After these things. [Feeding the Five Thousand, John 6:1-14 = Matt. 14:13-21 = Mark 6:30-44 = Luke 9:10-17. Major comment: Mark and John. See Closing Galilean Ministry; The Ministry of Our Lord; on miracles pp. 208-213.] In the Fourth Gospel this expression generally indicates that some considerable period of time had elapsed since the events previously narrated, and does not necessarily mean that the incident about to be reported occurred immediately after those preceding it (cf. chs. 5:1; 7:1; for the significance of a similar expression, in the singular, see on ch. 2:12). The events of ch. 6 occurred nearly a year after those of ch. 5, if the unnamed feast of ch. 5:1 was a Passover (see pp. 193, 247; see on ch. 5:1). In fact, John here passes over the entire period of Jesus’ public ministry in Galilee in silence. According to the chronology adopted by this commentary ch. 6 is dated about Passover time (see v. 4) of A.D. 30.
The events of this chapter are the only ones within the period of Jesus’ Galilean ministry of which John takes note (see pp. 197, 198). The question may be raised as to why, in composing his narrative of seemingly unrelated incidents in Jesus’ life, John should have chosen to relate the miracle of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. It may be observed, first, that of the four Passovers of Jesus’ ministry, this is the only one He did not celebrate at Jerusalem. John, indeed, takes careful note of these feasts and mentions Jesus’ attendance at each of the others (see chs. 2:13; 5:1; 12:1, 12). Perhaps, in part at least, he intended the narrative of ch. 6 to mark this Passover season and to explain why Jesus did not go up to Jerusalem. Even more important, the events of ch. 6 explain how the people of Galilee, once so eager to follow Jesus (see on Mark 1:44, 45; 3:7-12; John 4:45), now turned against Him (see on John 6:66) as, the year before, the leaders in Jerusalem had turned against Him (see on ch. 5:1). As the one incident had brought His Judean ministry to a close, so the events of ch. 6 mark the close of His public ministry in Galilee (see on Matt. 15:21).
The Gospel of John gives special attention to evidence that Jesus was indeed the Messiah (see p. 892), and to the Jews’ believing or disbelieving this evidence (see on John 1:12). Accordingly, it would seem, John traces the major steps by which the nation turned against Christ and eventually rejected Him. This objective would fully justify the selection of the events of ch. 6. Perhaps, also, John felt that the Synoptic Gospels had already covered the period of the Galilean ministry in sufficient detail.
Over the sea. That is, from Capernaum to the vicinity of Bethsaida Julias (see Luke 9:10; cf. on Mark 6:33), at the northern end of the lake. At the close of ch. 5 Jesus was still in Judea. Now He is said to have gone over “the sea of Tiberias,” which implies that between the events of chs. 5 and 6 He had returned to Galilee. For the circumstances and purpose of this journey see on Mark 6:30.
Tiberias. John is the only Biblical writer who refers to the Lake of Galilee as the Sea of Tiberias (see also ch. 21:1). This may reflect the fact that he wrote his Gospel, probably, several decades after the others, and the name Tiberias, as applied to the lake, was doubtless in wider use then than it had been earlier. In Jesus’ day the city of Tiberias, from which the lake took its name, had been built by Herod Antipas, and consequently the lake was not yet known, generally at least, by that name.
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