Gospel according to John 6

¹ Some time after this, Jesus went off to the other side of the Sea of Galilee – or of Tiberias –

² and a large crowd followed him, impressed by the signs he gave by curing the sick.

³ Jesus climbed the hillside, and sat down there with his disciples.

⁴ It was shortly before the Jewish feast of Passover.

⁵ Looking up, Jesus saw the crowds approaching and said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?’

⁶ He only said this to test Philip; he himself knew exactly what he was going to do.

⁷ Philip answered, ‘Two hundred denarii would only buy enough to give them a small piece each’.

⁸ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said,

⁹ ‘There is a small boy here with five barley loaves and two fish; but what is that between so many?’

¹⁰ Jesus said to them, ‘Make the people sit down’. There was plenty of grass there, and as many as five thousand men sat down.

¹¹ Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave them out to all who were sitting ready; he then did the same with the fish, giving out as much as was wanted.

¹² When they had eaten enough he said to the disciples, ‘Pick up the pieces left over, so that nothing gets wasted’.

¹³ So they picked them up, and filled twelve hampers with scraps left over from the meal of five barley loaves.

¹⁴ The people, seeing this sign that he had given, said, ‘This really is the prophet who is to come into the world’.

¹⁵ Jesus, who could see they were about to come and take him by force and make him king, escaped back to the hills by himself.

¹⁶ That evening the disciples went down to the shore of the lake and

¹⁷ got into a boat to make for Capernaum on the other side of the lake. It was getting dark by now and Jesus had still not rejoined them.

¹⁸ The wind was strong, and the sea was getting rough.

¹⁹ They had rowed three or four miles when they saw Jesus walking on the lake and coming towards the boat. This frightened them,

²⁰ but he said, ‘It is I. Do not be afraid.’

²¹ They were for taking him into the boat, but in no time it reached the shore at the place they were making for.

²² Next day, the crowd that had stayed on the other side saw that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that the disciples had set off by themselves.

²³ Other boats, however, had put in from Tiberias, near the place where the bread had been eaten.

²⁴ When the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into those boats and crossed to Capernaum to look for Jesus.

²⁵ When they found him on the other side, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’

²⁶ Jesus answered: ‘I tell you most solemnly, you are not looking for me because you have seen the signs but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat.

²⁷ Do not work for food that cannot last, but work for food that endures to eternal life, the kind of food the Son of Man is offering you, for on him the Father, God himself, has set his seal.’

²⁸ Then they said to him, ‘What must we do if we are to do the works that God wants?’

²⁹ Jesus gave them this answer, ‘This is working for God: you must believe in the one he has sent’.

³⁰ So they said, ‘What Sign will you give to show us that we should believe in you? What work will you do?

³¹ Our fathers had manna to eat in the desert; as scripture says: He gave them bread from heaven to eat'[*a].

³² Jesus answered: ‘I tell you most solemnly, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven, the true bread;

³³ for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world’.

³⁴ ‘Sir,’ they said ‘give us that bread always.’

³⁵ Jesus answered: ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never be hungry; he who believes in me will never thirst.

³⁶ But, as I have told you, you can see me and still you do not believe.

³⁷ All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I shall not turn him away;

³⁸ because I have come from heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of the one who sent me.

³⁹ Now the will of him who sent me is that I should lose nothing of all that he has given to me, and that I should raise it up on the last day.

⁴⁰ Yes, it is my Father’s will that whoever sees the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and that I shall raise him up on the last day.’

⁴¹ Meanwhile the Jews were complaining to each other about him, because he had said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven’.

⁴² ‘Surely this is Jesus son of Joseph’ they said. ‘We know his father and mother. How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven”?’

⁴³ Jesus said in reply, ‘Stop complaining to each other.

⁴⁴ ‘No one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise him up at the last day.

⁴⁵ It is written in the prophets: They will all be taught by God,[*b] and to hear the teaching of the Father, and learn from it, is to come to me.

⁴⁶ Not that anybody has seen the Father, except the one who comes from God: he has seen the Father.

⁴⁷ I tell you most solemnly, everybody who believes has eternal life.

⁴⁸ I am the bread of life.

⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and they are dead;

⁵⁰ but this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a man may eat it and not die.

⁵¹ I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.’

⁵² Then the Jews started arguing with one another: ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ they said.

⁵³ Jesus replied: I tell you most solemnly, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you.

⁵⁴ Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day.

⁵⁵ For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.

⁵⁶ He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him.

⁵⁷ As I, who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me.

⁵⁸ This is the bread come down from heaven; not like the bread our ancestors ate: they are dead, but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.’

⁵⁹ He taught this doctrine at Capernaum, in the synagogue.

⁶⁰ After hearing it, many of his followers said, ‘This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?’

⁶¹ Jesus was aware that his followers were complaining about it and said, ‘Does this upset you?

⁶² What if you should see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?

⁶³ ‘It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.

⁶⁴ ‘But there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the outset those who did not believe, and who it was that would betray him.

⁶⁵ He went on, ‘This is why I told you that no one could come to me unless the Father allows him’.

⁶⁶ After this, many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him.

⁶⁷ Then Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’

⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life,

⁶⁹ and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God.’

⁷⁰ Jesus replied, ‘Have I not chosen you, you Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.’

⁷¹ He meant Judas son of Simon Iscariot, since this was the man, one of the Twelve, who was going to betray him.