The bread of life discourse is one of the most difficult Bible passages to comprehend. It is a favorite of mine, and I have read it hundreds of times & have researched it in the early writings. As Jesus observed (and you pointed out), the skeptics had followed Him in hope of getting more free food. Jesus' primary purpose in this pericope was to convince them to believe in Him as Messiah/Savior. Joh 6:26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Joh 6:27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Joh 6:28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Joh 6:29 Jesus answered them, _“This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”_ Joh 6:30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Joh 6:31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Joh 6:32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. Joh 6:33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Joh 6:34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Joh 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; _whoever comes to me_ shall not hunger, and _whoever believes in me_ shall never thirst. Joh 6:36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Jesus likened Himself to the breadlike manna which fell from the sky to sustain the Israelites temporally. But coming to and believing in Jesus is sustenance which nourishes spiritually and lasts eternally. Jesus continues to stress this aspect, this need for people to believe (come to faith) in Him: Joh 6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Joh 6:47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me has eternal life. What a wondrous promise! Surely we can trust our Savior when He says, "Whoever believes" is granted everlasting life! Along the way of this discussion, as the skeptics continue to look for another food-producing miracle, Jesus says twice more that He is bread. How do we understand that? Did Jesus literally transform Himself into a loaf of baked bread? No, of course not. So we know that He was _likening_ Himself to bread; He was speaking figuratively by using food metaphors, because food was on the people's minds. Because Jesus is clearly speaking figuratively when He says He is bread (in verses 35, 48, and 51), we should continue to utilize the same interpretive hermeneutic in the following verses, 53-58. Thus, Jesus continues to use figurative language when He speaks about "eating" His flesh and "drinking" His blood. As St. Augustine taught in the text of "On Christian Doctrine” (Book 3): *"Chap. 16.-Rule for interpreting commands and prohibitions* "24. If the sentence is one of command, either forbidding a crime or vice, or enjoining an act of prudence or benevolence, it is not figurative. If, however, it seems to enjoin a crime or vice, or to forbid an act of prudence or benevolence, it is figurative. "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man," says Christ, "and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." This seems to enjoin a crime or a vice; *it is therefore a figure,* enjoining that we should have a share in the sufferings of our Lord, and that we should retain a sweet and profitable memory of the fact that His flesh was wounded and crucified for us." That the figurative interpretation is correct is bolstered by looking at the Greek manuscripts, which reveal the use of the 'present active participle' in verses 35 and 54. This tense always indicates that _present action_ is being called for. Joh 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; _whoever comes to me_ shall not hunger, and _whoever believes in me_ shall never thirst. Joh 6:54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. Therefore, in essence Jesus was saying: come to me now in faith and you'll never hunger again; believe in me now and you'll never spiritually thirst again. Whoever eats my flesh now and drinks my blood _right now_ will have eternal life. Impliedly: unless you eat and drink me right now, you have no life in you (v.53). Those people had no way to literally ingest Jesus physically on that day, did they? They could only “ingest” Him by faith, by believing in Him (much as Augustine advocated). Since Jesus was not literally inviting them to take a bite out of his arm or to slit open his vein for a drink, he must have been referring back to the thought he'd expressed in verse 35: for food and drink that satisfies, come to me in faith and believe in me. To sum up this point, *Jesus could not have been teaching them about the Last Supper (which was still a year in the future),* because the use of the 'present active participle' does not comport with an indication toward future action. The action Jesus exhorted them to take was to believe in Him _right then,_ on that very day. This interpretation of the discourse harmonizes with the whole of the New Testament, for we are told repeatedly that God grants saving grace unto justification and eternal life _through faith_ (John 3:14-18; Mark 16:16; Romans 10:9-13; Galatians 3:1-14) and that it is through _faith apart from works_ (Romans 3:10-5:19; Ephesians 1:3-2:10) that God bestows the gift of grace upon us; but we never, ever see _anywhere else in Scripture_ a teaching that we are saved through the outward act of ingesting something via the digestive tract. If we were to interpret John 6:53-54 with complete literalness, then we produce a dilemma: the verses would contradict the many other plain statements in Scripture about the means through which God gives eternal life. Joh 6:47 "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me has eternal life." Joh 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Joh 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Joh 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. A literal reading of this statement leads one to conclude that faith in Christ is the sole prerequisite for receiving the gift, and failure to have faith in Christ is the reason for condemnation. Joh 6:53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Joh 6:54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. A literal reading of the latter statement leads one to conclude that _eating and drinking (not faith)_ is the sole prerequisite, and failure to eat and drink is the reason for condemnation. Both cannot be true. 2 Cor. 13:1 says, "...Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses." Since the former statement (about faith in Jesus) is so well attested in Scripture, and since the latter one is never attested to by any other Scripture, we must interpret so as to harmonize the two statements. The way we do that is by understanding the latter statement (eating and drinking) as figurative/metaphoric language, just as Augustine understood it. Peace.
