They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?
They said therefore unto him, What sign showest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work? But how could they ask "a sign," when many of them scarce a day before had witnesses such a "sign" as had never until then been vouchsafed to men; when after witnessing it they could hardly be restrained from making Him a king; when they followed Him from the one side of the lake to the other; and when, in the opening words of this very discourse, He had chid them for seeking Him, "not because they saw the signs," but for the loaves? The truth seems to be, that they were confounded by the novel claims which our Lord had just advanced. In proposing to make Him a king, it was for far other purposes than dispensing to the world the bread of an everlasting life; and when He seemed to raise His claims even higher still, by representing it as the grand "work of God," that they should believe on Himself as His Sent One, they saw very clearly that He was making a demand upon them beyond anything they were prepared to accord to Him, and beyond all that man had ever before made. Hence, their question, "What dost thou work?"