John 6

¹After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (also called the Sea of Tiberias). ²A large crowd was following him because they were seeing the signs he was performing on those who were ill. ³Jesus went up onto the mountain and sat there with his disciples. ⁴Now the Passover, the festival of the Judeans, was near.

⁵Lifting his eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where should we buy bread so that these people may eat?” ⁶He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was about to do. ⁷Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to receive even a small piece.” ⁸One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, ⁹“There is a young boy here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are these for so many people?”

¹⁰Jesus said, “Make the people recline.” Now there was plenty of grass in that place. So the men reclined, numbering about five thousand. ¹¹Then Jesus took the loaves, and after giving thanks, he distributed them to those who were reclining; he did the same with the fish, giving them as much as they wanted. ¹²When they were satisfied, he said to his disciples, “Gather the surplus fragments, so that nothing is wasted.” ¹³So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. ¹⁴When the people saw the sign he had performed, they began to say, “This is truly the Prophet who is coming into the world!” ¹⁵Knowing that they were about to come and seize him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

¹⁶When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, ¹⁷got into a boat, and started across the sea toward Capernaum. Darkness had already fallen, and Jesus had not yet come to them. ¹⁸The sea was becoming turbulent because a strong wind was blowing. ¹⁹When they had rowed about twenty-five or thirty stadia, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. ²⁰But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” ²¹Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land they were heading for.

²²The next day, the crowd that had remained on the other side of the sea realized that only one small boat had been there. They knew that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. ²³However, other small boats from Tiberias arrived near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. ²⁴When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the small boats and went to Capernaum searching for Jesus. ²⁵When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

²⁶Jesus answered them, “Amen, amen, I tell you: you are looking for me not because you saw signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled to satisfaction. ²⁷Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that remains for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him, God the Father has placed his seal.” ²⁸Then they asked him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” ²⁹Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God: that you believe in the one whom he sent.”

³⁰So they said to him, “Then what sign will you perform, so that we may see it and believe you? What work will you do? ³¹Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” ³²Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I tell you: it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” ³⁴They said to him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”

³⁵Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶But I told you that you have seen me and yet you do not believe. ³⁷Everything the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out. ³⁸For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of the one who sent me. ³⁹And this is the will of the one who sent me: that I should lose nothing of all he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. ⁴⁰For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who looks upon the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

⁴¹Then the Judeans began grumbling about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴²They were saying, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” ⁴³Jesus answered them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. ⁴⁴No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁴⁵It is written in the Prophets: ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. ⁴⁶Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷Amen, amen, I tell you: the one who believes has eternal life.

⁴⁸I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

⁵²Then the Judeans began to argue sharply with one another, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” ⁵³So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I tell you: unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. ⁵⁴The one who gnaws on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁵⁵For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶The one who gnaws on my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will also live because of me. ⁵⁸This is the bread that came down from heaven—not like the bread the fathers ate and died. The one who gnaws on this bread will live forever.” ⁵⁹He said these things while teaching in a synagogue in Capernaum.

⁶⁰When many of his disciples heard this, they said, “This is a hard word. Who can listen to it?” ⁶¹Knowing within himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? ⁶²What then if you should see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? ⁶³The Spirit is the one who gives life; the flesh is of no use at all. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. ⁶⁴But there are some among you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who the one was who would betray him. ⁶⁵And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by the Father.”

⁶⁶Because of this, many of his disciples turned back to their former lives and no longer walked with him. ⁶⁷So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” ⁶⁸Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹We have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.” ⁷⁰Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.” ⁷¹He was speaking of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he—one of the Twelve—was about to betray him.