John 6 is the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records Jesus' miracles of feeding the five thousand and walking on water, the Bread of Life Discourse, popular rejection of his teaching, and Peter's confession of faith. The final verses anticipate Jesus' betrayal by Judas Iscariot.Halley, Henry H. Halley's Bible Handbook: an Abbreviated Bible Commentary. 23rd edition. Zondervan Publishing House. 1962.
The gospel identifies an unnamed "disciple whom Jesus loved" as its source and possible author.Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. "John" pp. 302–10 Early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that John composed this Gospel.Holman Illustrated Bible Handbook. Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. 2012.
Text The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 71 verses. Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are: Papyrus 75 (AD 175–225) Papyrus 66 ( 200) Papyrus 28 ( 250) Codex Vaticanus (325–350) Codex Sinaiticus (330–360) Codex Bezae ( 400) Codex Alexandrinus (400–440; extant verses 1–49) Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus ( 450; extant: verses 39–71)
Some writers place this chapter ahead of John 5. Swedish-based commentator considers the case for this reordering unproven, but he does recognise that chapter 6 may have been inserted into a putative second edition of the gospel.Kieffer, R., 60. John, in Barton, J. and Muddiman, J. (2001), The Oxford Bible Commentary , p. 969, 971 H. W. Watkins, in Charles Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers (1905), considered whether "a portion of the Gospel between John 5 and 6 has been lost", but treats this as a "purely arbitrary supposition".Watkins, H. W. (1906), Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers on John 6, accessed 12 March 2016
Old Testament references
: ; ; Psalm ;
New Testament references : – "He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him."
Places Events recorded in this chapter refer to the following locations in Galilee: on a mountain in a deserted place, probably to the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee (or "Sea of Tiberias") ( and ) on the Sea of Galilee itself (John 6:16–21a) in Capernaum (John 6:21b, 6:24 and 6:59).
Boats which had come from Tiberias and sail onwards to Capernaum are also mentioned ().
Structure Kieffer describes this chapter as "a well-defined unit". The New King James Version organises it as follows: : Feeding the five thousand : Jesus walks on the sea : The Bread from Heaven : Rejected by his own : Many disciples turn away
Alfred Plummer, in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, prefers not to break up the text from to , arguing that this text "forms one connected discourse spoken at one time in the synagogue at Capernaum".Plummer, A., Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges on John 6, published 1902, accessed 12 March 2016
Introduction The events recorded in chapter 5 are set in Jerusalem. As chapter 6 opens, the setting has moved to the Sea of Galilee, further north.Using modern Highway 90: source: Google Maps "After these things Jesus went over (or away to) the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias" (New King James Version and English Standard Version texts). The Greek text reads μετα ταυτα (meta tauta, "after these things"). The New International Version translates these words as "some time after this" to remove any suggestion that the transition is immediate.
Plummer observes that "the scene shifts suddenly from Judaea to Galilee; but we are told nothing about the transit. We see more and more as we go on, that this Gospel makes no attempt to be a complete or connected whole. There are large gaps in the chronology."
Jesus travels over, or beyond (), the lake: presumably from west to east. This is Albert Barnes' view,Barnes, A., Barnes' Notes on John 6, accessed on 28 July 2024 and that of Plummer. A large crowd has followed Jesus, attracted by his healings, which the Gospel describes as "signs" () - a distinctive word and theme in John's Gospel. Jesus ascends the mountain and sits with his disciples - a similar setting to the opening of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's Gospel (), in contrast to the Gospel of Luke, where the comparable event is known as the Sermon on the Plain ().
Verse 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.: ESV This is the first reference in John's Gospel to the crowds who follow Jesus. In the synoptic gospels, reference is made to "the crowds" from relatively early within each evangelist's account of Jesus' ministry (Matthew 4:25, Mark 2:2ff, and Luke 4:42).
Verse 3 And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.: NKJV Watkins suggests that "the mountain" refers to "the hill-country" to the east of the lake, rather than to a specific mountain. The Complete Jewish Bible in like manner states that Jesus "went up into the hills".: Complete Jewish Bible
Verse 4 Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.: NKJV The wording is similar to John 2:13, when "the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem";: English Standard Version here the words are not a mere chronological note,Meyer, H. A. W., Meyer's NT Commentary on John 6, accessed 11 November 2020 but, according to Watkins, a key to the interpretation of the passage. John Chrysostom asked his hearers to consider what had unfolded between the Passover of John 2 and this one, presumably one year later: only two "miracles" or "principal acts" have been recorded as taking place over this time.John Chrysostom, Homily 42:1, quoted by Thomas Aquinas in Catena aurea: commentary on the four Gospels, collected out of the works of the Fathers: Volume 6, St. John, p.209, published in 1874, accessed on 4 September 2025 For Kieffer, "the approach of Passover in chapter 6 anticipates the last Passover" in chapters 13-17.
Feeding the five thousand Jesus sees the multitude coming towards him, and wants to feed them and to test his disciples, in this case Philip and Andrew. Unlike the other evangelists, John does not present the feeding of the multitude in an 'evening' setting: in , "it was evening ... already late"; in , "the day was now far spent", and in "the day had begun to wear away". John advises his readers that "the Passover, a feast of the Jews, is approaching", but he does not refer to a journey to Jerusalem for the feast (compare ). According to the narrative of chapters 6 and 7, Jesus and his disciples did not visit Jerusalem for the Passover that year at all: they remain in Galilee until relates a discussion as to whether they should go to Jerusalem for the subsequent Feast of Tabernacles.
In verse 5, Jesus asks Philip where they could buy sufficient bread for the crowd, assuming that the crowd (apart from one boy) had not brought their own provisions. Methodist minister Joseph Benson suggested that Jesus "addressed himself to Philip particularly, because he, being a native of Bethsaida, was best acquainted with that country",Benson Commentary on John 6, accessed 16 March 2016 although according to , Peter and Andrew were also from Bethsaida. Philip may have been the group member who looked after their money and "the care of the supply of provisions",Bengel's Gnomen on John 6, accessed 18 March 2016 as he was aware that they held 200 denarii between them (), although attributes this responsibility to Judas Iscariot. The evangelist notes in verse 6 that the question was put to Philip "to test him": theologian Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer thinks this was not a test of faith: rather, "we might say" that "it was because Philip had to be tested according to his intellectual idiosyncrasy", noting Philip's train of thought in John 14:8ff, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.": NKJV Conversely, some writers, including Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg and Albert Barnes, hold that the wording does indicate a trial of Philip's faith, while Eugene H. Peterson suggests that Jesus' intention is "to stretch Philip's faith".: paraphrase in The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (1993, 2002, 2018), accessed on 28 July 2024
Philip "swiftly calculates" that "two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for [the crowd], that every one of them may have a little". According to , the labourers in the parable of the labourers in the vineyard were paid one denarius per day, so 200 denarii would equate to 200 days' labour, hence the New International Version translates Philip's reply as "It would take more than half a year's wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite" and in the New Living Translation his words are "Even if we worked for months, we wouldn't have enough money to feed them!" In the King James Version, 200 denarii was rendered as "200 pennyworth".
Andrew, one of Jesus' disciples, Simon Peter's brother, said to Jesus: "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?". It is curious that Andrew is "introduced" here to the reader, "in apparent forgetfulness" Expositor's Greek Testament on John 6, accessed 19 March 2016 that an introduction has already been given in , where he was the first of John the Baptist's disciples to follow Jesus and where he himself went to find Peter. Some texts state that there was "one boy" (), but the ('one') "is rejected by modern editors". Watkins notes that where it appears in some manuscripts, it conveys a sense of "One lad! What could he bear for so many?" The word occurs only here in the New Testament, and in Matthew's account the disciples themselves "have only five loaves and two fish", prompting theologian John Gill to suggest that the boy may have "belonged to Christ and his disciples, and was employed to carry their provisions for them".Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible on John 6, accessed 19 March 2016
No-one suggests going to the nearby lake to catch extra fish, but Jesus' actions show that the small supply of bread and fish is sufficient: he instructs his disciples to "make the people sit down" and "having given thanks" (, 'eucharistēsas', from which the word Eucharist is derived) for the bread and likewise for the fish, he gave them to his disciples to distribute among the crowd.Many versions do not state that the disciples distributed the food for Jesus. Plummer suggests that giving thanks for the food was not only the customary thanksgiving for food but also "the means of the miracle" taking place, because (1) all four [gospel] narratives notice it; (2) it is pointedly mentioned again in :
After the meal, the fragments of the barley loaves which were left over were collected by the disciples and found to have filled twelve baskets. According to the Pulpit Commentary, "the number 'twelve' naturally suggests that each one of the twelve apostles had been employed in the collection of the fragments",Pulpit Commentary on John 6, accessed 25 March 2016 although at this stage in the Gospel, "the twelve" have not yet been mentioned. Lutheran theologian Christoph Luthardt linked the twelve baskets to the twelve tribes of Israel.
Prophet and King 14 Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, "This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world." 15 Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.: NKJV