John 6:3-4

“ And Jesus went up into the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. ”

The expression, the mountain, denotes not a particular mountain, which was in the region (for the locality has not been designated), but the mountainous country, in contrast to the level of the shore. Jesus had sought a solitary place there, and was conversing in it with his disciples. John's expression has some resemblance to that of Matthew 15:29, immediately after the second miracle of the loaves.

What is the purpose of the remark in John 6:4 ? Is it a chronological note? In that case, it would rather have been placed at the beginning of the narrative. It occurs here incidentally, after the manner of John, as an explanatory remark (comp. John 1:24). But with what purpose? According to Meyer, to explain the great gathering which is spoken of in John 6:5. But this explanation forces him to distinguish this multitude from that of John 6:2, which is evidently inadmissible. Weiss acknowledges this, and sees in John 6:2, and John 6:5, the crowd of pilgrims who are about to go to Jerusalem for the Passover. But what had the caravans going up to this feast to do in this out of the way place? And is it not very clear, from John 6:2, that these numerous arrivals are no others than the multitudes who habitually accompanied Jesus in Galilee? The mention of the feast near at hand, must, therefore, serve to explain, not the presence of the multitudes, but the conduct of Jesus towards them.

Not being able to go to Jerusalem for the feast (John 7:1), Jesus, on seeing these multitudes hastening towards Him in the wilderness, recognizes in this unexpected circumstance a signal from the Father. He puts this concourse in comparison with the feast which is about to be celebrated in Jerusalem, and He says for Himself, for His disciples, for the multitude: “We also will have our Passover!” This is the thought which sets in its true light the following miracle, as the discourses which are connected with it prove. For Jesus represents Himself here as the one whose flesh and blood are designed to give life to believers, a point which undoubtedly calls to mind the sacrifice and eating of the Paschal lamb. By this fourth verse John gives us, therefore, the key of the whole narrative, as he had given us in John 3:1, by the words: of the Pharisees, that of the whole conversation with Nicodemus. The denials of Weiss and Keil seem to us to rest on no sufficient grounds. The term ἡ ἑορτή τ. ᾿Ιουδ., the feast of the Jews, must, according to Keil, explain the word Passover, which was unknown to Greek readers, or, according to others, designate this feast as “the feast par excellence for the Jews;” but comp. John 2:13, and John 7:2. Perhaps John desires to make us understand the total separation which was more and more evident between Jesus and this people who were becoming foreign to Him. From the incident in Luke 6:1-5, and the parallel passages, we discover in the Synoptics also a spring season passed in Galilee during the course of the ministry accomplished in that province.