Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

“The man departed, and told, &c.--little thinking how unwelcome his grateful and eager testimony would be. "The darkness received not the light which was pouring its rays upon it" (Joh 1:5, 11) [OLSHAUSEN].”

“And as, instead of instantly disclaiming any such meaning--as He must have done if it was false--He positively sets His seal to it in the following verses, merely explaining how consistent such claim was with the prerogatives of His Father, it is beyond all do…”

“This statement is of immense importance in relation to the miracles of Christ, distinguishing them from similar miracles of prophets and apostles, who as human instruments were employed to perform supernatural actions, while Christ did all as the Father's comm…”

“Here He rises from the calmer phrase "hearing his word" (Joh 5:24), to the grander expression, "hearing the voice of the Son of God," to signify that as it finds men in a dead condition, so it carries with it a resurrection-power. shall live--in the sense o…”

“But as all that Christ says of His essential relation to the Father is intended to explain and exalt His mediatorial functions, so the one seems in our Lord's own mind and language mainly the starting-point of the other.”

“Marvel not at this--this committal of all judgment to the Son of man. for the hour is coming--He adds not in this case (as in Joh 5:25), "and now is," because this was not to be till the close of the whole dispensation of mercy.”

“Ye sent unto John--(See Joh 1:19, &c.). receive not testimony . . . from man--that is, depend not on human testimony. but . . . that ye might be saved--"I refer to him merely to aid your salvation."”

“He was a burning and a shining light--literally, "the burning and shining lamp" (or torch):--that is, "the great light of his day." Christ is never called by the humble word here applied to John--a light-bearer--studiously used to distinguish him from his Mast…”

“I have greater witness--rather, "The witness which I have is greater." the works . . . bear witness of me--not simply as miracles nor even as a miracle of mercy, but these miracles, as He did them, with a will and a power, a majesty and a grace manifestly His…”

“How touching and gracious are these last words! Observe here (1) The honor which Christ gives to the Scriptures, as a record which all have a right and are bound to search--the reverse of which the Church of Rome teaches; (2) The opposite extreme is, resting i…”

“How can ye believe, &c.--(See on Joh 5:40, 41). The "will not" of Joh 5:40, and "cannot" here are just different features of the same awful state of the human heart.”

“Do not think I will accuse you to the Father--"My errand hither is not to collect evidence to condemn you at God's bar." one that accuseth you, even Moses, &c.--"Alas! that will be too well done by another, and him the object of all your religious boastings--…”

“He would appear to them at first like a dark moving speck upon the waters; then as a human figure, but--in the dark tempestuous sky, and not dreaming that it could be their Lord--they take it for a spirit. (How often thus we miscall our chiefest mercies--not o…”

“It is I; be not afraid--Matthew (Mt 14:27) and Mark (Mr 6:50) give before these exhilarating words, that to them well-known one, "Be of good cheer!"”

“These verses are a little involved, from the Evangelist's desire to mention every circumstance, however minute, that might call up the scene as vividly to the reader as it stood before his own view.”

“"Ye seek Me not because ye saw the miracles"--literally, "the signs," that is, supernatural tokens of a higher presence, and a divine commission, "but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled." From this He proceeds at once to that other Bread, just as…”

“This is the work of God, &c.--That lies at the threshold of all acceptable obedience, being not only the prerequisite to it, but the proper spring of it--in that sense, the work of works, emphatically "the work of God."”

“Moses gave you not, &c.--"It was not Moses that gave you the manna, and even it was but from the lower heavens; 'but My Father giveth you the true bread,' and that 'from heaven.'"”

“For the bread of God is he, &c.--This verse is perhaps best left in its own transparent grandeur--holding up the Bread Itself as divine, spiritual, and eternal; its ordained Fountain and essential Substance, "Him who came down from heaven to give it" (that Ete…”

“I am the bread of life--Henceforth the discourse is all in the first person, "I," "Me," which occur in one form or other, as STIER reckons, thirty-five times. he that cometh to me--to obtain what the soul craves, and as the only all-sufficient and ordained so…”

“This "shall" expresses the glorious certainty of it, the Father being pledged to see to it that the gift be no empty mockery. (2) "AND HIM THAT COMETH TO ME I WILL IN NO WISE CAST OUT." As the former was the divine, this is just the human side of the same thin…”

“For I came down from heaven not to do Mine own will--to play an independent part. but--in respect to both the foregoing things, the divine and the human side of salvation. the will of Him that sent Me--What this twofold will of Him that sent Him is, we are n…”

“I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day--The meaning is not, of course, that He is charged to keep the objects entrusted to Him as He received them, so as they should merely suffer nothing in His hands.”

“Every man therefore, &c.--that is, who hath been thus efficaciously taught of Him. cometh unto me--with absolute certainty, yet in the sense above given of "drawing"; that is, "As none can come to Me but as divinely drawn, so none thus drawn shall fail to com…”

“The words "I will give" may be compared with the words of institution at the Supper, "This is My body which is given for you" (Lu 22:19), or in Paul's report of it, "broken for you" (1Co 11:24).”