John 6:41–59

⁴¹The Jews began to criticize Jesus for saying, “I am the bread that came from heaven.” ⁴²They asked, “Isn’t this man Jesus, Joseph’s son? Don’t we know his father and mother? How can he say now, ‘I came from heaven’?” 

⁴³Jesus responded, “Stop criticizing me! ⁴⁴People cannot come to me unless the Father who sent me brings them to me. I will bring these people back to life on the last day. ⁴⁵The prophets wrote, ‘God will teach everyone.’ Those who do what they have learned from the Father come to me. ⁴⁶I’m saying that no one has seen the Father. Only the one who is from God has seen the Father. ⁴⁷I can guarantee this truth: Every believer has eternal life. 

⁴⁸“I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert and died. ⁵⁰This is the bread that comes from heaven so that whoever eats it won’t die. ⁵¹I am the living bread that came from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. The bread I will give to bring life to the world is my flesh.” 

⁵²The Jews began to quarrel with each other. They said, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 

⁵³Jesus told them, “I can guarantee this truth: If you don’t eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you don’t have the source of life in you. ⁵⁴Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will bring them back to life on the last day. ⁵⁵My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me, and I live in them. ⁵⁷The Father who has life sent me, and I live because of the Father. So those who feed on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸This is the bread that came from heaven. It is not like the bread your ancestors ate. They eventually died. Those who eat this bread will live forever.” 

⁵⁹Jesus said this while he was teaching in a synagogue in Capernaum.