Yohanes 6:37

6:37 Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never send away. ¹ 

Yohanes 6:60-69

6:60 Then many of his disciples, when they heard these things, ²  said, “This is a difficult ³  saying! ⁴  Who can understand it?” ⁵  6:61 When Jesus was aware ⁶  that his disciples were complaining ⁷  about this, he said to them, “Does this cause you to be offended? ⁸  6:62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascending where he was before? ⁹  6:63 The Spirit is the one who gives life; human nature is of no help! ¹⁰  The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. ¹¹  6:64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus had already known from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) ¹²  6:65 So Jesus added, ¹³  “Because of this I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has allowed him to come.” ¹⁴ 

Peter’s Confession

6:66 After this many of his disciples quit following him ¹⁵  and did not accompany him ¹⁶  any longer. 6:67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?” ¹⁷  6:68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. 6:69 We ¹⁸  have come to believe and to know ¹⁹  that you are the Holy One of God!” ²⁰ 

[6:37]  ¹ tn Or “drive away”; Grk “cast out.”

[6:60]  ² tn The words “these things” are not present in the Greek text but are implied. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context, and must be supplied for the English reader.

[6:60]  ³ tn Or “hard,” “demanding.”

[6:60]  ⁴ tn Or “teaching”; Grk “word.”

[6:60]  ⁵ tn Or “obey it”; Grk “hear it.” The Greek word ἀκούω (akouw) could imply hearing with obedience here, in the sense of “obey.” It could also point to the acceptance of what Jesus had just said, (i.e., “who can accept what he said?” However, since the context contains several replies by those in the crowd of hearers that suggest uncertainty or confusion over the meaning of what Jesus had said (6:42; 6:52), the meaning “understand” is preferred here.

[6:61]  ⁶ tn Grk “When Jesus knew within himself.”

[6:61]  ⁷ tn Or “were grumbling.”

[6:61]  ⁸ tn Or “Does this cause you to no longer believe?” (Grk “cause you to stumble?”)

[6:61]  sn Does this cause you to be offended? It became apparent to some of Jesus’ followers at this point that there would be a cost involved in following him. They had taken offense at some of Jesus’ teaching (perhaps the graphic imagery of “eating his flesh” and “drinking his blood,” and Jesus now warned them that if they thought this was a problem, there was an even worse cause for stumbling in store: his upcoming crucifixion (John 6:61b-62). Jesus asked, in effect, “Has what I just taught caused you to stumble? What will you do, then, if you see the Son of Man ascending where he was before?” This ascent is to be accomplished through the cross; for John, Jesus’ departure from this world and his return to the Father form one continual movement from cross to resurrection to ascension.

[6:62]  ⁹ tn Or “he was formerly?”

[6:63]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “the flesh counts for nothing.”

[6:63]  ¹¹ tn Or “are spirit-giving and life-producing.”

[6:64]  ¹² sn This is a parenthetical comment by the author.

[6:65]  ¹³ tn Grk “And he said”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:65]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “unless it has been permitted to him by the Father.”

[6:66]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “many of his disciples went back to what lay behind.”

[6:66]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “were not walking with him.”

[6:67]  ¹⁷ tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here it is “do you?”).

[6:69]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “And we.”

[6:69]  ¹⁹ sn See 1 John 4:16.

[6:69]  ²⁰ tc The witnesses display a bewildering array of variants here. Instead of “the Holy One of God” (ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ, Jo {agio" tou qeou), Tertullian has ὁ Χριστός (Jo Cristo", “the Christ”); C³ Θ* ˹ 33 565 lat read ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ (Jo Cristo" Jo Juio" tou qeou, “the Christ, the Son of God”); two versional witnesses (b sy^c) have ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ (“the Son of God”); the Byzantine text as well as many others (Ψ 0250 ˹³ 33 Ï) read ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος (Jo Cristo" Jo Juio" tou qeou tou zwnto", “the Christ, the Son of the living God”); and Ì⁶⁶ as well as a few versions have ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ (“the Christ, the Holy One of God”). The reading ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ is, however, well supported by Ì⁷⁵ א B C* D L W as well as versional witnesses. It appears that Peter’s confession in the Synoptic Gospels (especially Matt 16:16) supplied the motivation for the variations. Although the witnesses in Matt 16:16; Mark 8:29; and Luke 9:20 vary considerably, the readings are all intra-synoptic, that is, they do not pull in “the Holy One of God” but reflect various permutations of “Christ”/“Christ of God”/“Christ, the Son of God”/“Christ, the Son of the living God.” The wording “the Holy One of God” (without “Christ”) in important witnesses here is thus unique among Peter’s confessions, and best explains the rise of the other readings.

[6:69]  sn You have the words of eternal life…you are the Holy One of God! In contrast to the response of some of his disciples, here is the response of the twelve, whom Jesus then questioned concerning their loyalty to him. This was the big test, and the twelve, with Peter as spokesman, passed with flying colors. The confession here differs considerably from the synoptic accounts (Matt 16:16, Mark 8:29, and Luke 9:20) and concerns directly the disciples’ personal loyalty to Jesus, in contrast to those other disciples who had deserted him (John 6:66).