants of northern Galilee, who were going to Jerusalem at that time for Easter, had to go on the eastern side of the sea. On the other hand, John hints with this remark at the connection of the miraculous feeding of the people with the approaching Easter, since the Passover lamb prefigured Christ, who wanted to give Himself up to death for the sins of the whole world and, as a sign of this, depicted Himself in the speech following the feeding of the people as the true bread of life. John 6:5. Jesus, lifting up his eyes and seeing that many people were coming towards Him, said to Philip: Where can we buy bread to feed them? John 6:6. He said this, testing him; for He Himself knew what He wanted to do. The Lord addresses the question to Philip so that he will be convinced that there is no way to help the hungry people in the usual way, and so that Philip, after feeding the people, will recognize the effect of the omnipotence of Christ in this. It is obvious that this apostle, more than others, needed to strengthen his faith in Christ. John 6:7. Philip answered Him: There will not be enough bread for them for two hundred denarii, so that each of them gets at least a little. “Two hundred denarii” – about 40 rubles. with our money 26. For such an amount it was possible to purchase about forty pounds of bread at that time, but even this amount of bread was not enough for the five thousand people who surrounded Christ. In addition, there were also women and children (Matthew 14:21). John 6:8. One of His disciples, Andrew, brother of Simon Peter, said to Him: John 6:9. here one boy has five barley loaves and two fish; but what is this for such a multitude? The disciples, obviously, were already looking for food supplies that one of the people might have. They were, of course, prompted to do this by Christ’s address to them: “Give them something to eat” (Matthew 14:16). John 6:10. Jesus said: Command them to lie down. There was a lot of grass in that place. So the people, numbering about five thousand, sat down. John 6:11. Jesus, having taken the loaves and given thanks, distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to those reclining also distributed the fish, as much as anyone wanted. John 6:12. And when they were satisfied, he said to his disciples, “Gather up the remaining pieces so that nothing is lost.” John 6:13. And they gathered and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves that were left over from those who ate. It is remarkable that the apostles themselves did not have any food supplies. In fact, if there were any, the Lord, without a doubt, would have ordered them to be distributed to the people. John then mentions fish (ὀψάρια, verses 9, 11). This word refers to fish that was eaten with bread. This fish was dried or salted, like large smelts or sardines. John 6:14. Then the people who saw the miracle performed by Jesus said: This is truly the Prophet who is about to come into the world. John 6:15. Jesus, having learned that they wanted to come and accidentally take Him and make Him king, again withdrew to the mountain alone. The people, seeing in Jesus the Messiah, whom they, in accordance with the promise of Moses (Deut. 18:15), call a prophet, want to make Him king. But Jesus again retires to the mountain, having learned about the intention of the people. John 6:16. When evening came, His disciples went down to the sea John 6:17. and, getting into the boat, they went to the other side of the sea, to Capernaum. It was getting dark, and Jesus did not come to them. Here begins the story of Christ's miraculous walk on the sea. For an explanation, see the comments on Matthew 14:22–34; Mark 6:46–51. The disciples, leaving Christ alone on the mountain, “went down to the sea.” The sea lay below the place where the saturation of the people occurred, and the disciples had to “descend” or “go down” to it. According to the command of Christ (Matthew 14:22), they were to go to Capernaum; the Lord wanted to distance them from the people, whose passion for the idea of ​​the Messiah-King could be transmitted to them. “But Jesus did not come to them.” From this, some (for example, Bishop Michael) conclude that Christ promised the apostles to come down from the mountain and ride with them in a boat. But the verb standing here (οὔπω ἐληλύθει) is more correctly translated by the expression “has not yet come” and to see here an indication of the coming of Christ to the apostles, which is discussed further in verse 19 (coming by sea). The disciples, setting out alone in a boat, could believe that Christ would arrive alone in Capernaum the next day. John 6:18. A strong wind was blowing and the sea was rough. John 6:19. Having sailed about twenty-five or thirty furlongs, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and approaching a boat, and they were afraid. John 6:20. But He said to them: It is I; don't be afraid. John 6:21. They wanted to take Him into the boat; and immediately the boat landed on the shore where they were sailing. The evangelists Matthew and Mark indicate the time when Jesus approached the apostles by sea. It was on the fourth watch of