After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses 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.’”
- KJV Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from 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.’ ”
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 gave them bread from the sky for their hunger, and brought water out of the rock for them for their thirst, and commanded them that they should go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them.
- Ps 105:40They asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of the sky.
- Ps 78:24–25He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky.
- Exod 16:4–15Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from the sky for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law, or not.
- Exod 16:35The children of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land. They ate the manna until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan.
- Num 11:6–9but now we have lost our appetite. There is nothing at all except this manna to look at.”
- Neh 9:20You gave also your good Spirit to instruct them, and didn’t withhold your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst.
- Deut 8:3He humbled you, and allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know; that he might teach you that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of Yahweh’s mouth.
- John 6:49Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
- Josh 5:12The manna ceased on the next day, after they had eaten of the produce of the land. The children of Israel didn’t have manna any more; but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
- Rev 2:17He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it.
- 1 Cor 10:3and all ate the same spiritual food;
- John 6:58This is the bread which came down out of heaven — not as our fathers ate the manna, and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.