John 6


John 6 is the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records Jesus' miracles of feeding the five thousand and walking on water, the Bread of Life Discourse, popular rejection of his teaching, and Peter's confession of faith. The final verses anticipate Jesus' betrayal by Judas Iscariot.
The author of the book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that John composed this Gospel.

Text

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 71 verses. Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:
  • Papyrus 75
  • Papyrus 66
  • Papyrus 28
  • Codex Vaticanus
  • Codex Sinaiticus
  • Codex Bezae
  • Codex Alexandrinus
  • Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus
Some writers place this chapter ahead of John 5. Swedish-based commentator considers the case for this reordering unproven, but he does recognise that chapter 6 may have been inserted into a putative second edition of the gospel. H. W. Watkins, in Charles Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, considered whether "a portion of the Gospel between John 5 and 6 has been lost", but treats this as a "purely arbitrary supposition".

Old Testament references

  • : ;
  • : ; ; Psalm ;
  • : ;

    New Testament references

  • : – "He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him."

    Places

Events recorded in this chapter refer to the following locations in Galilee:
Boats which had come from Tiberias and sail onwards to Capernaum are also mentioned.

Structure

Kieffer describes this chapter as "a well-defined unit". The New King James Version organises it as follows:
Alfred Plummer, in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, prefers not to break up the text from to, arguing that this text "forms one connected discourse spoken at one time in the synagogue at Capernaum".

Introduction

The events recorded in chapter 5 are set in Jerusalem. As chapter 6 opens, the setting has moved to the Sea of Galilee, further north.
Plummer observes that "the scene shifts suddenly from Judaea to Galilee; but we are told nothing about the transit. We see more and more as we go on, that this Gospel makes no attempt to be a complete or connected whole. There are large gaps in the chronology."
Jesus travels over, or beyond, the lake: presumably from west to east. This is Albert Barnes' view, and that of Plummer. A large crowd has followed Jesus, attracted by his healings, which the Gospel describes as "signs" - a distinctive word and theme in John's Gospel. Jesus ascends the mountain and sits with his disciples - a similar setting to the opening of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's Gospel, in contrast to the Gospel of Luke, where the comparable event is known as the Sermon on the Plain.

Verse 2

This is the first reference in John's Gospel to the crowds who follow Jesus. In the synoptic gospels, reference is made to "the crowds" from relatively early within each evangelist's account of Jesus' ministry.

Verse 3

Watkins suggests that "the mountain" refers to "the hill-country" to the east of the lake, rather than to a specific mountain. The Complete Jewish Bible in like manner states that Jesus "went up into the hills".
File:Eucharistic bread and fish.jpg|thumb|240px|Early third century depiction of Eucharistic bread and fish, Catacomb of San Callisto, Rome.

Verse 4

The wording is similar to John 2:13, when "the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem"; here the words are not a mere chronological note, but, according to Watkins, a key to the interpretation of the passage. John Chrysostom asked his hearers to consider what had unfolded between the Passover of John 2 and this one, presumably one year later: only two "miracles" or "principal acts" have been recorded as taking place over this time. For Kieffer, "the approach of Passover in chapter 6 anticipates the last Passover" in chapters 13-17.

