John 4:34

Joh 4:34. Βρώμα, the meat) with which my appetite is satisfied.—τελειώσω, that I may finish) Not yet had Jesus reached the middle of His time of action, and yet now He is thinking of the end [the finishing work]: so earnestly did He act throughout. The same verb occurs, ch. Joh 5:36, “The works which My Father hath given Me to finish.” Concerning the thing meant, comp. ch. Joh 6:38-39, at the end: “I came down from heaven not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me; and this is the Father’s will,” etc., “that of all which He hath given Me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day.”—τὸ ἔργον, work) a work, one, great, and which embraces Israelites, Samaritans, and all nations.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 4:34 . Jesus answers their question though not put to Him: Ἐμὸν βρῶμα … τὸ ἔργον . Westcott thinks the telic use of ἵνα can be discerned here; “the exact form of the expression emphasises the end and not the process , not the doing and finishing, but that I may do and finish”. Lücke acknowledges that it is not always easy to distinguish between the construction of αὕτη or τοῦτο with ἵνα and with ὅτι , but that here it is possible to discriminate; and translates “Meine Speise besteht in dem Bestreben ,” etc. It is much better to take it as the Greek commentators and Holtzmann and Weiss take it, as equivalent to τὸ ποιῆσαι . See especially 3Jn 1:4 . [“Sometimes, beyond doubt, ἵνα is used where the final element in the sense is very much weakened sometimes where it is hard to deny that it has altogether vanished.” Simcox, Grammar , 177.] The idea that mental or spiritual excitement acts as a physical stimulant is common. Cf. Plato’s λόγων ἑστίασις , Tim. , 27 B; Thucydides, i. 70, represents the Corinthian ambassadors as saying of the Athenians μήτε ἑορτὴν ἄλλο τι ἡγεῖσθαι ἢ τὸ τὰ δέοντα πρᾶξαι . See also Soph., Electra , 363, and the quotations in Wetstein; also Browning’s Fra Lippo Lippi , “to find its [the world’s] meaning is my meat and drink”. Jesus does not say that His meat is to bring living water to parched souls, but “to do the will of Him that sent me, and to accomplish His work”. First, because throughout it is His aim to make Himself a transparency through which the Father may be seen; and second, because the will of God is the ultimate stability by fellowship with which all human charity and active compassion are continually renewed.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

My meat is, &c.--"A Servant here to fulfil a prescribed work, to do and to finish, that is 'meat' to Me; and of this, while you were away, I have had My fill." And of what does He speak thus? Of the condescension, pity, patience, wisdom He had been laying out upon one soul--a very humble woman, and in some respects repulsive too! But He had gained her, and through her was going to gain more, and lay perhaps the foundations of a great work in the country of Samaria; and this filled His whole soul and raised Him above the sense of natural hunger (Mat 4:4).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 34. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me] In these words, our blessed Lord teaches a lesson of zeal and earnestness to his apostles, and to all their successors in the Christian ministry. Let the salvation of souls lie nearer your heart than life itself. Let eating and drinking, labour and rest, reading, thinking, study, prayer, and all things, be directed to the accomplishment of this great work. Ministers of Jesus! imitate your Lord! Souls are perishing for lack of knowledge - God has given you the key of the kingdom, the knowledge of his word-O open unto them the gate of life! They are dropping by thousands into hell! O pluck the brands out of the burning!

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

34. My food is to do the will of him who sent me. He means not only that he esteems it very highly, but that there is nothing in which he takes greater delight, or in which he is more cheerfully or more eagerly employed; as David, in order to magnify the Law of God, says not only that he values it highly, but that it is sweeter than honey, (Psalm 19:10.) If, therefore, we would follow Christ, it is proper not only that we devote ourselves diligently to the service of God, but that we be so cheerful in complying with its injunctions that the labor shall not be at all oppressive or disagreeable.