the night. Instead, John indicates the distance the disciples traveled before meeting Christ (stage - see Luke 24:13). When the disciples “wanted to take” Christ into the boat, it immediately approached the place where they were heading, i.e. to Capernaum. According to the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, they “really received” Jesus into the boat, after which the storm that began on the sea calmed down. To reconcile these contradictory testimonies of the evangelists, it can be assumed that John did not mention the very entry of Christ into the boat in order to quickly report the miracle of the unexpected arrival of the boat at its destination. Moreover, the word “suddenly” (εὐθέως) does not always mean “immediately” (cf. Matt. 24:29), so some time could have passed between the arrival of the boat and the appearance of Christ on the sea when He was riding in the boat with the apostles. This was the second miracle performed by Christ in Galilee, which is mentioned by the Evangelist John. During this period of time, Christ, of course, performed many more miracles in Galilee, but John describes only two of them - the feeding of the five thousand and the walking on the sea. The symbolic meaning of the first has already been discussed above (verse 4). For what purpose does John report on Christ's walk on the sea? Most likely, he saw in this miracle an indication that Christ would help the apostles in all dangers, even if the apostles considered Him to be far from them in location. Then John could see in this miracle proof that Christ has power over the forces of nature and that the spirit generally rises above physicality and its conditions. As standing by His divine nature above the law of gravitation and spatial limitations, Christ walks on the stormy sea, and when He approaches the ship, the storm ceases. In another similar case (Luke 8:22 et seq.), the storm stops at the word of Christ, here - when He approaches the ship. John 6:22. The next day, the people standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except for one boat into which His disciples had entered, and that Jesus did not enter the boat with His disciples, but only His disciples sailed away. John 6:23. Meanwhile, other boats came from Tiberias close to the place where they were eating bread with the blessing of the Lord. John 6:24. So, when the people saw that Jesus and His disciples were not there, they got into boats and sailed to Capernaum, looking for Jesus. From the 22nd to the 70th verse there is the speech of Christ, spoken by Him upon his return to Capernaum. This speech is divided into three sections: the first is in verses 25-40, the second in verses 41-51, and the third in verses 52-59. Art. 22–24 provide a historical note on the occasion of the speech. The next day, after the miracle of saturation, crowds of people arrived in Capernaum in the hope of finding the Wonderworker Christ here. Having really found Christ here, the people turn to Him with the question: when did He come to Capernaum? Christ makes a remark to them about this: these people are looking for Christ only because they have received satiety in a miraculous way, and yet they should be more concerned about eternal life, which can be called inexhaustible food. At the same time, the Lord responds to the demand of the people to do before him something similar to Moses bringing down manna with the statement that the true bread from heaven is coming down to the people now and that this bread of life is Christ Himself. Since the crowd of people shows disbelief in these words of the Lord, Christ explains that His listeners obviously do not belong to the number of His Father’s chosen ones (verses 25-40). Christ’s listeners respond to this reproach by pointing to His simple origin, but Christ, continuing His thought, explains what the “approach” of people by the Father consists of, and points out the need for faith in Him, Christ, because only He alone can give people eternal life (verses 41–51). Since Christ said that the bread of life that He would give to people was His own Flesh, the Jews were tempted by this. However, the Lord again confirmed that without eating His Flesh and Blood, no one can receive eternal life (verses 52–59). After this, some of His disciples were tempted by the words of Christ, but the Apostle Peter, on behalf of the 12, confessed that Christ alone has the words of eternal life (verses 60–71). The idea of ​​verses 22-24 is this: the next day the people standing on the other side of the sea, when they saw (i.e. learned) that there was no other boat there except one that belonged to the disciples of Christ, and that Jesus did not enter the boat to His disciples, but His disciples went alone (and meanwhile new boats arrived from Tiberias), seeing this, the people sailed on these boats to Capernaum, which was known as the permanent residence of Jesus. John 6:25. And finding Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him: Rabbi! when did you come here? The people found Jesus on the “other” side of the sea, i.e. on the opposite bank on which the miraculous saturation took place, and precisely in the Capernaum synagogue (see verse 59). This means that it was on the day when divine services were performed in the synagogues, i.e. on Monday or Thursday (Geiki). With his question, probably proposed even at Christ’s entrance into the synagogue, “Rabbi! when did you come here? , - the people express their guess that the arrival of Jesus in Capernaum could not have happened without a miracle, since Jesus could not have walked along the northwestern shore of the sea so quickly, and there was no boat on which He could have sailed. John 6:26. Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw miracles, but because you ate bread and were filled.” John 6:27. Do not strive for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, for the Father, God, has set His seal on Him. Christ does not answer the people’s question, but as a Heartbreaker reveals to His listeners the state of their own hearts, since this state explains the question asked by the people to Christ. The people, says the Lord, are looking for Him not because they saw a sign in the miracle of feeding, but for the sake of this miraculous feeding itself. The people are not inclined to see in the miracles of Christ evidence of His divine origin and evidence of His calling to become the Redeemer of mankind from sin, damnation and death. The people look at a miracle only as a means of satisfying those hopes and expectations that the Jews associated with the coming of the Messiah. “Now,” the people thought, “the time has finally come for the happy Kingdom of the Messiah! Christ will declare Himself the king of the earth and give us everything we desire.” But Christ is far from these dreams. He points out to the people the fragility of the food they are looking for: this food cannot prolong life forever for those who eat it. There is another food that does not disappear and whose nutritional value extends throughout eternity (this food is the same as the water that Christ spoke about to the Samaritan woman in John 4:14). Most likely, by this food Christ means Himself as sent from the Father and dispenser of heavenly blessings (cf. verse 35). And this food can only be given by Christ Himself, for He was “sealed” by the Father, i.e. gave His identification regarding Christ (John 3:33) as the dispenser of this eternal heavenly food. The sealing was accomplished through the works in general that Christ did (John 5:36 et seq.), and especially through the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. "God" . This word is placed at the very end of the sentence in order to highlight the special importance of this Witness of Christ. John 6:28. So they said to Him: What must we do to do the works of God? John 6:29. Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” The listeners of Christ themselves strive for eternal life as the highest good, but they do not know what they need to do in order to especially please God (“the works of God”) and receive eternal life. In response to this, Christ tells them that for this only one thing is necessary - faith in Christ as the dispenser of heavenly blessings sent from God. They must completely surrender their hearts to Christ, renouncing sinful desires, their selfish aspirations and submitting to the will of God revealed in Christ. John 6:30. To this they said to Him: What sign will You give, so that we may see and believe You? What are you doing? John 6:31. Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat. But the listeners of Christ cannot yet rise to such faith in Him. They also ask for identification like the one their fathers had from Moses, who sent down manna to them in the desert. The miracle of saturation seemed to them insufficient as evidence in relation to the messiahship of Christ. “What sign will You give...”. The emphasis here should be on the word “You”. The Jews seem to say: “There were other messengers of God, what special thing will You present to us against their miracles, so that we would believe in You as the Messiah?” The Jews expected from the Messiah the complete satisfaction of their earthly desires and the foundation of an earthly kingdom. Jesus directly avoided any evidence of His messianic dignity; He wanted the Jews to see in Him the founder of the spiritual, Heavenly Kingdom and the dispenser of eternal life. And the miracles that He had performed hitherto to confirm His heavenly messenger seemed insufficient to the Jews; they wanted more... “Bread from Heaven” cf. Exodus 16:15; Ps.77:24, 104:40. “Gave them...” of course, God through the mediation of Moses. John 6:32. Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.” “Not Moses...”, i.e. The manna that Moses gave you (more precisely, “God through Moses”) is not heavenly bread: “true” (ἀληθινόν, i.e., fully consistent with its purpose or its idea) heavenly bread is given to you by My Father. The expression “My Father” instead of the expression “God” was obviously used for the purpose of showing that true, truly heavenly bread is given by God only through the Son of God. John 6:33. For the bread of God is the one that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. John 6:34. To this they said to Him: Lord! always give us such bread. The idea expressed in verse 32 is substantiated here by indicating that in general the bread of heaven (here in general: God’s) can only be that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the entire human race (“the world”), and not just to the Jewish people, as was the case with manna. Thus, the qualities and effect of heavenly bread in general are indicated here, and there is still no talk of the fact that this bread is Christ Himself. This can be seen from the statement of the people: “Lord! (i.e. lord) always give us such bread!” (cf. the request of the Samaritan woman, John 4:15). John 6:35. Jesus said to them: I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst. John 6:36. But I told you that you have seen Me and do not believe. Then the Lord directly points to Himself as the true bread of life. “He who comes to Me”, i.e. believer in Me. You can come to Christ only through faith in Him. “He will not hunger.” As the bread of life, Christ satisfies hunger and thirst forever, i.e. provides complete satisfaction to the spiritual needs of a person. “But I told you...” Unfortunately, the Jews do not believe Christ, although yesterday they saw Him perform the miracle of feeding the five thousand. “But you yourself, as Christ tells them, make your faith in Me dependent on whether I perform miracles before you (see verse 30). But a miracle or a miraculous sign was given to you yesterday, and if you had eyes, you could see what you wanted to see, i.e. recognize in the miracle I performed a sign of My Divine messenger. But you did not want to see” (cf. Is. 6:9). John 6:37. Whatever the Father gives Me will come to Me; and whoever comes to Me I will not cast out, John 6:38. for I came down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of the Father who sent Me. John 6:39. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I should not destroy anything, but should raise it all up on the last day. John 6:40. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. This unbelief of the Jews testifies that they do not belong to the number of those whom the Father gives to Christ. “All that My Father gives...” There must be some pause between the last words of verse 36 and this statement. The listeners were silent, and Christ was silent, seeing that they could not agree with Him regarding the meaning of the miracle He had performed the day before. Then, after a few minutes of silence, Christ explains to His listeners that their unbelief in Him comes from the wrong position they have taken in relation to God, and that this unbelief will have the most terrible consequences for them, namely the deprivation of eternal salvation. The Lord does not teach here about the existence of absolute divine predestination, but speaks only about the preparing or anticipatory grace of God, which acts on the heart of man without destroying his free will. “I will not cast you out.” Christ does not want to deprive anyone of the opportunity to enter the Kingdom of God, for He came to fulfill the will of God, which wants Christ to resurrect on the last day all those given to Him, i.e. introduced them into the bliss of eternal life (cf. John 5:29). “So that everyone...” The Father even wants the salvation of everyone (“everyone”), and not just those whom He gave to the Son. “He who sees the Son”, i.e. contemplating Him with his spiritual eyes (θεωρεῖν, and not simply ὁρᾶν). Such contemplation enables the contemplator to penetrate into the very essence of the person who is the object of contemplation, and in conclusion leads the contemplator to complete admiration for this person. "And I will resurrect". Not someone else, but “I”, namely “I”, One “I”! John 6:41. The Jews grumbled at Him because He said: I am the bread that came down from heaven. John 6:42. And they said: Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He say: I came down from heaven? Christ’s words about Himself as the true bread of life that came down from heaven caused discontent among the Jews, and they began to grumble quite loudly against Christ. After all, they know Him well, He is the son of Joseph. How can He dare to ascribe to Himself any kind of heavenly origin? “Isn’t this Jesus?” More precisely: “this (οὗτος – expression of disdain) is not Jesus?” John 6:43. Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves.” John 6:44. