The Gospel Of John John 6:41-71
John 6:41 ‘The Jews therefore were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.”’ ‘grumbling’-like the Israelites in the wilderness (Exo. 15:24), these Jews were murmuring. The Israelites in the wilderness complained about the bread that God had given them, these Jews are complaining about the true bread (Numbers 11:4-6). ‘It is the confused sound that runs through a crowd when they are angry and in opposition.’ (Morris p. 370)
“I am the bread”-‘He himself, and not the vaunted manna of their forefathers, was the real bread, which both sustained and imparted life. (These glorified ancestors, by the way, had not always held this manna in such high esteem; cf. Numbers 11:6. It is so easy to enclose the past in a halo.)’ (Hendriksen p. 237)
“came down out of heaven”-indicating Jesus’ heavenly origin. ‘The objections raised in their murmurings prove they understood that He claimed to come from heaven..’ (Harkrider p. 47)
John 6:42 ‘And they were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, “I have come down out of heaven?”’ “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph”-Obviously, these are Galileans from the area where Jesus lived so long. ‘how the son of parents they knew so well can stand before them and expect them to believe his declaration.’ (Lenski p. 473) Let the reader be impressed that it was well-known information that Jesus was the child of Mary and Joseph. Nothing is said about Jesus being illegitimate (a popular claim made various enemies of Christianity). And neither is anything said about Jesus having gone to India and studied under various gurus (the claim of some Reincarnationists). ‘These Jews sound just like our self-styled “modernists” of today who still stumble over the claims of Jesus to be heaven-sent. Today’s skeptics also “know” Joseph (or some other mortal) to be the father of Jesus.’ (Butler p. 245) ‘Their argument was: “We have known him since the days of his childhood; his father, his mother, his family. Yet now that he is grown up, look what happens! He makes extravagant claims. Does he actually expect us to believe them?”’ (Hendriksen p. 238) ‘They were unable to understand how one who was a 1