John 6:22–71

The People Seek Jesus

²²Next day the crowd which had stayed on the other side of the lake realized that there had been only one boat there. They knew that Jesus had not gone in it with his disciples, but that they had left without him. ²³Other boats, which were from Tiberias, came to shore near the place where the crowd had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. ²⁴When the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they got into those boats and went to Capernaum, looking for him.

Jesus the Bread of Life

²⁵When the people found Jesus on the other side of the lake, they said to him, “Teacher, when did you get here?”

²⁶Jesus answered, “I am telling you the truth: you are looking for me because you ate the bread and had all you wanted, not because you understood my miracles. ²⁷Do not work for food that goes bad; instead, work for the food that lasts for eternal life. This is the food which the Son of Man will give you, because God, the Father, has put his mark of approval on him.”

²⁸So they asked him, “What can we do in order to do what God wants us to do?”

²⁹Jesus answered, “What God wants you to do is to believe in the one he sent.”

³⁰They replied, “What miracle will you perform so that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? ^31*Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, just as the scripture says, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”

³²“I am telling you the truth,” Jesus said. “What Moses gave you was not^o the bread from heaven; it is my Father who gives you the real bread from heaven. ³³For the bread that God gives is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴“Sir,” they asked him, “give us this bread always.”

³⁵“I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “Those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶Now, I told you that you have seen me but will not believe. ³⁷Everyone whom my Father gives me will come to me. I will never turn away anyone who comes to me, ³⁸because I have come down from heaven to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me. ³⁹And it is the will of him who sent me that I should not lose any of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them all to life on the last day. ⁴⁰For what my Father wants is that all who see the Son and believe in him should have eternal life. And I will raise them to life on the last day.”

⁴¹The people started grumbling about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴²So they said, “This man is Jesus son of Joseph, isn’t he? We know his father and mother. How, then, does he now say he came down from heaven?”

⁴³Jesus answered, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. ⁴⁴No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him to me; and I will raise him to life on the last day. ^45*The prophets wrote, ‘Everyone will be taught by God.’ Anyone who hears the Father and learns from him comes to me. ⁴⁶This does not mean that anyone has seen the Father; he who is from God is the only one who has seen the Father. ⁴⁷I am telling you the truth: he who believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but they died. ⁵⁰But the bread that comes down from heaven is of such a kind that whoever eats it will not die. ⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live for ever. The bread that I will give him is my flesh, which I give so that the world may live.”

⁵²This started an angry argument among them. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they asked.

⁵³Jesus said to them, “I am telling you the truth: if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in yourselves. ⁵⁴Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them to life on the last day. ⁵⁵For my flesh is the real food; my blood is the real drink. ⁵⁶Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me, and I live in them. ⁵⁷The living Father sent me, and because of him I live also. In the same way whoever eats me will live because of me. ⁵⁸This, then, is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the bread that your ancestors ate. They later died, but those who eat this bread will live for ever.”

⁵⁹Jesus said this as he taught in the synagogue in Capernaum.

The Words of Eternal Life

⁶⁰Many of his followers heard this and said, “This teaching is too hard. Who can listen to it?”

⁶¹Without being told, Jesus knew that they were grumbling about this, so he said to them, “Does this make you want to give up? ⁶²Suppose, then, that you should see the Son of Man go back up to the place where he was before? ⁶³What gives life is God’s Spirit; human power is of no use at all. The words I have spoken to you bring God’s life-giving Spirit. ⁶⁴Yet some of you do not believe.” (Jesus knew from the very beginning who were the ones that would not believe and which one would betray him.) ⁶⁵And he added, “This is the very reason I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father makes it possible for him to do so.”

⁶⁶Because of this, many of Jesus’ followers turned back and would not go with him any more. ⁶⁷So he asked the twelve disciples, “And you—would you also like to leave?”

^68*Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. ^69*And now we believe and know that you are the Holy One who has come from God.”

⁷⁰Jesus replied, “I chose the twelve of you, didn’t I? Yet one of you is a devil!” ⁷¹He was talking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. For Judas, even though he was one of the twelve disciples, was going to betray him.