John 6:1

John 6:1. After these things. Like chap. 5, this chapter opens with an indefinite note of time, ‘after these things.' In the former instance we saw that the interval covered by the expression may have been two or three months; here, if we take the feast spoken of in chap. John 5:1 to have been the feast of Purim, the events of the two Chapter s 5 and 6 were not separated by more than about two or three weeks, for Purim was past and the Passover was drawing near (John 6:4). From the other Evangelists we know that Jesus went into Galilee after the imprisonment of John the Baptist (Matthew 4:12; Mark 1:14); and also that after the death of the Baptist He withdrew from Galilee (Matthew 14:13; Mark 6:31). In this Gospel we have already met with two visits to Galilee (chap. John 2:1; John 4:3; John 4:43), and another is implied in the verse before us. Which of these three is the journey spoken of in Matthew 4:12? Certainly not the first (John 2:1; John 2:11), for John was not then cast into prison (chap. John 3:24). Probably not the second, for chap. John 4:1 implies that the Baptist was still at that time engaged in active work (see note on John 4:1). It would seem therefore that the visit to which the earlier Evangelists give so much prominence, which indeed is the commencement of their detailed history of the Saviour's public ministry, took place after the feast to which reference is made in chap. John 5:1. It is in complete accordance with this that Jesus in chap. John 5:35 uses words which appear to indicate that the Baptist's public work was at an end. If this view be correct, the earlier Evangelists enable us completely to fill up the interval between chaps, 5 and 6. Indeed (assuming the feast of chap. 5 to be Purim), the chief objection raised against the view we advocate is that the period of three weeks is too short for the events which come in between our Lord's journey to Galilee and the Feeding of the Multitude. Mark for instance relates the one in John 1:14 and the other in John 6:30-44. No doubt the first impression made on any reader is that such a series of events must have occupied months rather than weeks; but if the narrative be attentively examined, it will be found that there is no real ground for such an impression. The three Evangelists seem to have been led rather to give a full description of certain parts than an outline of the whole of our Lord's ministry in Galilee. If the days seem crowded with events, the intensity of the living ministry of Jesus does but receive the fuller illustration, and we have the most impressive comment on His own words in this Gospel (John 4:34; John 9:4) and on the closing testimony of the apostle (John 21:25). Between these Chapter s, then, must be placed many of the most familiar Chapter s of the earlier Gospels. To say nothing of the wonderful miracles wrought in Capernaum and in other places on the coast of the sea of Galilee, to this interval belong the appointment of the twelve apostles, the Sermon on the Mount, the Parables of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 13), the death of John the Baptist in the castle of Machaerus. But John's omission of all that happened during our Lord's sojourn in Galilee until the point to which this verse relates is in accord with the general structure of his Gospel; and the special reason which led him to relate the particular events of this chapter, and these only, will be noticed as we proceed. Nothing, we may add, can more strikingly illustrate the twofold character of our Lord's teaching, as addressed to ‘the Jews' and the doctors of the law on the one hand and to the multitudes of Galilee on the other, than a comparison of the discourse in Jerusalem which we have just considered (chap. 5) with the Sermon and the Parables spoken but a few days later.

Jesus went away to the other side of the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. From Luke 9:10 we learn that the place to which Jesus crossed over was Bethsaida, that is, Bethsaida Julias in Gaulonitis, a place near the north-eastern comer of the lake, to be carefully distinguished from Bethsaida of Galilee,. which was on the western shore. It is remarkable that John should give a twofold designation of the sea, sea of Galilee and (sea) of Tiberias. The latter name, which perhaps was best known by those amongst whom he wrote, is used by him alone, here and in chap. John 21:1: the former, ‘sea of Galilee,' is the name regularly used by Matthew and Mark. In Luke's Gospel the only name is lake of Gennesaret (chap. John 5:1).