John 6:23Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Why, then, does John narrate this with such detail? Why did he not simply say that on the next day the people also crossed to the other side?

By this he wishes to show us something else. What is it? Christ enabled even the people to understand what had happened, though not directly, but indirectly.

They saw, he says, “that there was no other boat there except one, and that Jesus had not entered the boat.” Then, having entered the boats from Tiberias, “they came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.”

What else, indeed, could one think, except that He had crossed the sea by walking upon it? For it could not be said that He crossed in some other boat.

“There was no other boat there,” it says, “except the one into which His disciples had entered.”

The miracle was manifest. Having come to this thought, the people found other boats that had sailed from the other side. They entered them and crossed over to Capernaum.

The miracle is not hidden, I mean Jesus’ walking upon the sea itself, although it took place at night, in darkness, and in complete secrecy.

The people who usually followed Him, having learned this by no small observation, as it seems, noticed that He had not sailed away with His disciples. Nor had He crossed in any other boat.

There was only one boat there, the Apostles’ boat, which they took and in which they crossed. Thus nothing good is hidden, even if it is done by someone in secret.

From this we may see the truth of the saying: “Nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light,” Lk 8:17.

On the next day, the people who stood on the other side of the sea, from which the disciples had come, saw that there had been no other boat there except the one into which His disciples had entered.

They also saw that Jesus had not entered the boat with His disciples, but that His disciples had gone away alone. Meanwhile other boats came from Tiberias near the place where they had eaten bread after the Lord’s blessing.

So when the people saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they entered the boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. Nevertheless, so great a miracle had been shown to them.

The words, "Other boats came from Tiberias near the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks," are an inserted statement. They explain why the people came afterward.

On the next day, the people did not find the Wonderworker or His disciples at the place where the miracle of the feeding had been performed. They themselves returned to Capernaum.

The Lord was then already in the synagogue of Capernaum. When they met Him there, the witnesses of yesterday’s miracle were perplexed about how He had arrived.

They knew that He had not departed with the disciples, and they wanted to learn this from Him. This became the occasion for the Savior’s great discourse on the true bread of life, which He gives men to eat.

The time of His sufferings was drawing near. From the approaching Passover, only one year remained until His death, which He was preparing to offer for the world.

The people saw that Jesus Christ had not entered the boat, and that only the disciples had departed. Therefore, on the next day, they hoped to find Jesus at the place where the miraculous feeding had occurred.

But when those who came from Tiberias did not find Him there, they understood that He had already crossed to the western shore and sailed to Capernaum.

They had not witnessed the miraculous walking on the waters, and they thought that Jesus Christ had gone to Capernaum along the shore. Sailing there in a boat, they probably thought they would arrive in Capernaum before Jesus.

The Savior had already begun His usual activity on the Galilean shore of the lake. Yet many of the people were still waiting for Him near Bethsaida Julias, thinking that He was somewhere there on the mountain in solitude.

When they heard that He had long since been near Capernaum, and knew that the disciples had set out alone in the boat, the people were greatly astonished. Arriving at Capernaum, many addressed Him in bewilderment: "Rabbi, when did You come here?"

Other boats came from Tiberias. Since the people who had seen the miracle were from the region around the Sea of Galilee, and certainly in part from Tiberias, the boat owners there who transported goods and people by sea knew of the great gathering then on the northeastern shore.

They therefore set out there, hoping that many would wish to cross by sea rather than make the long journey around the lake.

At that time there was a strong storm on the lake. The disciples could not reach the shore and spent the whole night in fear, struggling against the bad weather.

Before dawn they saw Jesus Christ coming to them on the water, and they were afraid, thinking it was an apparition. But Jesus Christ said, “It is I; do not be afraid,” and entered the boat with them.

The storm ceased, and the boat safely reached the shore near Capernaum, Mk 6:50-53. The Lord went with His Apostles into the synagogue of Capernaum. The people who had been miraculously fed the day before also gathered there to Jesus Christ.

Verses 22-25. The people who remained on the eastern shore of the lake hastened in the morning to find Jesus. They crossed in a boat that had come from Tiberias.

Since they knew that the disciples had entered the boat alone, and that there had been no other boat in the evening, they guessed, when they saw Jesus in Capernaum, that He had come there not without a miracle. "Rabbi, when did You come here?" they asked Him.

The crowd whom the Lord dismissed and calmed, after sending away the disciples, seems to divide into two parts. One part, obedient to the Lord’s word, goes home along the northern shore of the lake.

The other part, probably more obstinate, remains beneath the hills of Julias Bethsaida to wait for the Lord. Perhaps they even intended to carry out their plan, that is, to make the Lord king by force.

Let us note that it is precisely to this part of the crowd, which remained to await the Lord and then came in the boats from Tiberias, that the Lord later speaks a rebuke. They seek Him only because they ate the loaves and were filled, v. 26.