The Jews then 41 life and I will raise him up at the last day. murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus the son of 42 Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered 43 and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. No man 44 can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the 45 prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is 46 of God, he hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, 47 lieved on him, would be finally raised up to participate in that eternal happiness and glory, which it is the object of his gospel to bestow. 41, 42. The Jews then murmured at him, &c. "The Jews, like many modern expositors, mistook our Lord's meaning. They understood that of his person which he intended of his doctrine, and took that in a literal sense which he meant figuratively." 44. Except the Father which hath sent me draw him. No compulsory power is alluded to, since it is common, in the Scriptures, "to express the influence of motives, or inclinations, that is, the result of those motives, by terms expressive of physical force;" but the influence of Providence, the Spirit, and the miracles and teachings of Jesus, are meant. The word draw must evidently be taken in the obvious sense in which it is used in prayer, and in the exercise of all means of spiritual culture. Jam. iv. 8. Every faithful soul is drawn by the Father to Christ; but no man would come to him, unless he were impressed with a devout regard for the will of the Father, or, as expressed in the next verse, unless he hath heard, and hath learned of the Father. As observed by a Trinitarian commentator, whatever be the import of our Saviour's language, where he speaks of those given or drawn to him by the Father, "it certainly cannot signify any thing which is incompatible with the free agency of man. If unbelief be the effect of an inevitable decree on the part of God, no culpability can possibly be attached to it on the part of man; and yet the Jews are constantly condemned for it by Christ." Jesus, therefore, virtually says, "Except the divine works which the Father hath empowered me to do, and the doctrines he has ordered me to preach, induce men to believe in me as a Teacher, commissioned by God to instruct them in heavenly truths, they cannot in any other way, or by any other arguments, be brought to do so." 45. Written in the prophets. Is. liv. 13; Jer. xxxi. 34. —Taught of God. Or, according to Winer, about God. -Every man therefore that hath heard, &c. "Every one that is of a tractable disposition, and has paid that due attention to all that God has before taught him, will come to me, agreeably to his will, for further instruction." John vii. 17. 46. He hath seen the Father, i. e. spiritually, not physically. The sense is, hath known his will. Chap. xiv. 9, 10. Jesus teaches that no one is so intimately acquainted with the 48 He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread 49 of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are 50 dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that 51 a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I 52 will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to 53 eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, Father as his Son, his image and representative in the world; no other one has seen him. 47, 48. See ver. 35, 40, where the same ideas are expressed and explained. That bread. Or, the bread. 49, 50. In these verses, he contrasts the perishable nature of that life which the manna of Moses sustained, with that spiritual and everduring being which his doctrines were designed to nourish and make blessed. A man may eat thereof, and not die. Comp. ver. 35. He that partook of the manna would both hunger and die, while he who ate of the bread of heaven, would neither be exposed to the sufferings of spiritual hunger, nor to the lot of spiritual death. 51. I am the living bread, &c. See ver. 35, 40, 50. In several parts of this discourse, he repeats the same idea in different connexions and phrases, in order to give it greater emphasis.-The bread that I will give is my flesh. Jesus introduces an additional figure of yet greater boldness, suggested by the comparison in ver. 49, 50. He represents his flesh as the bread, or food, on which the life of the world, or the spiritual life of mankind, is to be supported. He was to confer the greatest blessings on his followers, not by the pomp and riches of a temporal kingdom, but by a violent and bloody death, - by the sacrifice of his own life. 52, 53. How can this man, &c. From speaking of his disciples as feeding upon heavenly bread, ver. 32, 33, and then as feeding upon himself, ver. 51, he now yet more darkly describes them as eating his flesh and drinking his blood. This new turn given to the imagery, staggered still more their earthly and literal conceptions.Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, &c. The divine Teacher uses these violent figures, and bold paradoxes, powerfully to excite their attention, and to implant a seed of truth which might afterwards germinate. At present, he does not care to retain among his disciples such mercenary and earthlyminded followers. Hence, instead of softening or explaining expressions so offensive to their feelings and prejudices, he indulges in others still more strange and paradoxical. He thus tested the faith of his disciples, sifted his hearers, the good from the bad, and inculcated lessons of truth, of inestimable value to all ages. Bell, in his treatise on the Lord's supper, regards it as altogether doubtful whether Jesus' refers at all, in this chapter, to the ceremony of eating bread and drinking wine in remembrance of him, as symbols of his flesh and blood. It has also been doubted, but with less reason, whether any allusion is here made to his death on the cross, since the flesh and blood of the Son of man ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh 54 my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink in- 55 deed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth 56 in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I 57 live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your 58 fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live forever. These things said he in the synagogue, as 59 he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, 60 This is a hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in 61 himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, clearly mean, ver. 63, his doctrines, which were to communicate spiritual life to mankind. But, in both cases, the imagination of Christian believers has been active in drawing inferences, some of them wide from the premises; as will be evident, if we consider the doctrine of Transubstantiation on one hand, or that the bread and wine of the communion are the veritable flesh and blood of Christ; and the doctrine of Substitution on the other, or that God required the sacrifice of the body and blood of his Son on the cross, before he could justly forgive even the peni tent sinner. 54-57. The same language is repeated again and again, with the strongest asseveration, showing how essential his doctrines, the truths of his gospel, were to the moral and religious life of man. They were to mingle with and imbue his whole spiritual constitution, as material nourishment enters every vessel and pore of the physical frame into which it is received. Thus, by the expressions dwelleth in me, and I in him -live by me, or, on me, he portrays the most intimate union between himself and the believer union resembling that between himself and his Father.