Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
Parallel translations
- WEB Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. As it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’”
- BSB Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
- NKJV Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”
- NASB Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’ ”
- NLT After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The crowd cites the manna their fathers ate in the wilderness as the standard for a heavenly sign. They appeal to Moses to test whether Jesus can match him.
Overview
Quoting Scripture (cf. Ex. 16; Ps. 78:24), the people imply that a true prophet should provide bread from heaven as Moses did. They unknowingly set up Jesus's claim to be the greater and true bread. Their appeal to the past prepares for Jesus to reveal Himself as the fulfillment of what the manna foreshadowed.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Neh 9:15And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.
- Ps 105:40The people asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
- Ps 78:24–25And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
- Exod 16:4–15Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.
- Exod 16:35And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.
- Num 11:6–9But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.
- Neh 9:20Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.
- Deut 8:3And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.
- John 6:49Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
- Josh 5:12And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
- Rev 2:17He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
- 1 Cor 10:3And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
- John 6:58This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.
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Christ at the center
John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.
How John 6:31 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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