John 6:66

Ver. 66. “ From that moment many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. ”

In the picture which the Synoptics have drawn for us of the Galilean ministry, particularly in that of St. Luke, Jesus shows Himself often preoccupied with the necessity of making a selection among those crowds who followed Him without comprehending the serious character of the step. Comp. Luke 8:9 ff; Luke 9:23 ff; Luke 14:25 ff. Jesus preferred by far a little nucleus of men established in faith and resolved to accept the self-denials which it imposed, to those multitudes whose bond of union with His person was only an apparent one. But there was more than this: all His work would have been in danger if the spirit which was manifested on the preceding day had gained the ascendant among His adherents already so numerous. It was necessary to remove everything which, in this mass, was not decided to go with Him on the pathway of the crucifixion and towards a wholly spiritual kingdom. We can, from this point of view, explain the method pursued by Him in the foregoing scene. The words by which He had characterized the nature and privileges of faith were adapted to attach the true believers to Him more closely, but also to repel all those whom the instincts of a carnal Messianic hope brought to Him. The danger which His work had just incurred had revealed to Him the necessity of purifying His infant Church. John 6:66 shows us this end attained, so far as concerned the group of disciples who most nearly surrounded the apostolic company. ᾿Εκ τούτου may be taken in a temporal sense: from this moment (de Wette), or in the logical sense: for this reason (Meyer, Weiss, etc.).

For this second sense classical examples may be cited. The passage John 19:12 determines nothing. I would understand: since this fact, which includes both the time (from this day) and its contents (that which had just occurred). The words ἀπῆλθον εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω, went back, include more than simple defection; they denote the return of these people to their ordinary occupations, which they had abandoned in order continuously to follow the Lord. The imperfect περιεπάτουν indicates a fact of a certain continuance; they no longer took part in His wandering kind of life (John 7:1). It was in consequence of this prolonged rupture that the following conversation took place. Jesus, far from being discouraged by this result, sees in it a salutary sifting process which He wished even to introduce into the midst of the circle of the Twelve; for here also He discerns the presence of impure elements.