John 6:30,31

3. Vv. 30-33. The way to reach faith.

Vv. 30, 31. “ Then they said to Him: What sign doest thou then, that we may see, and believe in thee? What work dost thou do? 31. Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, according as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat. ”

It is difficult to imagine these words on the lips of people who had been present the day before at the multiplying of the loaves. B. Bauer saw herein a proof of the non-authenticity of the narrative. Schweizer concluded from it that the whole preceding passage was interpolated. Grotius and others think that these interlocutors who speak thus had not been present at the scene of the preceding day. De Wette and Weiss suppose that this part of the conversation is located here out of its true place. Lucke, Luthardt, Meyer find here the proof of the psychological truth that the natural man is insatiable in respect to wonders. Riggenbach, and up to a certain point Weiss, recall the scarcely apparent way in which the multiplying of the loaves had been accomplished. The creative operation had not been seen. Others think that Jesus' hearers contrast this quite ordinary bread which Jesus had given them with the manna, manifestly falling every morning from heaven, which Moses gave to their fathers, and that they find the first of these miracles far inferior to the second. But, however true these remarks may be, it must be confessed that they do not yet explain such questions as these: “What sign doest Thou? What workest Thou?” addressed to a man who had just done such a miracle and presented by people who had, the day before, wished to proclaim Him King.

It is necessary, I think, to take account of a circumstance strongly brought out by Weiss and Keil: the dissatisfaction felt by this multitude in consequence of the absolute refusal of Jesus to consent to the great Messianic demonstration which they had planned. And, strange fact! while refusing to be proclaimed King and Messiah, He yet claimed to be recognized as the supreme messenger of God, as the object of faith, of a faith which dispensed with all the works prescribed by the law and even with every work; as the one who brought from heaven to men an imperishable life. Was the miracle wrought on the level with such pretensions? No, it did not even raise Jesus to the height of Moses, above whom He seemed nevertheless to place Himself by arrogating such a part to Himself! It is not therefore altogether without reason that they bring out the contrast between the scarcely apparent miracle of the day before and the magnificent display of power of which Moses had been the instrument before the people during forty years. Redemptor prior descendere fecit pro iis manna; sic et Redemptor posterior descendere faciet manna, said the Rabbis (see Lightfoot and Wetstein). This, at least, is what would have been expected of Him to justify pretensions such as His! The words quoted by the Jews are found in Psalms 78:24-25. Comp. Exodus 16:4; Exodus 16:15. The verb has given has for its subject God. The expression “ from heaven ” denotes, in their mouth, only the miraculous origin of the divine gift, while Jesus, in His answer, thinks above all of its essence.