That I may finish his work. By adding these words, Christ fully explains what is that will of the Father to which he is devoted; namely, to fulfill the commission which had been given to him. Thus every man ought to consider his own calling, that he may not consider as done to God what he has rashly undertaken at his own suggestion. What was the office of Christ is well known. It was to advance the kingdom of God, to restore to life lost souls, to spread the light of the Gospel, and, in short, to bring salvation to the world. The excellence of these things caused him, when fatigued and hungry, to forget meat and drink. Yet we derive from this no ordinary consolation, when we learn that Christ was so anxious about the salvation of men, that it gave him the highest delight to procure it; for we cannot doubt that he is now actuated by similar feelings towards us.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(34) My meat.—Better, My food, as before (Joh_4:8).

To do the will. . . . to finish.—Better, that I may do the will, . . . that I may finish. These verbs point out the end which He ever kept in view. In some of the best MSS., and in the received text, the tenses are different. That. I may be constantly doing the will of Him that sent Me, and may then at last complete His work. (Comp. Joh_17:4.)

This work He speaks of here, and in Joh_4:32, as actual food, as the supply of the truest needs, and the satisfaction of the truest desires of His nature. (Comp. Note on Mat_4:4.) Analogies to this are within the limits of every man’s experience, and, faint as they are, help us to learn something of what this spiritual sustenance was. The command of duty, the cheering power of hope, the stimulus of success, are forces that supply to weak and weary nerves and muscles, the vigour of a new life. Under them the soldier can forget his wounds, the martyr smile at the lion or the flame, the worn-out traveller still plod onward at the thought of home. We cannot analyse this power, but it exists. They have food to eat that those without know not of.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

34. My meat is to do the will, &c.] Literally, My food is that I may do the will of Him that sent Me and thus finish His work. It is Christ’s aim and purpose that is His food. Comp. Joh_5:36, Joh_8:56. These words recall the reply to the tempter ‘man doth not live by bread alone,’ and the reply to His parents ‘Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business.’ Luk_4:4; Luk_2:49.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jesus saith unto them,.... His disciples:

my meat is to do the will of him that sent me. The Ethiopic version reads, "of my Father that sent me", and who is undoubtedly intended. Now as food is pleasant, and delightful, and refreshing to the body of man, so doing the will of God was as delightful and refreshing to the soul of Christ: he took as much pleasure in it, as an hungry man does in eating and drinking. One part of the will of God was to assume human nature; this he had done, and with delight and pleasure: another part of it was to fulfil the law; and this was in his heart, and was his delight, and he was now doing it: and another branch of it was to suffer and die, in the room and stead of his people; and as disagreeable as this was in itself to the human nature, yet he cheerfully agreed to it; and was sometimes, as it were, impatient till it was accomplished; and he voluntarily became obedient to it: no man could, with greater eagerness, fall to eating, when hungry, than Christ went about his Father's will and work, even that which was most ungrateful to him, as man.

And to finish his work; one part of which was to preach the Gospel, and for, which he was anointed and sent; and which he did with great assiduity and constancy: and another part of it was the conversion of sinners by it, whom he was sent to call, and with whom he delighted to be; and was the work he was now about, and took the pleasure in, the text expresses: and beside these miracles were works his Father gave him to finish; such as healing diseases, and dispossessing of devils, and which he went about doing continually, with great delight: but the chief, work of all is, that of redemption and salvation of his chosen ones: this was a work his Father called him to, and sent him into this world to perform, which he gave unto him, and Christ accepted of, and agreed to do; and though it was a very toilsome and laborious one, there being a righteous law to be fulfilled, justice to be satisfied, the sins of all his people to bear, as well as the wrath of God, and the curse of the law, and numerous enemies to grapple with, and an accursed death to undergo; yet with pleasure he performed this: for the joy of his Father's will, accomplishing his counsels and covenant, and his own engagements, and procuring the salvation of his people, he endured the cross patiently, and despised the shame of it. The whole of the and work of God was done by him, just as the Lord commanded it; exactly, according to the pattern given him, with all faithfulness and integrity; with the most consummate wisdom and prudence; with all application, diligence, and constancy, and so as to finish it, and that without the help of any other; and in such a manner that nothing can be added to it to make it more perfect, or that it can be undone again by men or devils: and that the doing and finishing of this were his meat, or as delightful and refreshing to him as meat is to the body, appears from his ready and cheerful engaging in it in eternity; from his early and industrious entrance on it in time; from his constancy in it, when he had begun, insomuch that nothing could deter him from it; nor did he sink and fail under it, nor left it till he had finished it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

