Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
Strove (emaxonto). Imperfect (inchoative) middle of maxomai, to fight in armed combat (Acts 7:26), then to wage a war of words as here and II Timothy 2:24. They were already murmuring (John 6:41), now they began bitter strife with one another over the last words of Jesus (John 6:43-51), some probably seeing a spiritual meaning in them. There was division of opinion about Jesus in Jerusalem also later (John 7:12, John 7:40; John 9:16; John 10:19).
How can? (Pwv dunatai). The very idiom used by Nicodemus in John 3:4, John 3:9. Here scornful disbelief.
This man (outov). Contemptuous use pictured in verse John 6:42.
His flesh to eat (thn sarka autou fagein). As if we were cannibals! Some MSS. do not have autou, but the meaning is clear. The mystical appropriation of Christ by the believer (Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 3:17) they could not comprehend, though some apparently were against this literal interpretation of "flesh" (sarc).
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing John 6:52:
John 6:39
John 6:54
John 10:19
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