37 Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out.aj 38 For I have come down from heaven,ak not to do my own will, but the will of himal who sent me. 39 This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raiseam them up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father:an that everyone who sees the Sonao and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raiseap him up on the last day.”

41 Therefore the Jews started grumbling about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They were saying, “Isn’t this Jesus the son of Joseph,aq whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

43 Jesus answered them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me drawsA him, and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets:a And they will all be taught by God.B,b Everyone who has listened to and learned from the Fatherc comes to me—46 not that anyone has seen the Fatherd except the one who is from God.e He has seen the Father.f

47 “Truly I tell you, anyone who believesC has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the mannag in the wilderness,h and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that anyone may eat of it and not die.i 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will livej forever.k The bread that I will give for the lifel of the world is my flesh.”m

52 At that, the Jews arguedn among themselves,o “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Manp and drink his blood,q you do not have life in yourselves. 54 The one who eats my flesh and drinks my bloodr has eternal life, and I will raises him up on the last day, 55 because my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.t 57 Just as the livingu Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will livev because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the mannaD your ancestors ate—and they died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”w

59 He said these things while teaching in the synagoguex in Capernaum.y

MANY DISCIPLES DESERT JESUS

60 Therefore, when many of his disciples heard this, they said, “This teaching is hard. Who can acceptE it?”

61 Jesus, knowing in himselfz that his disciples were grumbling about this, asked them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you were to observe the Son of Manaa ascendingab to where he was before? 63 The Spiritac is the one who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64 But there are some among you who don’t believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginningad those who did notF believe and the one who would betrayae him.) 65 He said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to meaf unless it is granted to him by the Father.”

66 From that momentG many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him.