After these things... — Allowing an undefined interval, which is filled up by the earlier Gospels. We need not adopt the purely arbitrary supposition that a portion of the Gospel between John 5:6 has been lost, nor yet connect them in immediate order of time. For St. John the discourse is that for which the whole is recorded. The exact sequence of events is by him left undetermined.
Went over the sea of Galilee — i.e., crossed over from Galilee to the eastern side of the lake.
Sea of Tiberias. — Comp. John 21:1; but the phrases are not precisely the same. There it is simply “sea of Tiberias.” Here it is “sea of Galilee, of Tiberias,” the latter term being either an alternative rendering for Greek readers (comp. Note on John 1:28), or a limitation to that part of the lake which was opposite to Tiberias. We shall find reason to believe that the last chapter of the Gospel should be regarded as an appendix, and the present passage may mark the transition between the older names for the lake which meet us in the other Gospels, and the later name, which meets us for the first time in St. John, but was afterwards common in Greek writers. The town itself is named in the New Testament only in this John John 6:23. It was on the west of the lake, and is the present well-known Tabarîyeh. Built by Herod the Tetrarch, it was, in accordance with the Herodian policy of courting Rome, named after the Emperor Tiberius. Eusebius tells us that it was commenced in the fourteenth year of Tiberius, which is itself an uncertain date (comp. Note on John 2:20); but we may accept it as placing the building in the time of our Lord, and as explaining that the name of the town does not meet us in the earlier Gospels, while it has at a late date, and at all events for Greek readers, extended to the lake.