John 6:31 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Our fathers did eat manna, &c.— By extolling the miracle of the manna, by calling it bread from heaven, and by insinuating that it was Moses's miracle, the Jews endeavoured to disparage Christ's miracle of the loaves, which they affected to despise as no miracle in comparison of the former. It was only a single meal of terrestrial food, at which nine or ten thousand had been fed; whereas Moses with celestial food fed the whole Jewish nation, in number upwards of two millions; and that not for a day, but during the space of forty years in the wilderness: wherefore, as if Jesus had done no miracle at all, they said to him, What sign shewest thou?—What dost thou work?—And Jesus replied, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not the bread, τον αρτον,— from heaven. "It was not Moses, who in ancient times gave you themanna, neither was the manna bread from heaven; for it dropped from the air only, and is so called by the Psalmist on account of the thing which is typified: but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. By the miracle of the loaves, my Father has pointed out to you the true spiritual heavenly bread, which he himself giveth you, of which the manna was only a symbolical representation, and which is sufficient to sustain not a single nation only, but the whole world: John 6:33 for the bread of God is that which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world." The passage should be read in this ambiguous manner, or the explication which our Lord gives in John 6:35 is entirely superseded. The purport of it is, "The manna which dropped from the air, and kept those who made use of it alive only for a day, cannot be called the bread of God; but that is the bread of God which cometh down from God, and maketh the eater holy and happy like God." See on Chap. John 1:9.