Psalms 78:24-25

78:24 He rained down manna for them to eat;

he gave them the grain of heaven. ¹ 

78:25 Man ate the food of the mighty ones. ² 

He sent them more than enough to eat. ³ 

Psalms 105:40

105:40 They asked for food, ⁴  and he sent quails;

he satisfied them with food from the sky. ⁵ 

John 6:31-32

6:31 Our ancestors ⁶  ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” ⁷ 

6:32 Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the solemn truth, ⁸  it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but my Father is giving you the true bread from heaven.

John 6:1

The Feeding of the Five Thousand

6:1 After this ⁹  Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (also called the Sea of Tiberias). ¹⁰ 

Colossians 1:3

Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer for the Church

1:3 We always ¹¹  give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

[78:24]  ¹ sn Manna was apparently shaped like a seed (Exod 16:31), perhaps explaining why it is here compared to grain.

[78:25]  ² sn Because of the reference to “heaven” in the preceding verse, it is likely that mighty ones refers here to the angels of heaven. The LXX translates “angels” here, as do a number of modern translations (NEB, NIV, NRSV).

[78:25]  ³ tn Heb “provision he sent to them to satisfaction.”

[105:40]  ⁴ tn Heb “he [i.e., his people] asked.” The singular form should probably be emended to a plural שָׁאֲלוּ (sha’alu, “they asked”), the vav (ו) having fallen off by haplography (note the vav at the beginning of the following form).

[105:40]  ⁵ tn Or “bread of heaven.” The reference is to manna (see Exod 16:4, 13-15).

[6:31]  ⁶ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[6:31]  ⁷ sn A quotation from Ps 78:24 (referring to the events of Exod 16:4-36).

[6:32]  ⁸ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[6:1]  ⁹ 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.

[6:1]  ¹⁰ 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.

[1:3]  ¹¹ tn The adverb πάντοτε (pantote) is understood to modify the indicative εὐχαριστοῦμεν (eucaristoumen) because it precedes περὶ ὑμῶν (peri Jumwn) which probably modifies the indicative and not the participle προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi). But see 1:9 where the same expression occurs and περὶ ὑμῶν modifies the participle “praying” (προσευχόμενοι).