Feeding the five thousand

Jesus sees the multitude coming towards him, and wants to feed them and to test his disciples, in this case Philip and Andrew. Unlike the other evangelists, John does not present the feeding of the multitude in an 'evening' setting: in, "it was evening... already late"; in, "the day was now far spent", and in "the day had begun to wear away". John advises his readers that "the Passover, a feast of the Jews, is approaching", but he does not refer to a journey to Jerusalem for the feast. According to the narrative of chapters 6 and 7, Jesus and his disciples did not visit Jerusalem for the Passover that year at all: they remain in Galilee until relates a discussion as to whether they should go to Jerusalem for the subsequent Feast of Tabernacles.
In verse 5, Jesus asks Philip where they could buy sufficient bread for the crowd, assuming that the crowd had not brought their own provisions. Methodist minister Joseph Benson suggested that Jesus "addressed himself to Philip particularly, because he, being a native of Bethsaida, was best acquainted with that country", although according to, Peter and Andrew were also from Bethsaida. Philip may have been the group member who looked after their money and "the care of the supply of provisions", as he was aware that they held 200 denarii between them, although attributes this responsibility to Judas Iscariot. The evangelist notes in verse 6 that the question was put to Philip "to test him": theologian Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer thinks this was not a test of faith: rather, "we might say" that "it was because Philip had to be tested according to his intellectual idiosyncrasy", noting Philip's train of thought in John 14:8ff, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us." Conversely, some writers, including Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg and Albert Barnes, hold that the wording does indicate a trial of Philip's faith, while Eugene H. Peterson suggests that Jesus' intention is "to stretch Philip's faith".
Philip "swiftly calculates" that "two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for , that every one of them may have a little". According to, the labourers in the parable of the labourers in the vineyard were paid one denarius per day, so 200 denarii would equate to 200 days' labour, hence the New International Version translates Philip's reply as "It would take more than half a year's wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite" and in the New Living Translation his words are "Even if we worked for months, we wouldn't have enough money to feed them!" In the King James Version, 200 denarii was rendered as "200 pennyworth".
Andrew, one of Jesus' disciples, Simon Peter's brother, said to Jesus: "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?". It is curious that Andrew is "introduced" here to the reader, "in apparent forgetfulness" that an introduction has already been given in, where he was the first of John the Baptist's disciples to follow Jesus and where he himself went to find Peter. Some texts state that there was "one boy", but the "is rejected by modern editors". Watkins notes that where it appears in some manuscripts, it conveys a sense of "One lad! What could he bear for so many?" The word occurs only here in the New Testament, and in Matthew's account the disciples themselves "have only five loaves and two fish", prompting theologian John Gill to suggest that the boy may have "belonged to Christ and his disciples, and was employed to carry their provisions for them".
No-one suggests going to the nearby lake to catch extra fish, but Jesus' actions show that the small supply of bread and fish is sufficient: he instructs his disciples to "make the people sit down" and "having given thanks" for the bread and likewise for the fish, he gave them to his disciples to distribute among the crowd. Plummer suggests that giving thanks for the food was not only the customary thanksgiving for food but also "the means of the miracle" taking place, because all four narratives notice it; it is pointedly mentioned again in :
After the meal, the fragments of the barley loaves which were left over were collected by the disciples and found to have filled twelve baskets. According to the Pulpit Commentary, "the number 'twelve' naturally suggests that each one of the twelve apostles had been employed in the collection of the fragments", although at this stage in the Gospel, "the twelve" have not yet been mentioned. Lutheran theologian Christoph Luthardt linked the twelve baskets to the twelve tribes of Israel.

Prophet and King

The crowd recognise Jesus as "the prophet who is to come", foretold by Moses, whose witness Jesus had affirmed in the previous chapter of the gospel. Keiffer sees the whole of chapter 6 as "a concrete example of how Moses wrote about Jesus". However, the crowd interpret this politically and come to make Jesus king "by force". This is not Jesus' intention, so he leaves "again" to spend time alone on the mountain, staying until evening. Some copies add "and he prayed there". Lutheran theologian Harold H. Buls considers that "this event must have been a great source of temptation, and therefore He needed to pray. He needed to pray also for His disciples". The Syriac, Ethiopic, and Persic versions leave out the word "again"; and the latter, contrary to all others, renders it, "Christ departed from the mountain alone".
St. Augustine suggests that in their desire to make Jesus king by force, they erred both in thinking of an earthly kingdom, and in thinking that the time for the kingdom of God had now arrived. "He was certainly not such a king as would be made by men, but such as would bestow a kingdom on men". Augustine notes that "He had come now, not to reign immediately, as He is to reign in the sense in which we pray, Thy kingdom come".
The disciples set off by boat to cross back to Capernaum on the north-western side of the lake, leaving without Jesus :
This was a westward journey which should have allowed them to follow the coast, but for a north wind coming down from the upper Jordan valley, and the disciples are forced out into the sea. From it seems that this boat carrying the disciples was the only one to make the journey across the sea and the crowd in general remained overnight on the eastern shore.