Ver. 34. My meat is to do the will] Job, Job 23:12, preferred it before his necessary food, that should keep him alive. So did Christ, when disappointed of a breakfast at the barren fig tree, and coming hungry into the city, he went not into an eating house, but into the temple, where he taught the people most part of that day, Mat 21:17; Mat 21:23.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

My meat ... - Jesus here explains what he said in Joh 4:32. His great object - the great design of his life - was to do the will of God. He came to that place weary and thirsty, and at the usual time of meals, probably hungry; yet an opportunity of doing good presented itself, and he forgot his fatigue and hunger, and found comfort and joy in doing good - in seeking to save a soul. This one great object absorbed all his powers, and made him forget his weariness and the wants of nature. The mind may be so absorbed in doing the will of God as to forget all other things. Intent on this, we may rise above fatigue, and hardship, and want, and bear all with pleasure in seeing the work of God advance. See Job 23:12; “I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necesary food.” We may learn, also, that the main business of life is not to avoid fatigue or to seek the supply of our temporal wants, but to do the will of God. The mere supply of our temporal necessities, though most people make it an object of their chief solicitude, is a small consideration in the sight of him who has just views of the great design of human life.

The will of him that sent me - The will of God in regard to the salvation of men. See Joh 6:38.

To finish his work - To “complete” or fully to do the work which he has commanded in regard to the salvation of men. It is his work to provide salvation, and his to redeem, and his to apply the salvation to the heart. Jesus came to do it by teaching, by his example, and by his death as an expiation for sin. And he shows us that “we” should be diligent. If he was so diligent for our welfare, if he bore fatigue and want to benefit us, then we should be diligent, also, in regard to our own salvation, and also in seeking the salvation of others.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

My meat is to do the will of him that sent me. Such ought to be the disposition of every one who, as a minister of Christ and his Church, is to take care of souls. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Our Lord, without any reproof of them for their dulness in understanding, and having compassion on their infirmity and ignorance, tells them what he meant by his former words; telling them, that the doing of his Father’s will, and the finishing of his work, was that which he more hungered after, and look more delight in, than in eating and drinking: this is what he sought, Joh 5:30, that which he came down from heaven for, Joh 6:38. As the law of God was sweeter to David than the honey or the honey comb, so the publishing of the gospel was to Jesus Christ, the calling sinners to repentance, and publishing the glad tidings of the Messiah; that was his work, which he tells his Father he had finished, Joh 17:4. Hereby teaching ministers, and people also, to prefer spiritual things before temporal; and the ministers of the gospel especially, to prefer the publishing of the gospel (which is their work) to any other employment whatsoever.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Jesus said to them, My food that which satisfies my strongest desire, and quenches all other desireis that I may do continuouslythe will of him that sent me on my mission to this people and to this world. "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God," was the motto and burden of his life. "Not my will, but thine," was the sacrificial cry which redeemed the world. To teach man to do the will of the Father is the motive which sustained him, and the prayer he put upon human lips was, "Thy will be done." Meyer here rightly says that ina is not equal to oti . Some expression is given by it as to the end and purpose of the mysterious life of which we have these sacred illustrations. The doing of the will of God is a perpetual and sublime activity, a continuing, ceaseless purpose; while the completion of the work will be one consummating act, towards which all the daily doing of the will is a preparation, and of which, in some sense, every day we discern a prelibation and forthshadowing. In Joh_17:4 he says, teleiwsav , "having completed the work thou," etc. This passage points on to that. (cf. also Joh_5:30, Joh_6:38 Joh_7:18 Joh_8:50 Joh_9:4 Joh_12:49, 50 14:31, etc.)

