John 6:41–59

⁴¹Then the Jews began to complain about Jesus. That was because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴²They said, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph? Don’t we know his father and mother? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

⁴³“Stop complaining among yourselves,” Jesus answered. ⁴⁴“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me brings him. Then I will raise him up on the last day.

⁴⁵“It is written in the Prophets, ‘God will teach all of them.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.

⁴⁶“No one has seen the Father except the One who has come from God. Only he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷What I’m about to tell you is true. Everyone who believes has life forever.

⁴⁸“I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹Long ago your people ate the manna in the desert, and they still died. ⁵⁰But here is the bread that comes down from heaven. A person can eat it and not die. ⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Everyone who eats some of this bread will live forever. The bread is my body. I will give it for the life of the world.”

⁵²Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves. They said, “How can this man give us his body to eat?”

⁵³Jesus said to them, “What I’m about to tell you is true. You must eat the Son of Man’s body and drink his blood. If you don’t, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴Anyone who eats my body and drinks my blood has eternal life. I will raise him up on the last day.

⁵⁵“My body is real food. My blood is real drink. ⁵⁶Anyone who eats my body and drinks my blood remains in me. And I remain in him.

⁵⁷“The living Father sent me, and I live because of him. In the same way, those who feed on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸This is the bread that came down from heaven. Long ago your people ate manna and died. But those who feed on this bread will live forever.”

⁵⁹He said this while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.