Then Jesus said unto them,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
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Clement Of Alexandria
AD 215
For the bread of God is He that cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the world. And the bread which I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
Jesus said therefore, &c. Christ here refutes the cavilling of the Jews, and shows that He is greater than Moses, and gives better bread than Moses gave in giving manna. He opposes therefore, and prefers His own bread, i.e, Himself in His Body in the Eucharist, as He Himself unfolds (Vers35 , 51 , 54 , &c.) to the Mosaic manna, and this in three ways. (1.) The first Isaiah , because Moses, who was a mere Prayer of Manasseh , gave the manna, and that only to Israel, i.e, to the Jews in the desert: but it is God the Father who gives this bread, and that to the whole world.
(2.) Because the manna was not really bread from heaven, but only from the atmosphere, coming down like dew, or hail. For it is only the bread of heaven by a figure of speech, as we say the birds of heaven, because they fly in the heaven, that Isaiah , in the air. But His bread, He said, really came down from the highest heaven, even from the Bosom of God the Father. Therefore It alone was truly heavenly and Divine, o...
Now too does the Saviour most severely convict them of being without understanding, and exceedingly ignorant of what is in the Mosaic writings. For they ought to have known quite clearly that Moses was ministering the things of God to the people, and again those of the children of Israel to God, and was himself the worker in none of the miracles, but a minister rather and under-worker of those things which the Giver to them of all good things willed to do for the benefit of those who had been called out of bondage. What they then were impiously imagining, this Christ very resolutely cuts away (for to attribute things which befit and are due to the Divine Nature Alone, to the honour of men and not rather to It, how is not this replete with folly alike and impiety?) and in that He deprived the hierophant Moses of the miracle, and withdrew it out of his hand, it is (I suppose) manifest that He rather attributes the glory of it to Himself together with the Father, even though He abstained ...
Moses gave you not bread from heaven; i.e. the manna was not given to your forefathers by Moses, but by God's goodness. 2ndly, Neither came it from heaven, but from the clouds, or from the region of the air only. 3rdly, It did not make them that eat it live for ever; but they that spiritually eat me, the living bread; that is, believe in me, and keep my commandments, shall live for ever.
Ver. 37, 44, and 66. No one can come to me, unless the Father draw him. These verses are commonly expounded of God's elect; who are not only called, but saved, by a particular mercy and providence of God. God is said to draw them to himself by special and effectual graces, yet without any force or necessity, without prejudice to the liberty of their free-will. A man, says St. Augustine, is said to be drawn by his pleasures, and by what he loves. (Witham)
Why said He not, It was not Moses that gave it to you, but I; but puts God in the place of Moses, and Himself instead of manna? Because the infirmity of His hearers was great. As is seen from what follows. For not even when He had spoken thus did He secure their attention, although He said at first, You seek Me, not because ye saw the miracle, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. John 6:26 Now because they sought these (carnal) things, He would have corrected them by His succeeding words, yet not even so did they desist. When He promised the Samaritan woman that He would give her the water, He made no mention of the Father. What says He? If you knew who it is that says unto you, Give Me to drink, you would have asked of Him, and He would have given unto you living water John 4:10; and again, The water which I shall give. He referrs her not to The Father. But here He makes mention of The Father, that you may understand how great was the faith of the Samaritan woman, an...
For He is the living and life-giving bread which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the whole world, of which they who eat die not; and they who receive it are saved by it, and do not see corruption, and live through it for ever; and Thou art the antidote of our mortality,
