But the crowd doesn’t 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 living bread.

John 6.29-36.

To recap: The crowd of Galileans whom Jesus and his students fed literal bread were fixated on this literal bread. Plus the idea Jesus is the Prophet-Like-Moses who, according to Pharisees, would feed them literal bread during the End Times—but not so much that as the bread. (Hey, unlimited food is a big deal to a poor community!) Whereas Jesus told ’em to not seek bread; seek “the living bread,” i.e. him.

Well they didn’t want him. They wanted actual, literal bread. They wanted a thing, not a person. They wanted to fill their bellies, not to pursue a relationship with the Son of Man.

So the discussion with these Galileans deteriorated from there. I should point out John refers to them in this story as Ἰουδαῖοι/Yudéï, “Judeans,” and no, he’s not mixing up the province they’re in. The word means both “Judeans” and “Jews,” and of course they’re Jews—and they’re descended from Judeans. About a century before, some Judeans chose to go north—farther north than the province of Samaria—and re-settle any available territory which used to be part of the kingdom of northern Israel. This became the Galilee. They’re Galilean Jews, same as Jesus.

Anyway. In verse 29, which I’ll repeat today, Jesus tells ’em they have to trust the Son of Man, i.e. “that man he sends.” (Jesus likes to refers to himself in the third person, y’know. And it doesn’t confuse the Galileans at all; they respond to Jesus in verse 30 about trusting “you,” i.e. the man God sent. All my life I’ve heard Christians claim part of the reason the Galileans reacted to Jesus the way they did, was Jesus was somehow way too difficult for them to understand; that his metaphors went right over their heads. That’s not what the text shows at all. They were following Jesus’s train of thought just fine. Following him personally, however, they balked at. Free bread is one thing, but following Jesus? They didn’t wanna sign up for that.

I’ve also shared John 6 with pagans. And they understood it just fine as well. John didn’t write it in complex, hard-to-translate Greek; beginning Greek students can translate this no problem. Nope; it’s not at all about misunderstanding Jesus. It’s about understanding him—and then rejecting him.

John 6.29-36 KWL

29In reply Jesus tells them, “This is God’s work.

So you should trust in that man he sends.”

30So the crowd tells Jesus,

“So what sign do you¹ do

so we might see it

and might trust you¹?

What are you¹ doing?”

31Our forefathers ate manna in the wilderness,

just as it’s written,

‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” Ps 78.24

32So Jesus tells them, “Amen amen!

I promise you Moses didn’t give you² bread from heaven.

But my Father gives you² true bread from heaven.

33For God’s bread is the one

who comes down from heaven,

and who gives life to the world.”

34So the crowd tells Jesus,

“Master, always give us this bread!”

35Jesus tells them, “I’m the living bread.

One who comes to me ought not hunger.

One who trusts in me ought not thirst.

36But I tell you² that you² also saw me—

and you² don’t trust me.”

Jesus himself, right there in verse 36, says so. They saw him. This crowd was right there when he and his kids fed 5,000-plus people. They know what he did; they know what he can do. But they don’t trust him enough to follow him any further. They only wanted bread. Same as any selfish, materialistic Christian who only follows Jesus for prosperity, political might, a mansion in heaven, social acceptance, to feel spiritual, to feel justified, or any of the other ulterior motives which cause people to embrace Christianity—but not Jesus.

“What sign do you do?”

As you know, this whole situation began with Jesus feeding the 5,000. These Galileans were part of the 5,000. They saw him do that miracle. They held that miracle in their hands, and ate it.

And now they’re asking Jesus, “So… what sign are you gonna do for us to prove we should trust you?”

I know; you just wanna throw up your hands at this level of willful stupidity. He just did a sign. A really big one. Not on the level of the LORD feeding the entire nation of Israel with manna for 40 years, but certainly bigger than Elisha ben Šafat feeding 100 prophets with 20 loaves. 2Ki 4.42-44 Way more people; way fewer loaves. That should indicate Jesus was granted power by his Father. Now, follow him for a bit, like his students did, and same as he told Nathanael, you’ll see more than that. Jn 1.50

Obviously they brought up manna because they were kinda hoping Jesus would feed them more than once. The manna wasn’t a one-time feeding, you recall. Four decades. An entire generation of Israelis experienced God providing them food six days a week. They wanted to be fed like that. I get why; I used to get free groceries when I was poor. It’s a blessing. But I remember plenty of other people who got free groceries along with me, who didn’t really appreciate it as a blessing; they were choosy. And kinda greedy. Some people are like that. These Galileans trying to get bread out of Jesus: Definitely like that.

