Church Fathers Commentary John 6:41-46

"The Jews therefore murmured concerning him, because he said, I am the bread which came down out of heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how doth he now say, I am come down out of heaven? Jesus answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me, except the Father that sent me draw him: and I will raise him up in the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall all be taught of God. Every one that hath heard from the Father, and hath learned, cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he that is from God, he hath seen the Father." — John 6:41-46 (ASV)

St. John Chrysostom: As long as the Jews thought they would get physical food, they had no doubts. But when this hope was taken away, then, we read, the Jews murmured at Him because He said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. This was only a pretense. The real cause of their complaint was their disappointment in expecting a bodily feast. However, they still revered Him because of His miracle and only expressed their discontent through murmurs. What these were, we read next: And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He said, I came down from heaven?

St. Augustine of Hippo: But they were far from being fit for that heavenly bread and did not hunger for it, for they did not have the hunger of the inner man.

St. John Chrysostom: It is evident that they did not yet know about His miraculous birth, for they call Him the son of Joseph. Nor are they blamed for this. Our Lord does not reply, “I am not the son of Joseph,” because the miracle of His birth would have overwhelmed them. And if His physical birth was beyond their belief, how much more that higher and ineffable birth.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He took human flesh upon Himself, but not in the way of other men. With His Father in heaven, He chose a mother on earth and was born of her without a human father. The answer to the murmurers follows next: Jesus therefore answered and said to them, Murmur not among yourselves. It is as if He said, “I know why you do not hunger for this bread, and so cannot understand it, and do not seek it: No man can come to Me, except the Father who has sent Me draw him.” This is the doctrine of grace: no one comes unless he is drawn. But as for who the Father draws and who He does not, and why He draws one and not another, do not presume to decide, if you wish to avoid falling into error. Accept the doctrine as it is given to you, and if you are not drawn, pray that you might be.

St. John Chrysostom: But here the Manichees attack us, asserting that nothing is within our own power. Our Lord's words, however, do not destroy our free will but only show that we need divine assistance. For He is not speaking of someone who comes without the cooperation of his own will, but of someone who has many hindrances to his coming.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Now, if we are drawn to Christ without our own will, we believe without our own will; the will is not exercised, but compulsion is applied. But, though a person can enter the Church involuntarily, he can only believe voluntarily, for with the heart man believes to righteousness. Therefore, if he who is drawn comes without his will, he does not believe; and if he does not believe, he does not come. For we do not come to Christ by running or walking, but by believing; not by the movement of the body, but by the will of the mind.

You are drawn by your will. But what does it mean to be drawn by the will? “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” There is a certain craving of the heart to which that heavenly bread is pleasant. If the Poet could say, “Trahit sua quemque voluptas,” how much more strongly can we speak of a person being drawn to Christ—that is, being delighted with truth, happiness, justice, and eternal life, all of which is Christ. Do the bodily senses have their pleasures, and does the soul not have its own? Give me one who loves, who longs, who burns, who sighs for the source of his being and his eternal home, and he will know what I mean.

But why did He say, “Except my Father draw him”? If we are to be drawn, let us be drawn by Him to whom His love said, Draw me, we will run after You. But let us see what is meant by this. The Father draws to the Son those who believe in the Son, because they think that He has God for His Father. For the Father begot the Son equal to Himself; and whoever truly and seriously thinks and believes that the One in whom he believes is equal to the Father, the Father draws him to the Son. Arius believed Him to be a creature; the Father did not draw him. Thomas says, “Christ is only a man.” Because he believes this, the Father does not draw him.

The Father drew Peter, who said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. To him it was accordingly said, For flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but My Father which is in heaven. That revelation is the drawing. For if earthly objects, when put before us, draw us, how much more will Christ, when revealed by the Father? For what does the soul long for more than truth? But here people hunger; there they will be filled. Therefore He adds, And I will raise him up at the last day. This is as if He said, “He shall be filled with that for which he now thirsts at the resurrection of the dead, for I will raise him up.”

