Paragraph 6:32–34

Jesus began to tell the people about spiritual food. But the people were still thinking about Jesus feeding the five thousand (5000). They thought that Jesus had some special bread that he could give them.

6:32a

The Greek text begins with a conjunction that is often translated as “therefore.” The Berean Standard Bible and many English translations do not explicitly translate the word. In this context, the conjunction introduces Jesus’ response to the people’s comment. Translate it using a natural way to introduce a response in your language.

Truly, truly, I tell you: This phrase emphasizes what Jesus was about to say. See the notes on 1:51a, where the same phrase is used. Notice, however, that here Jesus was introducing a correction or rebuke. He was rejecting his listeners’ wrong understanding of how their ancestors received manna.

Here is another way to translate this phrase:

I tell you for certain that… (Contemporary English Version)

6:32b–c

it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread from heaven: Jesus was correcting the crowd. There are several things he was correcting:

• “he” in the quotation in 6:31b does not refer to Moses. God, not Moses, was really the one who gave the bread.

• It is better to understand God giving the bread from heaven now, in the present. Jesus changes gave (31b and 32b) to gives (32c).

• The manna was not the true heavenly bread, but physical food. Jesus was talking about heavenly or spiritual food.

In your translation, try to make it clear that Jesus was not making only one correction. This is hard to do in English. Most English translations concentrate on one of the corrections. However, it may be possible to indicate that there is more than one correction by using more than one sentence. For example:

Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
What I tell you now is true. It was not Moses who gave food from heaven but rather my Father. ⌊And what they ate, it was not⌋ the true food from heaven that God gives to you today.

but: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as but connects the negative statement in 6:32b to the positive statement in 6:32c. This kind of sentence emphasizes the positive statement. In 6:32b, Jesus said that it was not Moses who gave them bread from heaven, and in 6:32c, he said that it was his Father who gives them the true bread from heaven. Languages have different ways to indicate this type of emphasis. For example:

• Use the conjunction but as in the Berean Standard Bible. For example:

Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. (God’s Word)
-or-
it wasn’t Moses who gave the bread from heaven to you, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven (CEB)

• Use a conjunction other than but. This is a common way in English to show this type of emphasis. For example:

Moses was not the one who gave the bread which came from heaven; rather it is my Father who gives it. He truly gives to you the bread which comes from heaven.
-or-
Moses did not give you heavenly bread. Instead, my Father is the one giving you true heavenly bread.

• Do not use a conjunction. For example:

Moses wasn’t the one who gave you bread from heaven. My Father is the one who gives you the true bread from heaven. (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
What Moses gave you was not the bread from heaven; it is my Father who gives you the real bread from heaven. (Good News Translation)

• Change the order of the clauses. For example:

It is ⌊God⌋ my Father who gives the true bread from heaven. You are wrong ⌊to think⌋ that it was Moses who gave you bread from heaven.
-or-
It is my Father who gives you true bread from heaven, not Moses. He did not give you bread from heaven.

You should translate this emphasis in the way that is most natural in your language.

My Father: Jesus was referring to God. In some languages it may be necessary to make this explicit:

⌊God⌋ my Father

true bread: In Greek, there is emphasis on the word true. You may also want to emphasize that word. For example:

what he gives you is true food

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.