John 6:49

49 Your fathers ate manna in desert, and be dead.

John 6:49 Meaning and Commentary

John 6:49

Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness
All the while they were in the wilderness, for the space of forty years, till they came to the borders of the land of Canaan; this was their only food on which they lived, during their travels through the wilderness. It is observable, that Christ says, not "our fathers", but "your fathers"; for though Christ, as concerning the flesh, came of these fathers, yet in every sense they were rather theirs than his; because regard may be had to such of them more especially who ate the manna as common food, and not as spiritual meat, as typical of the Messiah, as others did; and whom these, their offspring, did very much resemble. Though perhaps the reason of the use of this phrase may be, because the Jews themselves had used it in ( John 6:31 ) , and Christ takes it up from them.

And are dead.
This food, though it supported them in life for a while, could not preserve them from a corporeal death, and still less from an eternal one: for some of them not only died the first, but the second death.

John 6:49 In-Context

47 Soothly, soothly, I say to you, he that believeth in me, hath everlasting life.
48 I am [the] bread of life. [I am the bread of life.]
49 Your fathers ate manna in desert, and be dead.
50 This is bread coming down from heaven, that if any man [shall] eat thereof, he die not.
51 I am living bread, that came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live without end. And the bread that I shall give, is my flesh for the life of the world.
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.