Spiritual work and spiritual food.

The incident in our Saviour"s ministry recorded in this narrative pictures him as possessed and engrossed by the very purest devotion to the great ends of his ministry. He had been thirsty; but he had lost all thought of bodily thirst in his absorbing interest in the living water and in the satisfaction of spiritual aspirations. He was in need of food; yet when his disciples brought him food from the city he was indifferent to it, for he had meat to eat which they knew not of. The work of his Father was the food of his soul. Christ"s language here exhibits

I THE HIGHEST VIEW OF SPIRITUAL AND BENEVOLENT EFFORT. This is all the more striking and wonderful when we remember the dignity, the Divinity of the Speaker.

1. All he did had reference to his Father. The "will" of the Father was for him supreme; the Father had "sent" him into the world for a definite purpose.

2. His mission was one of active service. Jesus, no doubt, came to live; to be himself, to suffer for our sins. But although his mere living among men was an incomparable lesson, though his death was of incomparable value, we must not lose sight of his activity, his ministry of energetic service.

3. His aim was to bring the undertaking committed to him to a conclusion honourable to himself and to the Father. In accomplishing, in finishing, his work, he found a Divine satisfaction. Allowing for the difference between Master and servants, we may recognize in Christ"s view of his life work the model for our own. To think thus of our human vocation will add a dignity to our life, an effectiveness to our ministry.

II THE PLACE WHICH A LIFE OF SPIRITUAL AND BENEVOLENT EFFORT HOLDS IN THE AFFECTIONS.

1. Work for God is the necessity of the Master and of the servants alike. As the body cannot live without food, so the higher nature cannot be maintained in health, in life, without work for God. It was so with Christ, who could forget water and bread, though thirsty and hungry, but who could not exist without labouring for the cause of human well being.

2. Work for God affords the servant of God the purest satisfaction and delight. The thirsty and famishing traveller is revived and gladdened when he comes where he can quench his thirst and satisfy his hunger. Greater joy did our Lord find when there opened up before him some opportunity of doing the will of God in securing the enlightenment, the conversion, the consolation, of some poor human soul.

3. Work for God, like food, strengthens for new and larger efforts. Work is its own wages. They who toil eat, and they who eat are the fitter for renewed and happy work. If it was thus with the Master and Lord, shall it not be thus with the disciple, the follower, the servant, the friend? We are encouraged, not only to take a high view of Christian service, but to seek in it our purest satisfaction, and the means of unceasing devotedness and usefulness. T.

The purpose of Jesus in eating.

I THE RESOURCES OF JESUS. The disciples had left their Master by the well, wearied, hungry, and thirsty, while they went to the city near by to get some food; certainly they would stay no longer than they could help, seeing Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. Returning to Jesus, they are astonished to find a change in his appearance. He looks fresh and satisfied. Jesus had ways for recruiting bodily strength and receiving bodily nourishment, such as lie beyond us. He was not hedged in by our limitations, though, as a general rule, he kept within them. Whatever nourishment there be in the customary channel of bread, God can send through some secret and special channel, if there be sufficient reason. And such a reason there was here. A weary, exhausted man could not talk to the woman of Samaria as she needed to be talked to. Jesus would always put himself in the best possible state physically for doing the Father"s will and finishing his work.

II THE PURPOSE IN EATING. Every human being, because he is a reflecting and, responsible being, is bound to consider the why and wherefore of every voluntary act. Jesus eats that he may satisfy hunger, but, when the hunger is satisfied, he seeks in the strength thus gained to go on fulfilling the great purpose of his life. Jesus tells us the purpose underlying every meal that he took. He was no ascetic, no imitator of John as to his food; doubtless he sat down at times in the company of gluttons and wine bibbers, but all the while he would make it plain that he did not eat and drink just to gratify appetite. We are not to eat as the brute beasts, conscious of a recurrent need and a recurrent pleasure, but with no purpose beyond serving the present bodily need, receiving the present bodily pleasure. When good digestion waits on appetite, and health on both, be sure that adds to the responsibilities of life. Having the health that comes from a sound and vigorous stomach, it will be required from us according to our health. It is a shame to see some in health and strength, using it all in selfish pleasure, while others, whose life is one constant struggle against disease and pain, yet manage to work on for God and Christ, their hearts unwearied, however wearied their bodies may be.

III THE EXAMPLE OF JESUS IN THIS MATTER. He used what health and strength he had to do the will of him that sent him. One feels that he must have been a thoroughly healthy man in body. We read of him being wearied; we never read of him being ill. That there should he in him great fulness of physical life is just what we might expect. He who requires us to use health and strength in doing the will of God, first of all so used health and strength himself. And how we benefit by the result of all this! There was much work to be done; Jesus was capable of much work, and so he did it. There was no wasted effort and energy; all his conversations and dealings with men were directed to a certain aim. Where should we have been, if he had not bent every energy and thought of life to the finishing of his Father"s work? All things had to be made subordinate to the mission. Jesus was speaking fresh from the gladness and encouragement he had got, because of his talk with the Samaritan woman. He who pointed his disciples to the fields white to harvest had done some reaping by that very talk; and he wants his disciples to aim at reaping also. We must have the bread that perisheth, and it will not come like the sunshine and the rain we must work to get it. But always beyond the bread and the pleasure of eating, and the strength to which the eating finishers, there must be the service of God. Even in a matter of routine and habit, like eating and drinking, let us aim to do the will of him who made us and. saved us, and get strength for doing such work as may be useful in his kingdom. Y.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

My meat - That which satisfies the strongest appetite of my soul.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

34. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. “Meat” in the Scripture means, not only flesh, but any kind of food. The Savior declares that to do the will of God is food to him. It is enjoyment and strength. It does not weary, but refreshes.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work

Here "food" is a metaphor that represents "obeying God's will." AT: "Just as food satisfies a hungry person, obeying God's will is what satisfies me" (See: Metaphor)

Do you not say

"Is this not one of your popular sayings"

look up and see the fields, for they are already ripe for harvest

The words "fields" and "ripe for harvest" are metaphors. The "fields" represent people. The words "ripe for harvest" mean that people are ready to receive the message of Jesus, like fields that are ready to be harvested. AT: "look up and see the the people! They are ready to believe my message, like crops in the fields that are ready for people to harvest them" (See: Metaphor)

and gathers fruit for everlasting life

Here "fruit for everlasting life" is a metaphor that represents people who believe Christ's message and receive eternal life. AT: "and the people who believe the message and receive eternal life are like the fruit that a harvester gathers" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

Jesus

works

harvest

fruit

eternity

life

plant

joy

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

34. ἐμὸν βρ. ἐστιν ἵνα. Ἐμόν is emphatic: My food is that I may do the will of Him that sent Me and (thus) perfect His work. Christ’s aim and purpose is His food. See on Joh 1:8; ἵνα is no mere periphrasis for the infinitive (Joh 6:29; Joh 6:40, Joh 17:3; 1Jn 3:11; 1Jn 5:3; comp. Joh 1:27, Joh 2:25, Joh 5:40). This verse recalls the reply to the tempter ‘man doth not live by bread alone,’ and to His parents ‘Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?’ Luk 4:4; Luk 2:49. It is the first of many such sayings in this Gospel, expressing Christ’s complete conformity to His Father’s will in doing His work (Joh 5:30, Joh 6:38, Joh 11:4, Joh 12:49-50, Joh 14:31, Joh 15:10, Joh 17:4). Τελειοῦν (not merely τελεῖν) means ‘to bring to a full end, make perfect;’ frequent in S. John (Joh 5:36, Joh 17:4; Joh 17:23, Joh 19:28; 1Jn 2:5; 1Jn 4:12; 1Jn 4:17) and in Hebrews.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

34.] Christ alone could properly say these words. In the believer on Him, they are partially true,—true as far as he has received the Spirit, and entered into the spiritual life;—but in Him they were absolutely and fully true. His whole life was the doing of the Father’s will. We can ‘eat and drink, &c. to the glory of God,’—but in Him the hallowing of the Father’s name, doing His will, bringing about His Kingdom, was His daily bread, and superseded the thoughts and desires for the other, needful as it was for His humanity.

ἵνα is not = ὅτι. The latter would imply what was true (but not here expressed), that the absolute doing, &c. was His food;—as it now stands, it implies that it was His food to carry onward to completion that work: to be ever, step after step, having regard to its being completed. My meat is (not to do, as E. V., but) that I may do, &c. In the τελειώσω αὐτοῦ τὸ ἔργον, the way is prepared for the idea introduced in the next verse. These words give an answer to the questioning in the minds of the disciples, and shew that He had been employed in the Father’s work during their absence.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

34. ποιήσω is read by BCDLNTbΘW the rec. text has ποιῶ, with אAΓΔ. Yet ποιήσω may be due to assimilation of tense with τελειώσω which follows.

Jesus answers the disciples by reminding them that it was in the fulfilment of His mission that He had His strength and His joy. He had been tired and, no doubt, hungry; but the joy of perceiving the receptiveness of the Samaritan woman and the eager welcome which the villagers gave Him was sufficient to renew His vigour of body as well as of spirit.

To do God’s will is the supreme obligation of man at every moment of life, and to it is attached the supreme reward (Mar 3:35, Mat 7:21, Joh 7:17, Joh 9:31 and passim). The condition “Thy will be done” (Mat 6:10) governs all Christian prayer, as it governed the prayer of Christ (Luk 22:42, Mat 26:42) at Gethsemane. Christ’s “meat” was to do the will of God, the metaphor being similar to that suggested by “Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word of God” (Deu 8:3), which was the Scripture thought that supported Him in His Temptation (Mat 4:4, Luk 4:4); cf. Job 23:12, Psa 119:103. It was in Him that the words of the Psalm, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God,” received their complete fulfilment (Psa 40:7, Psa 40:8 , Heb 10:7).

ἐμὸν βρῶμά ἐστιν ἵνα ποιήσω κτλ.: ἵνα has no telic force here (cf. 6:29, 15:8, 17:3), “My meat is to do, etc.” Wetstein quotes a good parallel from Thucyd. i. 70 μήτε ἑορτὴν ἄλλο τι ἡγεῖσθαι ἢ τὸ τὰ δέοντα πρᾶξαι.

βρῶμα is found in Jn. only in this verse; see above (v. 32) on βρῶσις. The thought is one which appears many times in Jn.; e.g. “I seek not mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me” (5:30), and “I am come down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me” (6:38); cf. 14:31 and Act 13:22.

τοῦ πέμψαντός με. For the conception of Jesus as “sent” by God, see on 3:17.

καὶ τελειώσω αὐτοῦ τὸ ἔργον, “and to accomplish His work.” “To do God’s will” is, in a measure, within the reach of any man, but “to accomplish His work,” to perform it perfectly and completely, was possible only for the Son of Man. This perfection of achievement bore witness to the uniqueness of His mission: “The works that the Father hath given me to accomplish bear witness that the Father hath sent me” (5:36). So at the close of His ministry He could say, “I have accomplished the work which Thou hast given me to do” (17:4); and from the Cross came the word τετέλεσται (19:30).

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Meat [βρωμα] . A different word from that in ver. 32, signifying what is eaten.

To do [ινα ποιω] . Literally, in order that I do. Emphasizing the end and not the process. Frequently so used in John. See on 3 19.

Finish [πελειωσω] . Better, as Rev., accomplish. Not merely bring to an end, but perfect. From teleiov, perfect. The verb is characteristic of John, and of the Epistle to the Hebrews. See Joh 5:36; Joh 17:4; Joh 19:28; 1Jo 2:5; 1Jo 4:12; Heb 2:10; Heb 5:9, etc.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.