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Joh_6:22-24. The complicated sentence (so seldom occurring in John; comp. Joh_13:1 ff., 1Jn_1:1 ff.) here proceeds in such a manner that the ὁ ὄχλος which, without further government, stands at the head as the subject of the whole, is again taken up[230] in Joh_6:24 by ὅτι οὖν εἶδεν ὁ ὄχλος , while Joh_6:23 is a parenthesis, preparing the way for the passing over of the people in the following clause. The participial clause, ἸΔῺΝ ὍΤΙ … ἈΠῆΛΘΟΝ , is subordinate to the ἙΣΤΗΚῺς ΠΈΡΑΝ Τ . ΘΑΛ ., and gives the explanation why the people expected Jesus on the next day still on the east side of the lake. John’s narrative accordingly runs thus: “The next day, the people who were on the other side of the lake, because (on the previous evening, Joh_6:16 f.) they had seen that no other ship was there save only the one, and that Jesus did not get into the ship with His disciples, but that His disciples only sailed away, [but other ships came from Tiberias near to the place, etc.],—when now the people saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples,[231] finding themselves mistaken in their expectation of meeting with Him still on the eastern shore, they themselves embarked in the ships,” etc. As to details, observe further, (1) that πέραν τ . θαλ . in Joh_6:22 means the eastern side of the lake in Joh_6:1, but in Joh_6:25 the western; (2) that ἰδών is spoken with reference to the previous day, when the multitude had noticed the departure of the disciples in the evening, so that the conjecture of εἰδώς (Ewald) is unnecessary; that, on the contrary, ὅτι οὖν εἶδεν , Joh_6:24, indicates that they became aware to-day,—a difference which is the point in the cumbrously constructed sentence that most easily misleads the reader; (3) that the transit of the ships from Tiberias, Joh_6:23, occurred while the people were still on the eastern shore, and gave them an appropriate opportunity, when they were undeceived in their expectation, of looking for Jesus on the western shore; (4) that αὐτοί , ipsi, indicates that, instead of waiting longer for Jesus to come to them, they themselves set out, and availed themselves of the opportunity presented of looking for Jesus on the other side, by embarking in the ships that had arrived, and sailing across to Capernaum, the well-known place of our Lord’s abode; (5) that the circumstantial character of the description of things throughout indicates the vivid communication of an eye-witness, which John had received, and does not permit of our taking the transit of the people (which, however, must not be pressed as including the whole 5000) as invented to confirm the story of the walking on the sea (Strauss).
[230] On the usual resumptive οὖν , see Winer, p. 414; Baeumlein, Partik. p. 177.
[231] Jesus was not there, because, though they did not think of His going away, He did not show Himself anywhere; the disciples were not, because they could not have remained unobserved if they had come back again from the other side; and such a return could not have taken place in the ἄλλοις πλοιαρίοις , for these latter came not from Capernaum, but from Tiberias.