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. Christ does not want to enter into disputes with the Jews about His mysterious origin; this mystery could only be comprehended by believing hearts. Instead, He explains to the Jews where their dissatisfaction with the words of Christ comes from, their bewilderment. The reason for this is that they are not drawn by the Father to Christ, and only those who have followed such a draw on the part of the Father can come to Christ with joyful faith. By “attraction” here we mean not the action of God’s grace in general in a person’s conscience, but the attraction to Christ of a person contemplating the miraculous signs of Christ, which testify that in the person of Christ the Savior of the world, sent by God, appeared. John 6:45. It is written in the prophets: and they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard from the Father and learned comes to Me. John 6:46. It is not that anyone has seen the Father except He who is from God; He saw the Father. The Lord just said that God Himself draws people to faith in Christ. Now He confirms this position with a reference to the prophet Isaiah, who, depicting (Is. 54:13) the spiritual greatness of the future Church of God, says that in this Church “all will be taught by God” (the highlighted words contain the main idea to which Christ draws attention). And since this teaching by God presupposes as a necessary condition that a person listens to God and learns from Him, Christ deduces from the words of the prophet that only “he who has heard from the Father and learned” comes to Him. The Jews, obviously, do not belong to such people. But hearing and learning from the Father, Christ notes, is possible only through the mediation of the Son, Who “saw” the Father. The very attraction of people to Christ is also accomplished through Christ. "Who is of God". More precisely: “being with God” (παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ). This expression indicates the precedence of Christ with God, and He “saw” the Father. John 6:47. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in Me has eternal life. John 6:48. I am the bread of life. John 6:49. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and died; John 6:50. and the bread that comes down from heaven is such that whoever eats it will not die. Having proved to the Jews that they have no right to grumble that Christ demands from them faith in His divine mission, Christ again (cf. verses 35 and 40) begins to say that only faith in Him gives eternal life and salvation and that He is the real bread of life. Manna, which the Jews pointed out to Christ above as heavenly bread (verse 31), did not give the strength to live forever; those who ate it died. The bread of heaven must be such that (ἵνα) whoever eats it does not die (verse 50). But in what sense is the expression “did not die” used here? Does the Lord here promise immortality in the body to those who partake of the real heavenly bread? No, from verse 40 it is clear that those who believe in Christ and, therefore, eat the true heavenly bread must also die: Christ will raise them up on the last day. Consequently, here Christ only wants to say that eating the true heavenly bread gives a person the opportunity after death to be resurrected to eternal life. From this we can conclude that Christ’s word about the Jews wandering in the Sinai desert, that they “died,” primarily means that they died spiritually, that eating manna in itself did not give them the opportunity to enter into such close communication with God that would continue after their death. Having died physically, they did not enter eternal blissful life beyond the grave and will not receive bliss over time 27. John 6:51. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; And the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Here Christ expresses a new thought, even more incomprehensible and unacceptable for the Jews: “I am living bread,” i.e. having life in Himself and being able to communicate life to believers (ὁ ζῶν), “descended from heaven,” i.e. at a certain moment, who took on human flesh. Whoever eats this bread will live forever, i.e. such a person now lives a real life, and will continue to live, despite the fact that his soul will be separated from his body in death. And then Christ directly declares that the “bread” of which He speaks is His “Flesh,” “which” He gives “for the life of the world.” In these words, Christ represents His Flesh, His humanity, on the one hand, as an atoning sacrifice for the world, on the other, as food that gives eternal life to believers, just as in the tabernacle and church there was showbread, which was offered as a sacrifice to God and which was then provided as food to the priests. Here, then, is the clearest promise regarding the Eucharist. In it, believers will eat the very Flesh of Christ or His very Body (Arch. Malinovsky. “Orthodox Dogmatic Theology,” vol. IV, p. 134). But some of the newest exegetes do not agree with this understanding. So, for example, Keil, paying attention to the context of the speech, does not find here any indication of the upcoming atoning sacrifice of Christ: “Christ does not speak about His death either here or below. Moreover, the last words of verse 51: “which I will give for the life of the world” are not found in the best codes (see Tischendorf, 8th ed.). Finally, the fact that Christ calls Himself living bread does not make it possible to see here an allusion to the atoning sacrifice of Christ. The only thing that can be found here, according to Keil, is the prediction that Christ will, as the God-man, communicate life to those who believe in Him, who will thus, in a figurative sense, eat His Flesh or perceive Him Himself. We cannot agree with this view for the following reasons. Firstly, Christ obviously promised