John 4:33

33 So the disciples began to say to one another, "No one brought him [anything] to eat, [did they]?"

John 4:33 Meaning and Commentary

John 4:33

Therefore said the disciples one to another
Privately, among themselves, though in his hearing; at least he knew what they said by answer;

hath any man;
or anyone, any angel from heaven, or any of the inhabitants of the city, or any man or woman, or this woman they had found him talking with:

brought him [ought] to eat?
for they thought of nothing else but bodily food; just as when he cautioned them against the leaven of the Sadducees and Pharisees, they imagined he said it, because they had taken no bread; whereas he meant the doctrine of these persons: so dull of understanding spiritual things were the disciples themselves, that it is not so much to be wondered at that the Samaritan woman, whilst in her carnal state, when Christ spoke of living water, should understand him of material water, or spring water.

John 4:33 In-Context

31 In the meanwhile the disciples were asking him, saying, "Rabbi, eat [something]!"

32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about."

33 So the disciples began to say to one another, "No one brought him [anything] to eat, [did they]?"

34 Jesus said to them, "My food is that I do the will of the one who sent me and complete his work.

35 Do you not say, 'There are yet four months and the harvest comes'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, that they are white for harvest already.

Footnotes

• [a]. *The imperfect tense has been translated as ingressive here ("began to say")
• [b]. *Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation
• [c]. *The negative construction in Greek anticipates a negative answer here, indicated by the supplied phrase "[did they]" in the translation