John 6:41-51

6:41 Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus ¹  began complaining about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” 6:42 and they said, “Isn’t this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 6:43 Jesus replied, ²  “Do not complain about me to one another. ³  6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, ⁴  and I will raise him up at the last day. 6:45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ ⁵  Everyone who hears and learns from the Father ⁶  comes to me. 6:46 (Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God – he ⁷  has seen the Father.) ⁸  6:47 I tell you the solemn truth, ⁹  the one who believes ¹⁰  has eternal life. ¹¹  6:48 I am the bread of life. ¹²  6:49 Your ancestors ¹³  ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 6:50 This ¹⁴  is the bread that has come down from heaven, so that a person ¹⁵  may eat from it and not die. 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread he will live forever. The bread ¹⁶  that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

[6:41]  ¹ tn Grk “Then the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory, the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus. (For further information see R. G. Bratcher, “‘The Jews’ in the Gospel of John,” BT 26 [1975]: 401-9.) Here the translation restricts the phrase to those Jews who were hostile to Jesus (cf. BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e.β), since the “crowd” mentioned in 6:22-24 was almost all Jewish (as suggested by their addressing Jesus as “Rabbi” (6:25). Likewise, the designation “Judeans” does not fit here because the location is Galilee rather than Judea.

[6:43]  ² tn Grk “answered and said to them.”

[6:43]  ³ tn Or “Do not grumble among yourselves.” The words “about me” are supplied to clarify the translation “complain to one another” (otherwise the Jewish opponents could be understood to be complaining about one another, rather than complaining to one another about Jesus).

[6:44]  ⁴ tn Or “attracts him,” or “pulls him.” The word is used of pulling or dragging, often by force. It is even used once of magnetic attraction (A. Oepke, TDNT 2:503).

[6:45]  ⁵ sn A quotation from Isa 54:13.

[6:45]  ⁶ tn Or “listens to the Father and learns.”

[6:46]  ⁷ tn Grk “this one.”

[6:46]  ⁸ sn This is best taken as a parenthetical note by the author. Although some would attribute these words to Jesus himself, the switch from first person in Jesus’ preceding and following remarks to third person in v. 46 suggests that the author has added a clarifying comment here.

[6:47]  ⁹ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[6:47]  ¹⁰ tc Most witnesses (A C² D Ψ Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat and other versions) have “in me” (εἰς ἐμέ, eis eme) here, while the Sinaitic and Curetonian Syriac versions read “in God.” These clarifying readings are predictable variants, being motivated by the scribal tendency toward greater explicitness. That the earliest and best witnesses (Ì^66,75vid א B C* L T W Θ 892 pc) lack any object is solid testimony to the shorter text’s authenticity.

[6:47]  ¹¹ tn Compare John 6:40.

[6:48]  ¹² tn That is, “the bread that produces (eternal) life.”

[6:49]  ¹³ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[6:50]  ¹⁴ tn Or “Here.”

[6:50]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “someone” (τις, tis).

[6:51]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “And the bread.”