John 6:52-65

Further Jewish Objections. Further advance is made by the use for the first time of the phrase, to eat the flesh. To their question How? Jesus answers that the gift of life can be obtained only by such means. The reference to the sacrificial death is made clearer by the addition and drink His blood. The true life can be gained only by the assimilation of the Body and the Blood, the life set free by death for wider purposes. Those who partake of this true food gain abiding union with Christ. The expressions used here are intelligible only in the light of Christian Eucharistie experience. John 6:60 ff. is historically important as describing the crisis in Galilee, when many even of the best disposed took offence and fell away. In place of their material expectations He offered them a spiritual conception of the kingdom. It proved a stumbling-block. What would their feelings be when He left them, His life ended without the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom? This seems to be the meaning of John 6:62, though possibly it may mean that the glories of the future would provide a solution of present difficulties. He knows the hollowness of the professions of man. This the author interprets as a reference to Judas. The recorded words of Jesus are of wider application; He knew how His higher teaching had alienated the crowd. John 6:66 ff. is sometimes regarded as a duplicate version of the crisis, the failure of disciples, the reference to Judas, the apologetic aim of showing that his treachery was foreseen. The Lord's doubts as to the Twelve have not the appearance of a Christian invention. The author interprets the confession at Cæ sarea Philippi (Mark 8:27 ff.). Perhaps the saying about Judas reflects the language of the rebuke to Peter (Mark 8:33). The view that the confession is a clinging to faith in spite of disappointment agrees with the Synoptic account of the Baptist's message from prison (Matthew 11:2; Luke 7:19).