Proverbs 28:20

28:20 A faithful person will have an abundance of blessings,

but the one who hastens to gain riches will not go unpunished.

John 6:27

6:27 Do not work for the food that disappears, but for the food that remains to eternal life – the food which the Son of Man will give to you. For God the Father has put his seal of approval on him.”

John 6:1

The Feeding of the Five Thousand

6:1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (also called the Sea of Tiberias).

John 6:8-10

6:8 One of Jesus’ disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 6:9 “Here is a boy who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what good are these for so many people?”

6:10 Jesus said, “Have 10  the people sit down.” (Now there was a lot of grass in that place.) 11  So the men 12  sat down, about five thousand in number.


tn Heb “a man of faithfulness,” although the context does not indicate this should be limited only to males.

sn The proverb is not rebuking diligent labor. One who is eager to get rich quickly is the opposite of the faithful person. The first person is faithful to God and to the covenant community; the second is trying to get rich as quickly as possible, at the least without doing an honest day’s work and at the worst dishonestly. In a hurry to gain wealth, he falls into various schemes and will pay for it. Tg. Prov 28:20 interprets this to say he hastens through deceit and wrongdoing.

tn Or “perishes” (this might refer to spoiling, but is more focused on the temporary nature of this kind of food).

tn The referent (the food) has been specified for clarity by repeating the word “food” from the previous clause.

tn Grk “on this one.”

tn Again, μετὰ ταῦτα (meta tauta) is a vague temporal reference. How Jesus got from Jerusalem to Galilee is not explained, which has led many scholars (e.g., Bernard, Bultmann, and Schnackenburg) to posit either editorial redaction or some sort of rearrangement or dislocation of material (such as reversing the order of chaps. 5 and 6, for example). Such a rearrangement of the material would give a simple and consistent connection of events, but in the absence of all external evidence it does not seem to be supportable. R. E. Brown (John [AB], 1:236) says that such an arrangement is attractive in some ways but not compelling, and that no rearrangement can solve all the geographical and chronological problems in John.

sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. Only John in the New Testament refers to the Sea of Galilee by the name Sea of Tiberias (see also John 21:1), but this is correct local usage. In the mid-20’s Herod completed the building of the town of Tiberias on the southwestern shore of the lake; after this time the name came into use for the lake itself.

tn Grk “one of his disciples.”

tn Grk “but what are these”; the word “good” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

10 tn Grk “Make.”

11 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author (suggesting an eyewitness recollection).

12 tn Here “men” has been used in the translation because the following number, 5,000, probably included only adult males (see the parallel in Matt 14:21).