Considerable discussion followed Jesus presentation of Himself as the Bread of Life. John noted the responses of many people who were following Jesus around, then the response of the Twelve, and finally the response of most of the Jews.
6:60 Not only "the Jews"(v. 52) but many of Jesus' followers found His teaching about the Bread of Life offensive (Gr. skleros, difficult or hard). The term "disciple"is not synonymous with "believer,"as should be patently clear in the Gospels. In verse 64 Jesus said that some of these "disciples"did not believe. Some of Jesus' disciples were believers, but many of them were following Him to learn from Him and to decide if He was the Messiah or not. This teaching persuaded many in this seeker category to abandon their Rabbi. Some of them undoubtedly wanted the physical benefits of Jesus' messianism but had little interest in spiritual matters (cf. vv. 14-15, 26, 30-31). Others could not see beyond Jesus' humanity to His true identity (vv. 41-46). Others probably could not accept Jesus' claim to be greater than Moses (vv. 32-33, 58). Still others may have found Jesus' language offensive, particularly His references to eating flesh and drinking blood (vv. 53-54).
6:61-62 Evidently Jesus spoke these words to a large group of His followers that included the Twelve. He suggested that He would yet reveal things to them that would be harder for them to accept than what they had heard so far. He had told them that He had come down from heaven (v. 38), and this had scandalized (Gr. skandalizei) them. What would they think if they saw Him ascend into heaven?
Jesus may have been referring to His bodily ascension, but perhaps He was speaking of His crucifixion (cf. 3:14). This explanation is in harmony with Jesus' metaphorical language that He had been using throughout the previous discourse. Jesus' crucifixion was in a sense the first step in His ascending back to the Father since it permitted Him to do so. Certainly Jesus' crucifixion was the most humanly offensive aspect of His entire ministry (cf. 1 Cor. 1:23 where the same Greek word occurs).
6:63 Some of Jesus' disciples turned from Him because they preferred the material realm to the spiritual realm for which Jesus had an obvious preference. He warned them that the Spirit gives real life (cf. Gen. 1:2; Ezek. 37:14; John 3:6) whereas the flesh provides nothing of comparable importance. The words that Jesus had spoken to them dealt with spiritual realities and resulted in spiritual life. Furthermore they were words that came from God's Spirit. Therefore they were extremely important.
6:64 In spite of the importance of spiritual life, Jesus said He recognized that some of His disciples did not believe on Him. This was a tragic irony. They had followed Jesus and had listened to Him, but they did not believe Him.
John added that Jesus knew who did not believe on Him, even who of His disciples would betray Him (vv. 70-71), to show that human unbelief did not take Jesus by surprise.
"Jesus had given ample opportunity for faith to all those who followed him; yet from the beginning his spiritual discernment made him aware of those whose faith was genuine and those whose attachment was only superficial."263
"The beginning"many be a reference to the beginning of Jesus' ministry, but it is probably another reference to Jesus' preincarnate existence (cf. 1:1).
6:65 Again Jesus expressed His belief that the human decision to believe or not believe rested ultimately in God's elective purpose (vv. 37, 44). Thus He did not view the unbelief of His disciples as an indication that He had failed. Notwithstanding He did not present the importance of belief on Himself as something His hearers could take or leave either. It meant the difference between life and death to them, and He urged them to believe.
6:66 Jesus lost many of His followers because of the Bread of Life discourse (cf. v. 60). His explanation to them following the discourse did not change their minds. He had made no concessions. They had understood Him correctly the first time. The Greek phrase ek toutoucan mean "from this time"or "for this reason."Both meanings fit here.
In this passage we see four responses to Jesus: seeking (vv. 22-40), murmuring (vv. 41-51), striving (vv. 52-59), and departing (vv. 60-71).264
6:67 Jesus' question assumed a negative answer, as is clear from the Greek construction. He undoubtedly asked it not because He had questions about the Twelve's perseverance (v. 64) but because they needed to reaffirm their commitment. It would have been easy for them to agree with the crowd. The question also implied that very many of His disciples had abandoned Jesus, perhaps the majority.
6:68-69 Typically Peter spoke for the Twelve. "Lord"(Gr. kurios) can mean simply "sir,"but here it probably has a deeper meaning. These disciples were reaffirming their allegiance to the One whom Peter now identified as the Holy One of God (cf. Ps. 16:10; Isa. 41:14; 43:3; 47:4; 48:17; Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34). Peter probably did not mean that they viewed Jesus as their last resort but that Jesus was their only hope. They believed that Jesus' teachings resulted in eternal life for those who believed (v. 63), and they had believed in Him as the holy Messiah whom God had sent.
Peter's confession of faith here is not the same as the one He made later at Caesarea Philippi (Matt. 16:16; Mark 8:29; Luke 9:20). The content is different as is the chronology. Probably Peter's confession of Jesus' full deity occurred first at Caesarea Philippi. Here he evidently meant that the Twelve believed that Jesus was who He had claimed to be in the preceding discourse, namely the Messiah who had come with divine revelation from God. Peter referred to Jesus as the Holy One later in his preaching, but that was after receiving much more insight, particularly from Jesus' resurrection (Acts 2:27; 3:14).
