surprisingly they frame their inquiries in terms of what is already familiar to them of Moses in times past: “Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat’ ” (v. 31; cf. Exod. 16:15). In Jesus’ reply we hear a striking shift of tense from past to present. It is not who “gave,” in the sense of whose earthly giving of manna from heaven happened in the past, but who now “gives” the bread that is coming down from heaven and granting life to the