John 6:67

6:66-71 When we admit into our minds hard thoughts of the words and works of Jesus, we enter into temptation, which, if the Lord in mercy prevent not, will end in drawing back. The corrupt and wicked heart of man often makes that an occasion for offence, which is matter of the greatest comfort. Our Lord had, in the foregoing discourse, promised eternal life to his followers; the disciples fastened on that plain saying, and resolved to cleave to him, when others fastened on hard sayings, and forsook him. Christ's doctrine is the word of eternal life, therefore we must live and die by it. If we forsake Christ, we forsake our own mercies. They believed that this Jesus was the Messiah promised to their fathers, the Son of the living God. When we are tempted to backslide or turn away, it is good to remember first principles, and to keep to them. And let us ever remember our Lord's searching question; Shall we go away and forsake our Redeemer? To whom can we go? He alone can give salvation by the forgiveness of sins. And this alone brings confidence, comfort, and joy, and bids fear and despondency flee away. It gains the only solid happiness in this world, and opens a way to the happiness of the next.

John 6:67 . This giving up of their adherence to Christ was probably manifested in an immediate and physical withdrawal from His presence. For He turned to the Twelve with the words: μὴ καὶ ὑμεῖς θέλετε ὑπάγειν ; “Sciebat id non facturos,” Lampe, who adds six reasons for the question, of which the most important are: “ut confessionem illam egregiam eliceret, qua se genuinos discipulos Jesu esse mox probaturi erant”; and “ut edoceret, se nonnisi voluntarios discipulos quaerere”. Probably also that they might be confirmed in their faith by the expression of it, and that He might be gladdened.

The twelve John assumes that the number is known. It is implied in the twelve baskets of fragments. As in so many other instances in this Gospel, facts of the synoptic narrative are taken for granted as familiar. Will ye also go away? (μὴ καὶ ὑμεῖς θέλετε ὑπάγειν) The interrogative particle μὴ shows that a negative answer is expected. Surely ye will not. Will ye go is not the future tense of the verb to go, but is expressed by two words, do ye will (θέλετε), to go away (ὑπάγειν). Rev., would ye. On the verb to go away, see on they went (John 6:21).

67. the twelve—the first time they are thus mentioned in this Gospel. Will ye also go away?—Affecting appeal! Evidently Christ felt the desertion of Him even by those miserable men who could not abide His statements; and seeing a disturbance even of the wheat by the violence of the wind which blew away the chaff (not yet visibly showing itself, but open to His eyes of fire), He would nip it in the bud by this home question.

It is probable that some stayed besides the twelve, for it is said only that many of his disciples turned back. Nor was our Saviour (who knew the hearts of all) ignorant what they would do; but he had a mind both to try them by this question, and also to convince them that there was a false brother amongst them, whose wickedness (though it lay hid from them) would in a short time discover itself.

67 . the twelve ] The first mention of them; S. John speaks of them familiarly as a well-known body, assuming that his readers are well acquainted with the expression (see on John 6:62 ). This is a mark of truth: all the more so because the expression does not occur in the earlier chapters; for it is probable that down to the end of chap. 4 at any rate ‘the Twelve’ did not yet exist. Pilate and Mary Magdalene are introduced in the same abrupt way ( John 18:29 , John 19:25 ). Will ye also go away? ] Better, Surely ye also do not wish to go away? ‘Will’ is too weak; it is not the future tense, but a separate verb, ‘to will.’ There is a similar error John 7:17 and John 8:44 . Christ knows not only the unbelief of the many, but the belief and loyalty of the few.

John 6:67 . Τοῖς δώδεκα , to the twelve ) John takes for granted their names, and the very appellation Apostles , as known from the other evangelists.— μὴ καὶ ὑμεῖς , whether will ye also ) It was not far from being so. It was well that it [the decision] rested on [was confined to] this point of time. Otherwise Judas might have carried away the rest with him.— ζέλετε , will ye? ) Jesus compels no man, and by this very circumstance attaches His own the more closely to Him.

(67) Will ye also go away? —We have to think of the disciples grouped round Him, the Twelve—now a distinct body, and so well known that St. John names them for the first time without a note—being nearer to Him than the rest, and of these the first four (see Note on Matthew 10:2 ) the nearest. Many go away from Him. Men He had taught, borne with in all their weakness and darkness, watched as some light seemed to dawn upon them, hoped for, prayed for, lived for, and would die for, turn back. Yes; that heart, too, can feel the bitterness of disappointment. He looks at the Twelve close to Him, and says to them, Ye also do not wish to go away? The question expects the answer it receives. There He has hope still.

The twelve - The twelve apostles. Will ye also go away? - Many apostatized, and it was natural now for Jesus to submit the question to the twelve. "Will you, whom I have chosen, on whom I have bestowed the apostleship, and who have seen the evidence of my Messiahship, will you now also leave me?" This was the time to try them; and it is always a time to try real Christians when many professed disciples become cold and turn back; and then we may suppose Jesus addressing us, and saying, Will ye also go away! Observe here, it was submitted to their choice. God compels none to remain with him against their will, and the question in such trying times is submitted to every man whether he will or will not go away.

Verses 67-71. - (b) The loyalty of the twelve, with a note of prophetic warning . Verse 67. - Jesus therefore said unto the twelve . He spake to them because of the wide defection from his ranks. "The twelve" have never been mentioned before in the Gospel, but this passing reference reveals acquaintance with the fact on the part of the evangelist. He assumes the historic number as perfectly explicable to his readers. The reference to the twelve baskets in ver. 13 almost presupposes that there were the same number of disciples, and this pathetic appeal is in harmony with the synoptic account of their "call." Would ye also go away? Μὴ θέκλετε suggests a negative answer, "Ye cannot wish, can you?" (Meyer). Godet says, on the contrary, "If you wish, you can!" Westcott, "The form of the question implies that such desertion is incredible, and yet to be feared" (cf. John 7:47, 52 ; John 18:17, 25 ).

The question is far from identical with that query which once more the Lord put to the twelve, after many subsequent months of varied activity and critical discourse, which showed how Jesus had at length broken with the narrow literalism of Judaic privilege, On that occasion he was summing up the varied convictions produced upon the Galilaean multitudes, and he asked, "But whom say ye that I am?" Here he is simply suggesting the possibility, but yet the incredibility, of his desertion by the twelve apostles, merely because he had affirmed the spiritual aims of his entire mission, and had made an unreserved offer of his Divine humanity to their need. The pathos of this inquiry shows how serious a crisis was being enacted. It has reference in its issues rather to himself than to the twelve. The critical school see in this verse the Johannine treatment of the great apostolic confession, and Weiss here agrees with it. Even Godet thinks that two such questions with their answers, under comparatively similar conditions, are improbable. He suggests that the ἐκ τούτου (ver. 66) points to a great scattering, and that months may have elapsed before the scene which John here condenses. It is more likely that John omits the later scene, and prefers to give this, which stands closely related with the immediate circumstances (cf. also Luke 9 .).