was itself a thing which could not bene£t the soul. Christ waa the true spiritual food of which the manna was the type. Ex- amples of " true " in this sense may be seen in John i. 9 ; xv. 1 ; Heb. viii. 2 ; ix. 24.
33. — [The hreacl of God is that, etc.] At first sigiit, this verse seems to mean, that '' Ciirist coming down from heaven, and giving life unto the world, is the true bread of God, — the Divine food of man's soul." But it may well be doubted whether this is the precise meaning of tlie Greek words. I thin]?: with Rollock, Bengel, Scholefield, Alford, and others, they would be more cor- rectly rendered, — " The bread of God is that bread which cometh down from heaven."
(a.) For one thing, the Jews do not appear to have under- stood our Lord as yet to speak directly of Himself, or of any person. Else why should they have said, — " Lord, give us this bread." Moreover, they did not CQurmur, when they heard these words.
(&.) For anoth-er thing, our Lord does not appear as yet to re- veal fully that He was the bread of God. He reserves this till the thirty-fifth verse, and then declares it. At present He only gives a general intimation of a certain Divine fife-giving bread.
(c.) For another thing, it is more in keeping with the gradual unfolding of truth, — which appears so strikingly in this chapter, — to suppose that our Lord begins with a general statement, than to suppose that He speaks at once of Himself personally. First, (1.) the bread generally, — then, (2.) I am the bread, — then, (3.) the bread is My flesh, — then, (4.) except ye eat the flesh, and drink the blood, no life, etc.,— such seem the gradual steps by which our Lord leads on His hearers in this wonderful chapter. I freely admit that the point is doubtful. Happily, whether we read, *^ the bread of God is He," or " the bread of God iis that bread," the doctrine is sound, and Scriptural, and edifying.
The expression, " the bread of God," seems equivalent to the expression of the preceding verse, "the true bread." It is that real satisfying food for the soul which God has provided.
The expression, which " cometh down from heaven," is an as- sertion of the Divine origin of that spiritual food which God had provided. Like the manna, it came down from heaven, but in a iar higher, fuller, and deeper sense, than the manna did. It waa '' that personal bread," of which they would soon hear more dis- tinctly.
The expression, " giveth fife to the world " implies a contrast between the "bread of God," and the manna. The manna only supplied the hunger of the twelve tribes of Israel, — viz., 600,000 men and their families. The bread of God was for the whole