· -As the living a Father, &c. Or, as paraphrased by Norton, "as the ever-blessed Father sent me, and I am blessed through the Father, so every one that eateth me shall be blessed through me." He 58. Compare verses 49, 50. shows the superiority of the eversustaining nourishment he communicated, to the manna of which they had so boastingly spoken, ver. 31, of which those who ate, long ago perished. 59. These things said he in the synagogue. This discourse was, therefore, probably delivered on the Sabbath day. The incidents related in the remainder of the chapter, perhaps, occurred elsewhere, in private. 60. His disciples. His hearers or learners, not the twelve apostles. — This is a hard saying, &c. The Jews understood his sayings literally, as referring to his death, and not to being imbued with his doctrines, and they could not reconcile them with their preconceived notions that the Messiah was never to die. — Who can hear it? Or, understand it, and receive it. 61, 62. Knew in himself, &c. He was gifted by God with this power of knowing the thoughts of others, as he was with the power of multiply 62 Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man 63 ascend up where he was before? It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they 64 are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were 65 that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, ex66 cept it were given unto him of my Father. From that time of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. 67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then 68 many ing food, and walking on the sea. Doth this offend you? Or, is this a stumbling-block to you?- What and if ye shall see. Or, what if ye, or, if ye therefore should see, &c. The sentence appears to have been left unfinished; or it was abruptly ended, as if spoken with deep emotion, in allusion to his death. Bloomfield supplies the ellipsis by adding at the end, "What will ye say? What will be your amazement when you see this? Our Lord probably alludes here to his resurrection, for he was not accustomed to speak of his ascension as a proof of his divine mission, but he often refers to his being raised from the dead with this object. -Ascend up where he was before, i. e. rise again from the grave, and appear in the world where he had before lived and taught. 63. It is the Spirit that quickeneth. This verse is the key, to unlock the meaning of the whole preceding discourse. He explains his seemingly violent expressions, by telling them, that they must understand him figuratively, not literally; and that what was spiritual in his religion, quickened men, and gave them life, not the literal flesh, which availed nothing to such an end. -The words-they are spirit, &c. He here proceeds to declare what he meant by spirit and by life. It was his instructions, doctrines, truths, that would summon into action and progress man's spiritVOL. II. 21 65. Comp. ver. 37, 39, 44, 45, and remarks thereon. "To be given of the Father," says Whitby, "is to be convinced by the miracles which God had wrought by him; to testify the truth of his mission, that he was the Messiah; and to be willing on these testimonies to own him as such, laying aside all those unreasonable pre-judices and carnal affections, which obstructed their coming to him." 66. Many of his disciples went back.. Jesus desired to check the ambitious ardor of the people, ver. 15, and to separate the earthly-minded from the spiritual, and he accomplished his object, as this verse testifies. Shocked by language, which clashed so directly with their favorite ideas of the Messiah, they cease to accompany Jesus with their former zeal and elated hopes. 67. Will ye also go away? He addresses the twelve with this pathetic question, in order to arouse them to a more earnest reflection upon the great subject of his spiritual mission and their salvation, and to intimate, that he wished those who followed. him, to follow him willingly. Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe, and are sure that 69 thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered 70 them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that 71 should betray him, being one of the twelve. 68, 69. Peter, with his characteristic eagerness, acts as the spokesman of the little fraternity: Lord, to whom shall we go? &c. Though the twelve, as well as the other disciples, may have been confounded by the startling figures of Jesus, so contradictory to their most cherished expectations, yet there was in them that true heart of faith and confidence in their Master, that bound them to him through all these perplexities, as with a threefold cord, not easily broken. They seemed to cleave to him, on this and other occasions, in his personal rather than his official character. It was Jesus they loved, more than the Christ. They felt his spiritual influence stealing into their heart of hearts, and shedding abroad therein peace and joy, though all the while their preconceived visions of the Messiah were falling into wreck and ruin. "How can they leave him? yet why, precisely, do they stay? If they depart, it is but to return with joy; and so they linger still, for they learn to trust him better than themselves. They go with him sorrowing; with occasional flashes of brilliant ambition, but with longer darkness between; with lowering hopes, but deepening love; to the farewell meal; to the moonlight garden, its anguished solitude, its tranquil surrender to the multitude, making the seeming captive the real conqueror; a few of them, to the trial; one, to the cross; the women, even to the sepulchre; and all, agitated and unbelieving, were recalled, in breathless haste, from their despair, by the third day's tidings-the Lord has risen indeed! Thenceforth, they too are risen from the dead; the bandages, as of the grave, drop from their souls; the Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of truth, comes to loose, and let them go. Not higher did the Lord ascend to the heaven which holds him now, than did they rise above the level of their former life."- MARTINEAU.Words of eternal life. Instructions, capable of guiding to eternal life or blessedness.-That Christ, the Son of the living God. Griesbach reads, instead, "that Holy One of God." Chap. xx. 31. 70, 71. One of you is a devil. Notwithstanding these protestations of fidelity, Jesus reminds them, that there was one among their own number, who was plotting mischief and treachery. The word devil means false accuser, or adversary, and is so translated in our version, in 2 Tim. iii. 3, and by the word slanderers, 1 Tim. iii. 11. The language of the text shows an advanced period of our Saviour's ministry, and harmonizes with the supposition that the passover, spoken of in ver. 4, was the one at which he was betrayed by Judas and crucified.-Simon. His name is not mentioned, except in this connexion, as the father of Judas. He is only known, as has been said, by the misfortune of having such a son.- Should betray. Rather, would betray. Our Lord, in this discourse, combated the errors of the Jews respecting a temporal reign of the Messiah, and disclosed the transcendent value of his gospel, as a spiritual nurture |