Or, the Father draws to the Son by the works which He did through Him.

St. John Chrysostom: Great indeed is the Son’s dignity; the Father draws people, and the Son raises them up. This is not a division of works, but an equality of power. He then shows the way in which the Father draws: It is written in the Prophets, And they shall all be taught of God. You see the excellence of faith: that it cannot be learned from men, or by human teaching, but only from God Himself. The Master sits, dispensing His truth to all, pouring out His doctrine to all. But if all are to be taught by God, how is it that some do not believe? Because “all” here means either people in general, or all who have the will to believe.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Or, to put it another way: when a teacher is the only one in a town, we might say loosely, “This man teaches everyone here to read,” not meaning that everyone learns from him, but that he teaches all who do learn. In the same way, we say that God teaches all people to come to Christ, not that all do come, but that no one comes in any other way.

All the people of that kingdom will be taught by God; they will hear nothing from men. For, though in this world what they hear with the outer ear is from men, yet what they understand is given to them from within; from within comes light and revelation. I force certain sounds into your ears, but unless He is within to reveal their meaning, how, O Jews, can you acknowledge Me, you whom the Father has not taught?

The Venerable Bede: He uses the plural, “in the Prophets,” because all the Prophets, being filled with the one and same Spirit, had prophecies that, though different, all aimed at the same goal. Whatever any one of them says, all the rest agree with, as with the prophecy of Joel: All shall be taught of God.

Glossa Ordinaria: These words are not found in Joel, but something similar is: Be glad then you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for He has given you a Teacher. And more explicitly in Isaiah: And all your children shall be taught of the Lord.

St. John Chrysostom: This is an important distinction. Previously, all people learned the things of God through men; now they learn them through the Only Son of God and the Holy Spirit.

St. Augustine of Hippo: All who are taught by God come to the Son, because they have heard and learned from the Father about the Son. Therefore He continues, Every man that has heard, and has learned of the Father, comes to Me. But if everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes, then everyone who has not heard from the Father has not learned. For this school, in which the Father is heard and people are taught to come to the Son, is beyond the reach of the bodily senses. Here we are not dealing with the carnal ear, but the ear of the heart. For here is the Son Himself—the Word by whom the Father teaches—and with Him the Holy Spirit, as the operations of the three Persons are inseparable from each other.

This work is attributed primarily to the Father, however, because from Him proceeds the Son and the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the grace which the divine bounty secretly imparts to people’s hearts is not rejected by anyone because of a hard heart, since it is given in the first place to take away that hardness. Why then does He not teach all to come to Christ? Because those whom He teaches, He teaches in mercy; and those whom He does not teach, He does not teach in judgment. But if we say that those whom He does not teach still wish to learn, we will be answered, why then is it said, Will you not turn again, and quicken us? If God does not make willing minds out of unwilling ones, why does the Church pray, according to our Lord’s command, for her persecutors? For no one can say, “I believed, and therefore He called me.” Rather, the prevenient mercy of God called him so that he might believe.

Behold then how the Father draws: not by imposing a necessity on man, but by teaching the truth. To draw belongs to God: Every one that has heard, and has learned of the Father, comes to Me. What then? Has Christ taught nothing? Not at all. What if people did not see the Father teaching, but saw the Son? In that case, the Father taught, and the Son spoke. As I teach you by my word, so the Father teaches by His Word. But He Himself explains the matter, if we read on:

Not that any man has seen the Father, save He which is of God, He has seen the Father. It is as if He said, “When I tell you, ‘Every man that has heard and has learned of the Father, comes to Me,’ do not say to yourselves, ‘We have never seen the Father, so how can we have learned from Him?’ Hear Him, then, in Me. I know the Father and am from Him, just as a word is from him who speaks it—that is, not the mere passing sound, but that which remains with the speaker and draws the hearer.”

St. John Chrysostom: We are all from God. But He omits mentioning that which belongs uniquely and chiefly to the Son, as it was unsuitable for the weakness of His hearers.