In any case they didn’t honestly want a miracle that’d prove Jesus is a prophet sent by God, or even Messiah. They just wanted a repeat. Feed the 5,000 again—and again and again and again, and they won’t have to farm anymore.

When Jesus talks about bread that gives life to the world, they say the same thing as the Samaritan when Jesus told her about living water: “Gimme!” Jn 4.15 But unlike the Samaritan, they didn’t really want the greater thing Jesus is offering. They wanted the lesser thing, and nothing more.

That’s why Jesus responds, “But I tell you that you also saw me—and you don’t trust me.” Jn 6.36 He’s not naïve about how they’re gonna respond to his invitation. He knows their motives; he knows they have no real interest in his living bread; he knows they have no real interest in him. He knows just as much as all the Christians who claim they’d follow Jesus anywhere, but don’t love their neighbors, don’t do good works, and are only interested in living like a trillionaire in heaven. They trust Jesus for that, but nothing else, which is why you see no obedience from them on earth, and all sorts of loopholes to justify their blatant disobedience. They don’t want living bread either.

“Wasn’t really bread from heaven.”

Often Jesus makes Amen statements: He states, Ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν/Amín légo ymín, “Amen I say to you all,” or “Amen I tell you all.” In John they’re often two Amens: “Amen amen.” But following John Wycliffe’s precedent, English-language bibles translate these Amens into other words. Jesus said ’em because he was promising what he said next was absolutely true… so Wycliffe went with “Truly I say to you,” the Geneva Bible changed that to “Verily I say unto you,” the NIV goes with “Truly I tell you,” and the NLV uses “For sure, I tell you.” Me, I leave the Amens untranslated, and change the “tell you” to “promise you,” because Jesus is affirming this next bit is absolutely true.

And what he tells them is, “Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven.”

Which… is kind of a problem for biblical literalists. ’Cause Asaph, in Psalm 78, said exactly what the Galileans said he did. Well, in the Septuagint it did; it changed the Hebrew word דְגַן/dagán, “grain,” into the Greek word ἄρτον/árton, “bread.” But, y’know, we turn grain into bread all the time. Kinda the same thing.

Psalm 78.23-24 ESV

23Yet he commanded the skies above

and opened the doors of heaven,

24and he rained down on them manna to eat

and gave them the grain of heaven.

25Man ate of the bread of the angels;

he sent them food in abundance.

I mean… the bible says it’s the bread of heaven, or the bread of the angels. Well… okay, not literally angels. The word אַ֭בִּירִים/avirím, which gets translated “angels,” elsewhere gets translated “mighty [ones].” Sometimes the LORD is the mighty one. Is 49.26 But whoever translated the Septuagint changed this to ἀγγέλων/angélon, “angels,” and it stuck.

Now if you want to hear someone call it the proper word for bread, and bread from heaven, let us turn to Nehemiah:

Nehemiah 9.15 ESV

“You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and you told them to go in to possess the land that you had sworn to give them.”

Yep, Nehemiah actually used לֶחֶם/lekhém, “bread.” As did the LORD himself:

Exodus 16.4 ESV

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.”

So… we have a “bible difficulty.” Jesus says manna wasn’t really bread from heaven. And yet here are some scriptures which say otherwise.

My explanation is kinda basic: Manna comes from heaven in that God, who’s in heaven, provides it. But it doesn’t literally come from heaven, as Jesus correctly points out. As if spirits eat. Isn’t the whole point of Jesus eating honeycomb and fish after his resurrection to prove he’s not just a spirit, ’cause spirits don’t eat? Lk 24.38-43 Why would angels need physical food? What would they digest manna with?—do angels have large intestines? Is there waste product afterward? Are we there toilets in heaven? The more questions we ask, the sillier it gets.

As for Asaph: He wrote poetry. He was being hyperbolic, as poets do. Literalists have a bad habit of choosing to interpret hyperboles as literal… and, for that matter, literal parts as hyperbole. Whatever gets ’em where they want to go.

Same as the Galileans, who just wanted Jesus to give ’em bread, and phooey on his metaphors about living bread.