something new here (“I will give” - future tense), and the perception of life from Him by faith already took place at the time when Christ spoke His speech in Capernaum. Secondly, why would Christ begin to put such a simple thought as the idea of ​​the need for faith to receive true life in such a form unacceptable to the Jews? Thirdly, faith alone cannot give real unity with Christ, exactly the same as what exists between Christ and God. Meanwhile, Christ promises those who eat His Flesh the same immortality in resurrection that He Himself possesses. As for the reliability of the text of verse 51 accepted by us, it is still impossible to say definitively on whose side the truth is: whether on the side of those who deny the authenticity of the last words of the verse, or on the side of those who recognize their authenticity. At least there are some grounds for the reading we have adopted (Textus receptus). Finally, if in the section under consideration Christ does not speak directly about His death, then this may have depended on the fact that at that time Christ’s activity was still far from this end. John 6:52. Then the Jews began to argue among themselves, saying: How can He give us His flesh to eat? John 6:53. Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” The Jews understood the words of Christ in the sense that He promised them to give them His living flesh, His body in its present form and condition, to be eaten. Some gave one answer to the question, how can this be?, others - another. Thus, a dispute arose between the Jews. But the Lord does not take back His words and does not soften them at all. On the contrary, He further strengthens the thought He expressed when He says that they need not only to eat His Flesh, but also to drink His Blood, if only they want to have life in themselves. But the question of how this tasting of His Flesh and Blood will be possible, Christ still leaves without resolution, because it was still premature to say that He will offer Flesh and Blood to the believers in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. John 6:54. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:55. For My Flesh is truly food, and My Blood is truly drink. The thought expressed in the previous verse is repeated here in a strengthened form (the concept “is” is indicated here not by the verb φαγεῖν, but by the stronger and harsher word τρώγειν). “Truly there is food” (ἀληθής), i.e. in contrast to earthly food, which gives only bodily and temporary life, the Flesh and Blood of Christ gives true life - eternal and spiritual - and therefore can be called true food. John 6:56. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him. John 6:57. Just as the living Father sent Me, and I live through the Father, so he who eats Me will also live through Me. A person who eats the Flesh and Blood of Christ is in real communion with Christ, so to speak, takes Christ into himself (cf. Gal. 2:20): both the believer is in Christ, and Christ is in him. Such close communion between Christ and the believer is based on that vital communion that exists between Christ and the Living Father, i.e. having life in you (cf. John 5:26). “I live by the Father,” i.e. I received life from the Father, but I, however, have it at My complete disposal, so that I myself can communicate it to others (cf. John 5:26). That is why the Son can impart life to those who receive Him into themselves as the food of life. “He will live by Me.” A person will live insofar as he finds his food in Christ. John 6:58. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers ate manna and died: whoever eats this bread will live forever. John 6:59. These things He spoke in the synagogue, teaching in Capernaum. Here is a summary of everything that has been said. "This one is." “The bread that came down from heaven” has this quality. He gives eternal life. “In the synagogue” (see comments on Matthew 4:23). The evangelist makes the remark that Christ’s speech was spoken “in the synagogue” in order to indicate the determination of Christ, who was not afraid to speak about Himself where His enemies felt especially strong. John 6:60. Many of His disciples, hearing this, said: What strange words! who can listen to this? Previously, only the “Jews” (opponents of Christ) were tempted by Christ’s teaching about Himself as the bread that came down from heaven, but now many of the “disciples” or followers of Christ were perplexed when they heard that whoever does not eat His Flesh and drink His Blood will not receive eternal life. “Strange words” – more precisely, “seductive”. This seductiveness of Christ’s words lay in the fact that He made salvation, the receipt of eternal life, dependent on eating His Flesh and Blood, i.e., as these disciples thought, from eating, from eating the Flesh and Blood that Christ had at that time. John 6:61. But Jesus, knowing within Himself that His disciples were grumbling about this, said to them: Is this tempting you? John 6:62. What if you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? No one informed Christ about this bewilderment of His followers - He Himself