Bible Strands
John 6:31
Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The crowd speaks to Jesus, demanding a visible miracle that would validate His claims and secure their belief. The words — πατέρες (pateres) translates as “fathers,” and ἔφαγον (ephagon) means “ate,” anchoring the statement in the ancestral wilderness experience. The thread — The crowd’s citation aligns with Nehemiah 9:15, Psalm 105:40, and Psalm 78:24, which all testify to God supplying manna to Israel in the desert. Why it lands — The text explicitly records the crowd’s appeal to ancestral precedent before Jesus corrects their theological premise, demanding that a reader stop relying on historical proof and confront the present offer of true bread.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
Cross-references
- Nehemiah 9:15 In their hunger You gave them bread from heaven; in their thirst You brought them water from the rock. You told them to go in and possess the land that You had sworn to give them.
- Psalms 105:40 They asked, and He brought quail and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
- Psalms 78:24 He rained down manna for them to eat; He gave them grain from heaven.
- Exodus 16:4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test whether or not they will follow My instructions.
- Exodus 16:35 The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land where they could settle; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.
- Numbers 11:6 But now our appetite is gone; there is nothing to see but this manna!”
- Deuteronomy 8:3 He humbled you, and in your hunger He gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had known, so that you might understand that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
- Nehemiah 9:20 You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold Your manna from their mouths, and You gave them water for their thirst.
- John 6:49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died.
- Joshua 5:12 And the day after they had eaten from the produce of the land, the manna ceased. There was no more manna for the Israelites, so that year they began to eat the crops of the land of Canaan.