John 6:22

People which stood. Doubtless many of the 5,000 had returned to their homes in the surrounding area the previous evening, but apparently some, more zealous than others, had remained by the seaside all night, and perhaps others of those who had been fed the day before now returned, seeking a repetition of the miracle. See on v. 24.

Other side of the sea. That is, the eastern shore of the Lake of Galilee, the opposite side from that on which Jesus and the disciples have just been reported to have landed (v. 21).

Saw. It is not easy to specify the exact point of time to which each of the verbs in this verse refers, but it appears that “saw” here is to be understood in the sense of “realized”; that is, the following morning the people left on the eastern shore of Galilee realized the significance of what they had noticed the previous day, that the disciples had taken the only boat available, and that Jesus had not gone with them.

Save that one. Textual evidence is divided (cf. p. 146) as to whether the words “save that one whereinto his disciples were entered” are part of the original text. Because certain important ancient manuscripts do not contain these words, and further because they may be seen as an addition to explain an otherwise ambiguous passage, some modern translators have not considered them original, and so have not included them in their versions. Whether or not they are original is not essential to John’s narrative.