learned about it as a Heartbreaker. To show them how little reason there is for now to fall into doubt and bewilderment, Christ says: “well, if you see...” This means: “what will you say then when you see with your sensible eyes (θεωρεῖν in John has this meaning) the ascension of the Messiah to where He was before,” i.e. to heaven? (cf. verse 38 and John 20:17). Christ, speaking these words, addressed, of course, all His followers who surrounded Him, but meant, without a doubt, mainly His apostles, who were to be present at His ascension. After all, even among the apostles there could have been those who were then perplexed about the teaching of Christ about the need to eat His Flesh and Blood. But what could be tempting for the apostles in the very fact of the ascension of Christ? Should it not, on the contrary, have convinced them even more that Christ is truly the Son of God? The apostles could be seduced by the fact that Christ ascended to heaven as a man, that He, as a human being, went to sit on the throne of God. If it seemed blasphemous to the Jews that Christ was still speaking about His equality with God (John 5:18), then to the apostles, who were also imbued, like the Jews, with the idea of ​​the incompatibility of human limited and weak nature with the divine, it could not help but seem strange when “Man - Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 2:5) - before their eyes, ascended into heaven in order to take his place “at the right hand.” God” ( Col. 3:1 ). John 6:63. The Spirit gives life; the flesh does not benefit at all. The words that I speak to you are spirit and life. This passage is usually understood as an exhortation to the hearers to raise their understanding above the ordinary Jewish carnal views. But such an interpretation gives reason to think that Christ Himself did not want His words about the need to eat His Flesh and Blood to be taken literally by His listeners. It is more correct and more consistent with the context of the speech to see here an indication that Christ will offer His flesh not as something detached from His entire living personality, not as some kind of dead substance, but as something animated, in which His entire living personality will have its own organ of action. Human corporeality alone, without the divine principle, cannot have life-giving, saving power for those who perceive it from Christ. When the spirit of Christ transforms this corporeality of Christ, then it will begin to be perceived and useful for believers in Christ as animal food. Consequently, it is not the flesh of Christ that His disciples saw at that time, the human bodily nature of the Son of Man who entered heaven and was glorified in all respects, but the glorified and spiritualized flesh of Christ - this is what should eventually become food and drink for believers. Is there a direct prophecy about the institution of the Sacrament of the Eucharist in the explained speech of Christ? In agreement with the majority of the ancient fathers and teachers of the Church (there are some who disagree with the general opinion, for example, Clement of Alexandria, Athanasius), we believe that such a prophecy exists here. In fact, in what other way than in the Eucharist can the assimilation by believers of the corporeality of Christ be accomplished as feeding them, mainly, spiritual strength? But on the other hand, it would be wrong to see in the speech of Christ the teaching that without receiving the Eucharist, salvation for a person is no longer possible. The last expression of verse 63: “the words that I speak to you are spirit and life,” shows that Christ recognized in His words the spiritualizing and enlivening meaning that the partaking of His glorified Body would eventually have for people. Among the listeners of Christ in Capernaum there could be people who would fully believe in Christ on the basis of His teaching. For such people, the replacement of partaking of the glorified Body of Christ was the perception of His spiritual image, and this, without a doubt, was as saving for them as the acceptance of the Holy Mysteries of Christ later became saving for believers. The fact that the first did not partake of the Holy Mysteries could not, of course, be blamed on them if they died before the establishment of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Thus, in the first half of verse 63, the Lord predicts that He will establish the Sacrament of the Eucharist, in which believers will partake of His glorified Body and Blood, and in the second, He explains that even now it is possible for His true followers to have spirit and life, for this they only need to perceive His word with full faith and make it the guiding principle of their lives. John 6:64. But there are some of you who are unbelievers. For Jesus knew from the beginning who the unbelievers were and who would betray Him. Here Christ explains why the disciples grumbled at Him. Their faith was so weak that it was as if it did not exist at all. And Christ noticed this from the very moment such disciples came to him. Moreover, even among His closest disciples there is a disciple who