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Joh_6:30-31. Οὖν ] What doest thou, therefore, as a sign? for they knew well enough that by ὃν ἀπέστ . ἐκεῖνος He meant Himself, and that, too, as Messiah. Hence also the emphatic σύ , thou, on thy part. The question itself does not imply that it is asked by those who had not seen the miraculous feeding the day before (Grotius), or by prominent Jews in the synagogue (Kuinoel, Klee). Moreover, this demand for a sign after the miracle of the feeding must not be regarded as contradictory and unhistorical (Kern, B. Bauer, Weisse), nor as a proof of the non-Johannine origin (Schweizer), or non-miraculous procedure (Schenkel), in the account of the feeding. For the questioners, in their ἀναίσθησις (Chrysostom), indicate at once (Joh_6:31), that having been miraculously fed with earthly food, they, in their desire for miracles, require something higher to warrant their putting the required faith in Him, and expect a sign from heaven, heavenly bread, such as God had given by Moses. Thus they explain their own question, which would be strange only if Joh_6:31 did not immediately follow. Their eagerness for Messianic miraculous attestation (Joh_6:14-15) had grown during the night. This also against De Wette, who, with Weisse, concludes that this discourse was not originally connected with the miraculous feeding; see, on the contrary, Brückner.
τί ἐργάζῃ ] a sarcastic retorting of the form of the requirement given, Joh_6:27; Joh_6:29. Not to be explained as if it were τί σὺ ἐργ . (De Wette), but what dost thou perform (as σημεῖον )?
γεγραμμ .] a free quotation of Psa_78:24; comp. Psa_105:40, Exo_16:4, where the subject of ἔδωκεν is God, but by the medium of Moses, this being taken for granted as known (Joh_6:32). The Jews regarded the dispensing of the manna as the greatest miracle (see Lampe). As they now regarded Moses as in general a type of Christ (Schoettgen, Hor. II. p. 475), they also hoped in particular, “Redemtor prior descendere fecit pro iis manna; sic et redemtor posterior descendere faciet manna.” Midrash Coheleth, f. 86. 4.