John 6:60-65

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 60-65. The very difficulty in the way of understanding, which has just been referred to, caused the division between the temporary and permanent disciples the true and the false ones which needed to be made. The temporary and false ones went back because of the hard saying. The principal question connected with these verses is that of John 6:62. With reference to this question the following points may be noticed: (a) If λόγος of John 6:60 refers, as the connection would seem to show that it does, to what had been said about eating His flesh, etc., the point now in mind must be the same: If you are offended by this which I have said, how will it be if, etc. (b) The words “ascending where I was before” are most naturally contrasted with His present condition, and thus refer to the time of and after His ascension.

(c) The 63d verse shows that the purpose of Jesus was to bring the minds of these professed disciples to interpret His words spiritually, and to see that His teaching and the life of which He spoke were wholly in the spiritual sphere. (d) John 6:64-65 present again the absence of faith and of the divine drawing as the foundation of their whole difficulty. In view of these considerations two conclusions may be drawn: (x) that the thought of John 6:62 is of a greater difficulty in the matter of comprehension, when He should have passed away from earth to heaven, rather than a less one; and (y) that the cause of this greater difficulty would be the entire removal of the earthly and physical element. Like the discourse which precedes, therefore, these verses are intended to be a demand upon these hearers to rise into a higher sphere of thought, and place themselves face to face with the Divine truth.