John 6:41-51

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. John 6:41 tn Grk “Then the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory, the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus. (For further information see R. G. Bratcher, “‘The Jews’ in the Gospel of John,” BT 26 [1975]: 401-9.) Here the translation restricts the phrase to those Jews who were hostile to Jesus (cf. BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e.β), since the “crowd” mentioned in 6:22-24 was almost all Jewish (as suggested by their addressing Jesus as “Rabbi” (6:25). Likewise, the designation “Judeans” does not fit here because the location is Galilee rather than Judea.
2. John 6:43 tn Grk “answered and said to them.”
3. John 6:43 tn Or “Do not grumble among yourselves.” The words “about me” are supplied to clarify the translation “complain to one another” (otherwise the Jewish opponents could be understood to be complaining about one another, rather than complaining to one another about Jesus).
4. John 6:44 tn Or “attracts him,” or “pulls him.” The word is used of pulling or dragging, often by force. It is even used once of magnetic attraction (A. Oepke, TDNT 2:503).sn The Father who sent me draws him. The author never specifically explains what this “drawing” consists of. It is evidently some kind of attraction; whether it is binding and irresistible or not is not mentioned. But there does seem to be a parallel with 6:65, where Jesus says that no one is able to come to him unless the Father has allowed it. This apparently parallels the use of Isaiah by John to reflect the spiritual blindness of the Jewish leaders (see the quotations from Isaiah in John 9:41 and 12:39-40).
5. John 6:45 sn A quotation from Isa 54:13.
6. John 6:45 tn Or “listens to the Father and learns.”
7. John 6:46 tn Grk “this one.”
8. John 6:46 sn This is best taken as a parenthetical note by the author. Although some would attribute these words to Jesus himself, the switch from first person in Jesus’ preceding and following remarks to third person in v. 46 suggests that the author has added a clarifying comment here.
9. John 6:47 tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”
10. John 6:47 tc Most witnesses (A C² D Ψ ƒ^1,13 33 M lat and other versions) have “in me” (εἰς ἐμέ, eis eme) here, while the Sinaitic and Curetonian Syriac versions read “in God.” These clarifying readings are predictable variants, being motivated by the scribal tendency toward greater explicitness. That the earliest and best witnesses (P^66,75vid א B C* L T W Θ 892) lack any object is solid testimony to the shorter text’s authenticity.
11. John 6:47 tn Cf. John 6:40.
12. John 6:48 tn That is, “the bread that produces (eternal) life.”
13. John 6:49 tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”
14. John 6:50 tn Or “Here.”
15. John 6:50 tn Grk “someone” (τις, tis).
16. John 6:51 tn Grk “And the bread.”