will betray Him. By this, the evangelist wants to say that the now revealed lack of faith on the part of Christ’s disciples was not something unexpected for Him: from the very beginning, when these disciples first appeared to the Lord, He knew that they would not be His followers for long. The Lord also knew that Judas Iscariot would betray Him to his enemies. The question may arise: why did the Lord allow those disciples who were eventually to fall away from Him to follow Him, why did He accept Judas as one of His closest disciples? This question is resolved this way. The Lord did not deprive anyone of the opportunity of salvation, did not deprive anyone of His instructions. Thus, God “commands his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). In particular, Christ took Judas to Himself, of course, because here too He fulfilled the will of His Heavenly Father (John 5:19 et seq.), in a prayerful conversation with Whom He spent the night before the election of the apostles (Luke 6:12). It is the fault of Judas himself that he did not take advantage of his closeness to Christ in order to renounce his narrow materialistic expectations in relation to the Kingdom that the Messiah was to establish. The door to salvation was open for him too. Saying that Christ knew who was accompanying Him and surrounding Him under the guise of disciples, John probably wanted to point out the mental anguish that Christ had to endure while maintaining close communication with such people. John 6:65. And he said: This is why I told you, that no one can come to Me unless it is given to him from My Father. This verse should be more accurately translated as follows: “Because,” i.e. for some of you do not believe, and I spoke to you...” Christ, knowing that some of His followers did not believe in Him as they should, said this even earlier (verses 37-44), when he explained that faith in Him is the result of attraction on the part of the Father. John 6:66. From that time on, many of His disciples left Him and no longer walked with Him. “From this time on” is more correct because of this (ἐκ τούτου), precisely because Christ’s words about Himself as the bread of life seemed tempting to them. These disciples obviously had false enthusiasm for Christ; they were only looking for the first places in the earthly kingdom, which, in their opinion, was to be founded by the Messiah. Meanwhile, Christ did not show any hope of realizing such a dream; He rather showed His followers the path of suffering and death. John 6:67. Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Will you also go away?” As the Knower of the Heart, Christ knows that the 12 apostles do not want to leave Him, but still, as if giving them the choice to leave or stay with Him, He turns to them with the question whether they also want to leave? It is not for His own sake that He proposes such a question to the apostles, but for their own sake, so that they now finally consolidate their conviction in the truth of the Messianic dignity of Christ by their open confession. John 6:68. Simon Peter answered Him: Lord! who should we go to? You have the verbs of eternal life: John 6:69. and we believed and knew that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Peter, as the “mouth of the apostles,” understands the importance of the present moment and in the form of an exclamation expresses his and the common confidence of his comrades with the exception of Judas that only Christ can lead them to salvation. “Verbs of eternal life”, i.e. giving people eternal life (cf. verse 63). “They believed and knew.” In other places John (John 17:8; 1 John 4:16) first mentions knowledge, and then faith. But there knowledge is understood as familiarization with the external circumstances of the matter, and here it means a deeper penetration into the teaching of Christ about His Person and ministry. John 6:70. Jesus answered them: Have I not chosen you twelve? but one of you is the devil. John 6:71. He spoke this about Judas Simon Iscariot, for he wanted to betray Him, being one of the twelve. So that the apostles do not fall into excessive arrogance because of their position as constant followers of Christ, the Lord points out that among them there is one person whose disposition is close to the devil. Just as the devil is in a constantly hostile mood towards God, so Judas hates Christ as destroying all his hopes for the foundation of an earthly Messianic Kingdom, in which Judas could take a prominent place. On Judas Iscariot, see comments on Matthew 10:4. “This one wanted to betray Him.” More precisely, “he was going, so to speak, to betray Christ, although he himself was not yet clearly aware of this intention.” corresponds to the cost of approximately 800 g of silver. – Approx. ed. The Israelites, says Loisy, died physically, died spiritually, died an eternal death. Christians must live in all these senses. But speaking about Jews, John primarily means bodily death, and speaking about Christians - spiritual, eternal life, which also includes the resurrection, in which Christians will receive restoration in the body. You might be interested in: