Lange Commentary - John 6:14 - 6:21

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Lange Commentary - John 6:14 - 6:21


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

2. The Miraculous Withdrawal Over The Sea

Joh_6:14-21

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

See the parallels in Mat_14:22-33; and Mar_6:45-56. [Omitted by Luke. Alford: “An important and interesting question arises, Why is this miracle here inserted by St. John? That he ever inserts for the mere purpose of narration, I cannot believe. The reason seems to me to be this: to give to the Twelve, in the prospect of so apparently strange a discourse respecting His Body, a view of the truth respecting that Body, that it and the things said of it were not to be understood in a gross corporeal, but in a supernatural and spiritual sense. And their very terror and reassurance, tended to impress that confidence in Him which kept them firm, when many left Him, Joh_6:66.”—P. S.]

Joh_6:14. The Prophet that is to come.—This denotes here not the fore-runner, but the Messiah, referring to Deu_18:15; as is proved (1) by the addition: “that should come into the world;” (2) by the inclination to make Him a king.

Joh_6:15. Take him by force.—Carry Him forcibly into their circle, and conduct Him in triumph—in order to make Him a king; as festival pilgrims, lead Him to Zion in triumphal procession. The arbitrary, confused, and premature idea of the subsequent triumphal entry.

He withdrew again into the mountain. The ðÜëéí denotes not only return to the mountain, but also a second withdrawal of Himself from the pressure of the people. He sought solitude, to escape the people; but this of course does not exclude His sanctifying the solitude by prayer.

Joh_6:16. And when evening came.—It would not appear from Joh_6:17, but it certainly does from the parallels, that this was the “second evening,” i.e., the later even-tide, from the decline of the day till night.

Joh_6:17. Having entered a ship.—The ἐìâÜíôåò before ἤñ÷ïíôï is hardly intended to repeat once more that they had already gone to sea which had been said in Joh_6:16, but to express that, after embarking, they took an involuntary course, driven by a fearful storm. See Com. on Matthew and Mark on the passage. According to Mark the disciples were to go before the Lord in the direction of Bethsaida. This must mean the eastern Bethsaida, not the western, because the return itself was to Capernaum; therefore a coast-wise passage northerly is intended. Christ wished to embark in a solitary place, unseen by the people. The storm intervened; the disciples were driven out into the midst of the sea. Then Jesus came to them on the sea; i.e., He met them as a helper in their distress under a contrary wind; not merely went after them as they were driving with a favorable wind. [Dr. Thomson (The Land and the Book, 2 p. 30) maintains, in opposition to the usual view, that there was but one Bethsaida, and that it was situated at the entrance of the Jordan into the lake, a few miles north-east of Tell Hûm, the supposed present site of Capernaum. The disciples would naturally sail from the southeast toward Bethsaida in order to reach Capernaum.—P. S.]

And Jesus had not yet come to them.—As the disciples were not expecting Jesus to walk on the sea, the “yet” has been found troublesome, and has been dropped. But the sentence means: They had not yet been able to take up Jesus according to the original plan of the voyage. [See Text. Notes.]

Joh_6:18. And the sea began to rise.—An explanation of their misfortune. We repeat: A violent gale, by which they would have come immediately twenty or thirty furlongs westward, could not have been to them a contrary wind, if they had intended to go westward without Jesus.

Joh_6:19. Five and twenty or thirty furlongs.—The lake was forty stadii wide (Joseph. De Bell. Jud. III., 10, 11). The indefinite measure is very graphic; it reflects the situation: Darkness and an angry sea, in which accurate measurement of distance was impossible at the time. Matthew says “the midst” of the sea, Joh_14:24; denoting, however, an earlier moment, when Jesus was still on the shore. John marks the later moment, at which the disciples saw the Lord. The óôÜäéïí is a Greek measure (Luther: Feldweg, furlong). Eight stadia made a Roman mile. A stadium is the fortieth part of a geographical or German mile [a little less than an eighth of an English mile, and nearly equal to the English furlong; so that the twenty-five or thirty stadia would come between three and four miles.—E. D. Y.]. Of the full two leagues’ breadth of the lake the ship had therefore already passed a league and a quarter or a league and a half.

They behold Jesus.—Graphic present. And they ware afraid.—Moderate expression of a powerful feeling. Compare the synoptical Evangelists. So little had they expected His coming to them in this way.

Joh_6:21. Then they desired to receive him.—They still desired to take Him into the ship; that is, they still stood to their purpose. In the effort to take up the Lord on the eastern shore, the ship had already gone nearly to the western. The Evangelist finds it superfluous to state that the Lord now embarked, and sailed the small remaining distance with the disciples. He likewise passes over the falling of the wind.

According to the usual view of the event, in which Jesus went after the disciples, instead of meeting them, the expression of John is very hard to be explained. And here again Meyer (after the example of Lücke and De Wette) brings out a collision with the synoptical Evangelists. “They wished to take Him into the ship, and immediately (before they carried out the ἐèÝëåéí ) the ship was at the land.” He seems even to introduce here a wondrous agency of Jesus bringing the ship immediately to land, notwithstanding its distance of five or ten stadia and the “surging ” of the sea. “An unfortunate attempt at harmony [it is then said by Meyer, p. 255, 5th ed.]: They willingly received Him (Beza, Grotius, Kuinoel, Ammon, and many others; see against it Winer, p. 436); which is not helped by the assumed antithesis of a previous unwillingness (Ebrard, Tholuck).” The sentence says simply this: They were still occupied with the effort to take Him up on the eastern coast, when by this miraculous intervention of Christ they at once reached the western side.

The ὑðῆãïí , in the versions and expositions, to a great extent fails of its full force. It often denotes a secret, skilful or mysterious removal, escape, or disappearance. And so especially here, where the Lord was put upon extreme deliberation, and could properly use a miracle to rid Him of the multitude. If they still followed Him in spite of all, we must consider that certainly all could not follow Him in the boats which had come from Tiberias, and that Christ still found it necessary in the synagogue at Capernaum to put off the people by meeting them sternly and with the boldest declarations.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The culmination of the enthusiasm of the Galilean populace for Jesus is here brought out, and by John alone, with great distinctness. The great popular mass, a host of five thousand chiliastically excited men, would violently lift a Messianic standard with Him and for Him. But because Jesus cannot yield Himself to this project, the culmination of their enthusiasm is at the same time its turning-point.

2. In respect to the miracle of Christ’s walking on the sea; compare the Com. on Matthew and Mark.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The misinterpretation of the divine sign of Christ by the perverseness of earthly-minded men.—They draw from the sign a correct conclusion (a true doctrine) and a false application (a false moral).—So with orthodox faith a false (ecclesiastical or secular) morality is often associated.—The flight of Jesus before the revolutionary design of the people: It occasions (1) His retiring in solitude to the mountain; (2) His sending the disciples before Him with the ship; (3) His hastening in the night, ghostlike, over the sea.—Jesus on the mountain above the political designs of men; He alone: 1. He alone the free One, who is more a king than any prince of earth. 2. He alone the clear-sighted One, who sees far above all craftiness of policy. 3. He alone the silent but decisive Disposer of all things.—The flight from the sedition and tumult: 1. The flight of Christianity (Christ). 2. The flight of the Church (the ship).—The disciples in the ship, driven from east to west, a foreshadowing of the fortunes of the church.—The miracle of the walking on the sea, as to its holy motives: Occasioned (1) by a holy flight; (2) by a holy solicitude.—Christ’s superiority to nature.—Christ the sea-king (He, not Mary, the true Stella Maris).—Christ as master of the water—the helper in perils of the sea (not the holy Nepomuc).—Christ the helper in perils of water and of fire.—While they were wishing to take Him up on the eastern shore, they were ready to land on the western.—The hour when the Church becomes perfectly joyful in the presence of her Lord in this world, is the hour when she lands on the shore of the other.—How the Lord suddenly puts an end to the reverses of His people.—Every new necessity of the Christian, a new revelation of the glory of Christ. Every new necessity of man, a new revelation of the miraculous help of God.—Perils of the night; perils of storm; perils of the sea. Sufferings from night, from storm, and from sea; Christ, the Deliverer.

Starke: God’s wonders among them that go down to the sea in ships. Psa_107:23.—Pro_30:19.—Wis_14:3.—Be not troubled when thou must journey from one place to another, etc. The goal is all rest.—Comest thou into a dark night of tribulation, etc.: Jesus is there.—The perils of one’s calling.—Good fortune is followed again by ill; but to believers all is for the best.—Canstein: Christ lets His people come almost to extremity, but then loses not a moment. —In our troubles we commonly set God before us in a different character from the true; as an object of terror.—Zeisius: What a mighty hero is thy Saviour and mine!—Quesnel: Christ’s word and presence make everything good and tranquil again.—Cramer: Christ has more ways of helping than one.—Zeisius: Thus the saints come through great storms and trouble to the haven of eternal peace and safety.—Gossner: When Christ is in the ship, the ship receives more help from Him than He from it. So is everything which we call the service of God more profitable to the servant than to the Lord whom he serves.—Heubner: Distance, mountain, and sea cannot separate Him from His.—Schleiermacher: We see here at first a certain dependence on an immediate and bodily presence, which is always united with a certain want of faith in the spiritual, and of a sense of spiritual power and agency.—Schenkel: How do we stand towards Christ? (1) So as to have Him flee from us? (2) Or so as to have Him come to us?

[Wordsworth: Joh_6:20. “I am ( Ἐãþ åἰìé ), the Ever-living One, Jehovah, the Author of Life. I am always at hand and never pass by you, therefore be not afraid, but trust in Me. Our Lord allows us to be in trial and danger, to struggle in the storm, to endure for a long time, in order that our patience and perseverance and faith may be proved, and that we may resort to Him who alone can save us. We are often in darkness and in storms, and the devil and evil men assail and affright us: but let us listen to Christ’s voice, ἘãÝ åἰìé , ìὴ öïâåῖóèå , and when human help fails, then divine aid will come. Terrors pass by, but Christ never passes by. He ever says, ‘It is I.’ I am He who always am, who ever remain; therefore have faith in Me. And if we are rowing in the Apostolic Ship of the Church, doing our duty there in our respective callings, and if we desire to receive Christ into the Ship, He will not only quell the storm, but give us a fair breeze, and we shall soon be at the harbor where we would be—the calm harbor of heavenly peace. They who are in the Ship, and are rowing in the storm; they who labor in the Church, and continue in good works to the end, will receive Christ, and will at length arrive at the waveless haven of everlasting life.”—A fine Greek poem of Anatolius on Christ in the tempest, translated by J. M. Neale: “Fierce was the wild billow” (see Schaff’s Christ in Song, p. 451).—P. S.]

Footnotes:

[According to Robinson, the lake is about twelve English miles long, and five or six broad.—P. S.]