6:70 It might appear that the Twelve had chosen Jesus as their rabbi, but really the choice had been His (Mark 3:13-19; Luke 6:12-16). He had chosen them and they had then believed on Him even as the Father chose the elect who then believed on Jesus. Reflecting His knowledge of those who believed in Him and those who did not (v. 64), Jesus revealed that even among the Twelve there was one unbeliever. Jesus had chosen him to be one of the Twelve, but God had not chosen Him for salvation.
The Greek word translated "devil"(Gr. diabolos) does not have an article with it in many reliable ancient Greek manuscripts. This usually indicates an emphasis on the quality of the noun. Here it probably means that one of the Twelve was devil-like (cf. Mark 8:33). The Greek word is the equivalent of the Hebrew satan, meaning adversary or accuser. It means slanderer or false accuser, but when it occurs as a substantive it means Satan (e.g., 8:44; 13:2; cf. 13:27). Jesus probably meant that one of the Twelve was going to behave as Satan because Satan would direct him.
6:71 John, not Jesus, identified the devil among the Twelve as Judas. His devilish act was to be the betrayal of Jesus into His enemies' hands. "Iscariot"is probably a transliteration of the Hebrew is qeriyot, meaning "man of Kerioth,"a village in southern Judah (Josh. 15:25).
"John 7 has three time divisions: before the feast (vv. 1-10), in the midst of the feast (vv. 11-36), and on the last day of the feast (vv. 37-52). The responses during each of those periods can be characterized by three words: disbelief, debate, and division."265
This section relates the reaction of another significant group of people to Jesus. They were the Jews generally, including Jesus' brothers. The section also prepares the reader for the following presentation of Jesus' ministry in Jerusalem that happened at the feast of Tabernacles.
"In this Gospel Jerusalem is the storm-centre of the Messiah's ministry, where He vindicates His claims before consummating His work by suffering outside its walls."266
7:1 Opposition to Jesus had by now become so strong, particularly in Judea, that He chose to stay and minister around Galilee. This is a brief reference to Jesus' later Galilean ministry that the Synoptics describe more fully. The Jewish leaders were continuing to lay plans for Jesus' execution (cf. 5:18). John noted their increasing hostility here and in the following chapters (cf. vv. 19, 30, 32, 44; 8:59; 10:39; 11:8, 53).
7:2 The feast of Tabernacles occurred six months after Passover (6:4). That year it fell on September 10-17, 32 A.D.267It was a fall grape and olive harvest festival (Exod. 23:16; Lev. 23:33-36, 39-43; Deut. 16:13-15). In Jesus' day it was the most popular of the three required Jewish feasts.268It commemorated the Israelites' sojourn in the wilderness. Many devout Jews built temporary shelters out of branches and lived in them for the week to simulate the wilderness conditions in which their forefathers had lived.
7:3-5 Jesus' half-brothers advised Him to go to the feast so His remaining disciples would continue to believe on Him and so more people would become His disciples. They evidently supposed that Jesus wanted as large a following as possible. They believed that He could perform miracles, but they did not believe that He was who He claimed to be. They encouraged Him to promote Himself probably because they saw some advantage for themselves in His doing so. Satan had tempted Jesus similarly (Matt. 4:1-10). God's plan for Jesus' exaltation was different from theirs and involved the Cross. It is difficult to tell if these brothers spoke sincerely or sarcastically. Perhaps some were sincere and others were sarcastic.
Familiarity with Jesus did not and does not guarantee faith in Him (cf. Ps. 69:8). The way unbelievers plan to obtain glory for themselves is frequently contrary to God's way of doing things (cf. Phil. 2:3-11). Two of these half-brothers were James and Jude who later became believers and wrote the New Testament books that bear their names (cf. Acts 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:7).
7:6 Jesus replied that it was not the right time (Gr. kairos) for Him to go to Jerusalem, the Father's time (cf. 2:4). However, they could go to the feast at any time (Gr. kairos). They were not on a mission and timetable from God as He was.
"John's picture of Jesus is of one steadily moving on to meet his divinely appointed destiny."269
Another interpretation is that Jesus meant that the time of His death was not yet at hand. However the Greek word that Jesus used when referring to His death and its consequences in John's Gospel is always horaelsewhere, not kairos(2:4; 7:30; 8:20; 12:23, 27; 13:1; 17:1).
7:7 Jesus alluded to the opposition that awaited Him in Jerusalem. His brothers had no particular reason to be careful about when they went to the feast, but Jesus would be in danger when He went. They were part of the world, but Jesus did not belong to it (1:10; cf. 15:18-21; 17:14, 16). The reason for the Jews' antagonism was also Jesus' convicting preaching that called for repentance as well as faith in Him. This verse contains the explanation for Jesus' statement in the preceding verse.
7:8-9 Having offered His explanation Jesus encouraged his brothers to go on to the feast without Him. Again He intimated that the Father was setting His agenda and He needed to follow it rather then their suggestion (cf. 2:4). God's immediate will for Him was to stay in Galilee.
The NIV "yet"has weak textual support, though it represents a valid interpretation. Many old Greek manuscripts do not contain it. Probably copyists added it to explain what Jesus meant since He did go to Jerusalem shortly after He spoke these words (v. 10).
