(3) The sequel of the signs.
The discussion which follows is closely linked with these two great miracles of power and love. It naturally arises out of them, and refers with great explicitness to the former of them and to its true meaning. The discussion does unquestionably alter its scope as it proceeds, and at John 6:41 and John 6:52 "the Jews" take up a controversy which had previously been conducted by a portion of the crowd who witnessed his mighty works. Jesus declared
(1) that he is himself the Bread of God—the Bread of life for a starving world; then
Before the evangelist proceeds to relate this great discourse, he portrays the historical platform, the audience to which it is addressed, and this in a sentence which is unusually involved and perplexed in its construction. The first clause with its verb, εἶδον,, is not completed until two or three parenthetical ideas are introduced; and then in John 6:24 the sentence is taken up or recom-menced, after which the main affirmation follows, viz. ἐνέβησαν, etc. The whole sentence is intended to explain the regathering of the crowd on the seashore at Capernaum, and that excited state of baulked curiosity with which they encountered the Lord.