John 6:42 Commentary and Bible Study

We know this man, Jesus of Nazareth, they said. We have followed his preaching with growing anger. We have seen his miracles. We have not been able to take action against him because so many of the people clamour for him. The people of Galilee would change their minds soon, but how is it he claims to be divine. Perhaps they were thinking of the prophecy of Isaiah and Isaiah 7.14 – ‘Behold, a virgin shall conceive.’ They were not unaware; they were theoretically very learned in their law; they read these scriptures regularly. They knew about ‘Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel’, which means God with us. Is he claiming this? We will not have it. We do not want the whole order of things changed. We do not want to lose our Temple position. We do not want to be charged with being sinners who need salvation, who need forgiveness. We are very proud of ourselves and our meticulous keeping of God’s ritual law, and we believe we are justified on the strength of that.And they were furious with these claims, and they would not even consider them. They would not enquire into them. They would not attempt to find out. Had they made the slightest enquiry; had they sent a Sanhedrin delegation to Nazareth to ask Joseph and Mary, they would have heard the family story about the virgin birth of Christ, but they were not going to do such a thing. Why, that would be ridiculous, that was impossible, it was ludicrous. They did not believe that this was the one who would come from God.