The bread of life discourse is one of the most difficult Bible passages to comprehend. It is a favorite of mine, and I have read it hundreds of times & have researched it in the early writings.
As Jesus observed (and you pointed out), the skeptics had followed Him in hope of getting more free food. Jesus' primary purpose in this pericope was to convince them to believe in Him as Messiah/Savior.
Joh 6:26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.
Joh 6:27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”
Joh 6:28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”
Joh 6:29 Jesus answered them, _“This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”_
Joh 6:30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?
Joh 6:31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
Joh 6:32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
Joh 6:33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Joh 6:34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Joh 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; _whoever comes to me_ shall not hunger, and _whoever believes in me_ shall never thirst.
Joh 6:36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.
Jesus likened Himself to the breadlike manna which fell from the sky to sustain the Israelites temporally. But coming to and believing in Jesus is sustenance which nourishes spiritually and lasts eternally. Jesus continues to stress this aspect, this need for people to believe (come to faith) in Him:
Joh 6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Joh 6:47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me has eternal life.
What a wondrous promise! Surely we can trust our Savior when He says, "Whoever believes" is granted everlasting life!
Along the way of this discussion, as the skeptics continue to look for another food-producing miracle, Jesus says twice more that He is bread. How do we understand that? Did Jesus literally transform Himself into a loaf of baked bread? No, of course not. So we know that He was _likening_ Himself to bread; He was speaking figuratively by using food metaphors, because food was on the people's minds. Because Jesus is clearly speaking figuratively when He says He is bread (in verses 35, 48, and 51), we should continue to utilize the same interpretive hermeneutic in the following verses, 53-58. Thus, Jesus continues to use figurative language when He speaks about "eating" His flesh and "drinking" His blood. As St. Augustine taught in the text of "On Christian Doctrine” (Book 3):
*"Chap. 16.-Rule for interpreting commands and prohibitions*
"24. If the sentence is one of command, either forbidding a crime or vice, or enjoining an act of
prudence or benevolence, it is not figurative. If, however, it seems to enjoin a crime or vice, or to
forbid an act of prudence or benevolence, it is figurative. "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of
man," says Christ, "and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." This seems to enjoin a crime or
a vice; *it is therefore a figure,* enjoining that we should have a share in the sufferings of our Lord,
and that we should retain a sweet and profitable memory of the fact that His flesh was wounded
and crucified for us."
That the figurative interpretation is correct is bolstered by looking at the Greek manuscripts, which reveal the use of the 'present active participle' in verses 35 and 54. This tense always indicates that _present action_ is being called for.
Joh 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; _whoever comes to me_ shall not hunger, and _whoever believes in me_ shall never thirst.
Joh 6:54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
Therefore, in essence Jesus was saying: come to me now in faith and you'll never hunger again; believe in me now and you'll never spiritually thirst again. Whoever eats my flesh now and drinks my blood _right now_ will have eternal life. Impliedly: unless you eat and drink me right now, you have no life in you (v.53).
Those people had no way to literally ingest Jesus physically on that day, did they? They could only “ingest” Him by faith, by believing in Him (much as Augustine advocated). Since Jesus was not literally inviting them to take a bite out of his arm or to slit open his vein for a drink, he must have been referring back to the thought he'd expressed in verse 35: for food and drink that satisfies, come to me in faith and believe in me.
To sum up this point, *Jesus could not have been teaching them about the Last Supper (which was still a year in the future),* because the use of the 'present active participle' does not comport with an indication toward future action. The action Jesus exhorted them to take was to believe in Him _right then,_ on that very day.
This interpretation of the discourse harmonizes with the whole of the New Testament, for we are told repeatedly that God grants saving grace unto justification and eternal life _through faith_ (John 3:14-18; Mark 16:16; Romans 10:9-13; Galatians 3:1-14) and that it is through _faith apart from works_ (Romans 3:10-5:19; Ephesians 1:3-2:10) that God bestows the gift of grace upon us; but we never, ever see _anywhere else in Scripture_ a teaching that we are saved through the outward act of ingesting something via the digestive tract. If we were to interpret John 6:53-54 with complete literalness, then we produce a dilemma: the verses would contradict the many other plain statements in Scripture about the means through which God gives eternal life.
Joh 6:47 "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me has eternal life."
Joh 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Joh 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Joh 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
A literal reading of this statement leads one to conclude that faith in Christ is the sole prerequisite for receiving the gift, and failure to have faith in Christ is the reason for condemnation.
Joh 6:53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
Joh 6:54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
A literal reading of the latter statement leads one to conclude that _eating and drinking (not faith)_ is the sole prerequisite, and failure to eat and drink is the reason for condemnation.
Both cannot be true. 2 Cor. 13:1 says, "...Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses." Since the former statement (about faith in Jesus) is so well attested in Scripture, and since the latter one is never attested to by any other Scripture, we must interpret so as to harmonize the two statements. The way we do that is by understanding the latter statement (eating and drinking) as figurative/metaphoric language, just as Augustine understood it.
Peace.