v. 37: For Jesus is “the FATHER who sent” (in Greek “pémpo” in vv. 23d2, 24b2, 30e, 37a) Him an important argument for His testimony but “neither” the Jewish aristocrats/people have “heard” (vv. 24b, 25c, d, 28c, 30b, 37b) God’s “voice” (vv. 25c, 28c, 37b), “nor” they have “seen” (in Greek “horáo” in v. 37c and in John 1:18; 6:46; 14:9; 1 John 4:12) His “form”450 (cf. Deuteronomy 4:12).
v. 38: Therefore Jesus continues His accusation that they did “… ( ) not have” God’s “(word) in” them (cf. 1 John 2:14, 24; 3:24) and so, they did “not believe” (vv. 38c, 47a and 3John :12, 18; 4:48; 6:36; 8:24, 45–46; 10:25–26, 37–38; 14:10; 16:9 – please do not use the term unbelieving/unbelief!451) in Him “who s e n t” (vv. 33a, 36e, 38b) Jesus, His SON.
+ The Scriptures/Hebrew Bible (vv. 39–47)
v. 39: Jesus’ next argument is their “searching452 /of/ the Scriptures453” – the so-called “TaNaK”454 (cf. Mark 12:24; 14:49; Matthew 21:42; 22:29; 26:54, 56; Luke 24:27, 32, 45) – in order to find “(eternal) life ( )” (vv. 24d, 39c) “in them” which “testify about” Him(, the giver of “(eternal) life ( )”).
v. 40: Jesus realizes that they “( ) will” (vv. 35b, 40a) “(not) come to” Him who “have life” – “eternal life” – for them. In other words: Jesus’ Jewish opponents did not want a relationship with Him as the “Son of God” and their “Saviour” (v. 34c) because of the Torah/Law of Moses.
v. 41: As in verse 34, Jesus emphasizes with the help of a correction455 (“not … but”) that He does “(not accept/receive) glory456” (vv. 41, 44b, c) “from human” (vv. 34a, 41) “/beings/” (cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:6),
v. 42: “but” He “knows” (cf., for example, vv. 6a, 42a and John 1:48; 2:24; 6:15) His Jewish opponents that they do “(not have) the love of God ( ) (with-)in” them (cf. Luke 11:42; 1 John 2:15).
v. 43: Then He warns them in the form of an antithetic parallelism/a contrast in verses 43–44:
“I have come in the name of (My) FATHER ( )” (cf., for example, John 10:25),
and you /do/ not accept/receive Me” (cf. 1:11).
Jesus continues with a prophecy/prediction as a “futurum propheticum”457:
“If another comes in [/his/ … own] … name [ ],
{} you will accept/receive {him}” (cf. Mark 13:6; Matthew 24:5; Luke 21:8).
v. 44: “How” (in Greek “põs” in vv. 44a, 47b – note the inclusion) “can you believe” (in Greek “pɩsteúo” in vv. 24b, 38c, 44a, 46a, b, 47a)
when “( ) you accept/receive (glory” (vv. 41, 44b, c) “from /one/ another)” (cf. Matthew 23:5–7)
“and” do “[not seek] the glory from the only God [ ]” (cf. John 12:43 and Romans 2:29; 1 Timothy 1:17 – Deuteronomy 6:4; 2 Kings 19:15, 19; Isaiah 37:20; Daniel 3:45 [LXX]).
v. 45: Do “not think
that I will accuse458 you to the FATHER.
/There/ is /one/
who accuses you:
Moses459” (cf., John 7:19), “on whom, you have set /your/ hope460”.
v. 46: “For if you believed Moses” (cf. Exodus 14:31),
“you would believe … Me for … ( ) … he wrote (/of/ Me)” in the Torah as the so-called “books/Law of Moses” which are epigraphical, that means another author/s respectively editor/s published these five books – these are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy – in using the name of the Jewish authority “Moses”.
v. 47: “(But) if ( ) [you /do/ not believe461]” (vv. 38c, 47a) “/his/ writings462 [ ]” (cf. Luke 16:31)
“how” (vv. 44a, 47b) “{will you believe} My words463 { }?”
Chapter 6
After Jesus’ multiplication of the five loaves of bread and two fish for about 5,000 men (cf. 6:1–15) and His walking on the water (cf. vv. 16–21) as His (marvelous) deeds, the main topic of Jesus’ dialogical464 discourse of “the Bread of Life” (cf. vv. 25b–58) as a homily465 respectively as “a deeper lesson”466 with several quotations467 of the Hebrew Bible that we Christians called “Old Testament”, centres on verse 31c: “He gave them bread from Heaven to eat” and “I am the Bread of Life” (v. 35b). Chapter 6 focuses on the topic of Jesus as “the Bread of Life”.
The story of the multiplication of the bread and His feeding of 5,000 is like an overture of the sixth chapter. The multiplication of the loaves is structured with the help of the phrase “after this” in verse 1a and the preposition “then” in verses 5a, 11a, 13a, 14a, 15a.
The reflection about Jesus’ saying in verse 31 which is in the form of a dialogue between the Jew Jesus and “the Jewish people” is structured with the help of both
- “I am the Bread of Life” in verses 35b and 48;
- the introductory phrase “amen, amen I said to them” in verses 26b, 32b, 47a, 53b.
In the midst of the (Eucharistic) discourse, somebody – “the Jews” (vv. 41a, 52a) and some disciples of Jesus (cf. vv. 60–61, 64, 66) – intervene and contradict Jesus’ self-revelation468. Step by step, the Fourth Evangelist meditates the sense of this sentence of Jesus as “the Bread of Life” and “the giver of the bread” like a new Moses in six steps469:
- First dialogue between the crowd and Jesus (vv. 25b–27)
- Second dialogue between the crowd and Jesus (vv. 28–29)
- Third dialogue between the crowd and Jesus (vv. 30–33)
- Fourth dialogue between the crowd and Jesus (vv. 34–40)
- Fifth dialogue between “the Jews” and Jesus (vv. 41–51)
- Jesus’ Eucharistic Discourse (6th) as a monologue470 (vv. 52–58/59)
After the discourse about Jesus as the (sacramental) “Bread of (eternal) Life” (cf. vv. 25b–58/59) and as the divine “Son of Man”, the verses 60–71 resume the murmuring criticism of verses 41a, 43b and 52a to describe a mounting crisis of faith of His disciples. His Eucharistic discourse is the source of division and disbelief of His disciples.
“HERE is a passage … with tragedy, for in it is the beginning of the end. There was a time when men came to Jesus in large numbers” (cf. 2:23; 4:1–3, 39, 45). “Already John launches us on the last act of the tragedy. It is circumstances like these which reveal men’s hearts and show them in their true colours. In these circumstances there were three different attitudes to Jesus:
(i) There was defection. Some turned back and walked with him no more. They drifted away for various reasons. […]
(ii)