Yohanes 6:26-38

6:26 Jesus replied, ¹  “I tell you the solemn truth, ²  you are looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate all the loaves of bread you wanted. ³  6:27 Do not work for the food that disappears, ⁴  but for the food that remains to eternal life – the food ⁵  which the Son of Man will give to you. For God the Father has put his seal of approval on him.” ⁶ 

6:28 So then they said to him, “What must we do to accomplish the deeds ⁷  God requires?” ⁸  6:29 Jesus replied, ⁹  “This is the deed ¹⁰  God requires ¹¹  – to believe in the one whom he ¹²  sent.” 6:30 So they said to him, “Then what miraculous sign will you perform, so that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 6:31 Our ancestors ¹³  ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” ¹⁴ 

6:32 Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the solemn truth, ¹⁵  it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but my Father is giving you the true bread from heaven. 6:33 For the bread of God is the one who ¹⁶  comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 6:34 So they said to him, “Sir, ¹⁷  give us this bread all the time!”

6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty. ¹⁸  6:36 But I told you ¹⁹  that you have seen me ²⁰  and still do not believe. 6:37 Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never send away. ²¹  6:38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.

[6:26]  ¹ tn Grk “answered and said to them.”

[6:26]  ² tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[6:26]  ³ tn Grk “because you ate of the loaves of bread and were filled.”

[6:27]  ⁴ tn Or “perishes” (this might refer to spoiling, but is more focused on the temporary nature of this kind of food).

[6:27]  sn Do not work for the food that disappears. Note the wordplay on “work” here. This does not imply “working” for salvation, since the “work” is later explained (in John 6:29) as “to believe in the one whom he (the Father) sent.”

[6:27]  ⁵ tn The referent (the food) has been specified for clarity by repeating the word “food” from the previous clause.

[6:27]  ⁶ tn Grk “on this one.”

[6:28]  ⁷ tn Grk “the works.”

[6:28]  ⁸ tn Grk “What must we do to work the works of God?”

[6:29]  ⁹ tn Grk “answered and said to them.”

[6:29]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “the work.”

[6:29]  ¹¹ tn Grk “This is the work of God.”

[6:29]  ¹² tn Grk “that one” (i.e., God).

[6:31]  ¹³ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[6:31]  ¹⁴ sn A quotation from Ps 78:24 (referring to the events of Exod 16:4-36).

[6:32]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[6:33]  ¹⁶ tn Or “he who.”

[6:34]  ¹⁷ tn Or “Lord.” The Greek κύριος (kurios) means both “Sir” and “Lord.” In this passage it is not at all clear at this point that the crowd is acknowledging Jesus as Lord. More likely this is simply a form of polite address (“sir”).

[6:35]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “the one who believes in me will not possibly thirst, ever.”

[6:35]  sn The one who believes in me will never be thirsty. Note the parallelism between “coming to Jesus” in the first part of v. 35 and “believing in Jesus” in the second part of v. 35. For the author of the Gospel of John these terms are virtually equivalent, both referring to a positive response to Jesus (see John 3:17-21).

[6:36]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “But I said to you.”

[6:36]  ²⁰ tc A few witnesses lack με (me, “me”; א A a b e q sy^s,c), while the rest of the tradition has the word (Ì^66,75vid rell). It is possible that the mss that lack the pronoun preserve the original wording here, with the rest of the witnesses adding the pronoun for clarity’s sake. This likelihood increases since the object is not required in Greek. Without it, however, ambiguity increases: The referent could be “me” or it could be “signs,” reaching back to vv. 26 and 30. However, the oblique form of ἐγώ (egw, the first person personal pronoun) occurs some two dozen times in this chapter alone, yet it vacillates between the emphatic form and the unemphatic form. Although generally the unemphatic form is used with verbs, there are several exceptions to this in John (cf. 8:12; 12:26, 45, 48; 13:20; 14:9). If the pronoun is a later addition here, one wonders why it is so consistently the unemphatic form in the mss. Further, that two unrelated Greek witnesses lack this small word could easily be due to accidental deletion. Finally, the date and diversity of the witnesses for the pronoun are so weighty that it is likely to be authentic and should thus be retained in the text.

[6:37]  ²¹ tn Or “drive away”; Grk “cast out.”