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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - John 6:5 - 6:5
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5. ἔρχεται. Is coming; present of graphic description. The quiet which He sought is being invaded; yet He welcomes the opportunity and at once surrenders His rest to His Father’s work, as in the case of Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman. But why does He address Philip? Because he was nearest to Him; or because his forward spirit (Joh 14:8) needed to be convinced of its own helplessness; or because, as living on the lake (Joh 1:44), he would know the neighbourhood. Any or all of these suggestions may be correct. Throughout we see how Jesus uses events for the education of His disciples. As Judas kept the purse it is not likely that Philip commonly provided food for the party. A more important question remains: “we notice that the impulse to the performance of the miracle comes in the Synoptists from the disciples; in S. John, solely from our Lord Himself.” This is difference, but not contradiction: S. John’s narrative does not preclude the possibility of the disciples having spontaneously applied to Christ for help either before or after this conversation with Philip. “For the rest the superiority in distinctness and precision is all on the side of S. John. He knows to whom the question was put; he knows exactly what Philip answered; and again the remark of Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.… Some memories are essentially pictorial; and the Apostle’s appears to have been one of these. It is wonderful with what precision every stroke is thrown in. Most minds would have become confused in reproducing events which had occurred so long ago; but there is no confusion here” (Sanday).
ἀγοράσωμεν. Must we buy: deliberative subjunctive.