John 6:47-51

(Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary) The advantage of the manna was small, it only
referred to this life; but the living Bread is so excellent, that the man who feedeth on it
shall never die. This bread is Christ's human nature, which he took to present to the
Father, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world; to purchase all things pertaining to life
and godliness, for sinners of every nation, who repent and believe in him.

John 6:47

“Truly, truly, I say to you, He that believes on me has everlasting life.”

(Meyer's NT Commentary) John 6:47-48. Jesus had given His answer to the murmurings
of the Jews in John 6:43-46. He now returns to the subject which He had left, and first
repeats in solemn asseveration what He had said in John 6:40; then He again brings
forward the metaphor of the bread of life, which sets forth the same thought.

(Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers) (47) He that believeth.—This thought

gives a new force to what He has said in John 6:40. He there declared the Father’s will,
that every one seeing the Son and believing on Him may have eternal life. No man had
ever seen the Father, but the Son was then standing in human form before them, and this
will was being accomplished, and for the believer eternal life was not only of the future
but of the actual present, “He hath eternal life.”

(Bengel's Gnomen) John 6:47. Ἔχει) hath. Present. Where the bread of life is, there life
is; even before the last day, John 6:40

John 6:48

“I am that bread of life.”

(Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers) I am that bread of life.—Better, I am the

bread of life. The words, which seem to them so hard to fathom (John 6:41), are only an
expression of this truth in the form of their own demand (John 6:31). The essence of life
is unseen; bread is the visible form which contains and imparts it. The invisible God is
the source of eternal life; the human nature of the Son of God is the visible form which
contains and imparts this to the souls of men.
(Pulpit Commentary) Verse 48 repeats once more the statement of vers. 32, 35 (see
notes): I am the Bread of life. Not only do I give you more than Moses gave your
fathers, but I am the Father's Gift. I myself am the Gift - I am the Bread of which, if you
partake, you will hunger no more, you will need no more, you will die no more: the life
then thrilling through you will be eternal.

John 6:49

“Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.”

(Bengel's Gnomen) John 6:49. Οἱ πατέρες, your fathers) concerning whom ye have
spoken, John 6:31, “Our fathers did eat manna,” etc.—ὑμῶν, your) Your, He saith,
not our: by which very expression He shows, that He has a higher descent than they had
supposed; John 6:42, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph?”—ἔφαγον τὸ μάννα ἐν τῇ
ἐρήμῳ, did eat manna in the wilderness) Their own very words are retorted on the
Jews; see John 6:31.—καὶ ἀπέθανον) and yet they died, and that by a terrible death.

(Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers) Your fathers . . . and are dead.—Better, .
. . and died.—The manna which their fathers ate (John 6:31) seemed to them a greater
work than this which He has done. Its true relation to Him is shown in the fact that those
who ate it afterwards died; whereas He is the true spiritual food for the world, and those
who feed upon Him shall not afterwards die. That was manna, special in time and
circumstance; this is bread, the true sustenance for all times and all circumstances. That
seemed to them to come from heaven, and this from earth; but this outer earth-born
form of flesh contains the true life, in the only way in which humanity could receive it.
The life itself cometh down from heaven.

(Vincent's Word Studies) Are dead (ἀπέθανον)

The aorist points, not to their present condition but to the historical fact; they died.

John 6:50

“This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof,
and not die.”

(Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) that a man may eat] S. John’s favourite
form of expression again, indicating the Divine intention: comp.
John 6:29 (that you believe on him whom he has sent.- Literally, that ye may believe.)

John 6:34

John 8:56

‘Of this purpose is the Bread which cometh down from heaven; in order that a man may
eat thereof and so not die.’ Comp. 1 John 5:3.

(Bengel's Gnomen)John 6:50. Οὗτος, this) namely, bread.—τίς, a man) any one who
pleases.—καὶ μὴ ἀποθάνῃ, and may not die) namely, in a spiritual sense, as this food
refers to spiritual life: there being attached thereto also the resurrection of the body.

John 6:51

(Expositor's Greek Testament) In John 6:51 Jesus adds two fresh terms in explanation of
the living bread, which, however, through their want of apprehension, increased their
difficulty. The first is ἐγώ εἰμι … ζωῆς. In giving this explanation He slightly alters the
designation of Himself as the Bread: He now claims to be not “the bread of life,” but ὁ
ἄρτος ὁ ζῶν, “the living bread”. Godet says: “The manna, as not itself living, could
never impart life. But Jesus, because He Himself lives, can give life.” That is correct,
but is not the full meaning. ὁ ζῶν contrasts the bread with the βρῶσις ἀπολλυμένη; and
as “living water” is water running from a fountain in perpetual stream, and not a
measured quantity in a tank, so “living bread” is bread which renews itself in proportion
to all needs like the bread of the miracle. The second fresh intimation now made is ὁ
ἄρτος ὃν ἐγὼ δώσω ἡ σάρξ μου ἐστίν … This intimation is linked to the foregoing by
a double conjunction καὶ ὁ ἄρτος δέ, “and besides” indicating, according to classical
usage, a new aspect or expansion of what has been said. The new intimation is at first
sight an apparent limitation: instead of “I am the bread,” He now says “My flesh is the
bread”. Accordingly some interpreters suppose that by “flesh” the whole manifestation
of Christ in human nature is meant. Cf. ὁ λόγος σάρξ ἐγένετο. Thus Westcott says:
“The life of the world in the highest sense springs from the Incarnation and
Resurrection of Christ. By His Incarnation and Resurrection the ruin and death which
sin brought in are overcome. The thought here is of support and growth, and not of
Atonement.” To this there are two objections. (1) If σάρξ is equivalent to the whole
manifestation of Christ in the flesh, this is not a new statement, but a repetition of what
has already been said. And (2) the δώσω compels us to think of a giving yet future.
Besides, the turn taken by the conversation, John 6:53-57, seems to point rather to the
atoning sacrifice of Christ. [So Euthymius: τὴν σταύρωσιν αὐτοῦ προσημαίνει. τὸ
δὲ, ἣν ἐγὼ δώσω, τὸ ἑκούσιον ἐμφαίνει τοῦ τοιούτου πάθους. So too
Cyril: Ἀποθνήσκω, φησὶν, ὑπὲρ πάντων, ἵνα πάντας ζωοποιήσω διʼ ἐμαυτοῦ, καὶ
ἀντίλυτρον τῆς ἁπάντων σαρκὸς τὴν ἐμὴν ἐποιησάμην. Bengel says: “Tota haec de
carne et sanguine Jesu Christi oratio passionem spectat”. Beza even finds in δώσω the
sense “offeram Patri in ara crucis”.] The giving of His flesh, a still future giving which
is spoken of as a definite act, is, then, most naturally referred to the death on the cross.
This was to be ὑπὲρ τῆς τοῦ κόσμου ζωῆς, “for the sake of the life of the
world”. ὑπέρ when used in connection with sacrifice tends to glide into ἀντί; see
the Alcestis of Eurip. passim and Lampe’s note on this verse. Here, however, the idea of
substitution is not present. It is only hinted that somehow the death of Christ is needed
for the world’s life. This statement, however, only bewilders the crowd; and the next
paragraph, John 6:52-59, gives expression to and deals with this bewilderment.