John 6:41-71 ▼

41 Now the Jews began to find fault about Him because of His claiming to be the bread which came down out of Heaven.

42 They kept asking, "Is not this man Joseph's son? Is he not Jesus, whose father and mother we know? What does he mean by now saying, 'I have come down out of Heaven'?"

43 "Do not thus find fault among yourselves," replied Jesus;

44 "no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; then I will raise him to life on the last day.

45 It stands written in the Prophets, 'And they shall all of them be taught by God'. Every one who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to me.

46 No one has ever seen the Father--except Him who is from God. He has seen the Father.

47 "In most solemn truth I tell you that he who believes has the Life of the Ages.

48 I am the bread of Life.

49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the Desert, and they died.

50 Here is the bread that comes down out of Heaven that a man may eat it and not die.

51 I am the living bread come down out of Heaven. If a man eats this bread, he shall live for ever. Moreover the bread which I will give is my flesh given for the life of the world."

52 This led to an angry debate among the Jews. "How can this man," they argued, "give us his flesh to eat?"

53 "In most solemn truth I tell you," said Jesus, "that unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no Life in you.

54 He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has the Life of the Ages, and I will raise him up on the last day.

55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

56 He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in union with me, and I remain in union with him.

57 As the ever-living Father has sent me, and I live because of the Father, so also he who eats me will live because of me.

58 This is the bread which came down out of Heaven; it is unlike that which your forefathers ate--for they ate and yet died. He who eats this bread shall live for ever."

59 Jesus said all this in the synagogue while teaching at Capernaum.

60 Many therefore of His disciples, when they heard it, said, "This is hard to accept. Who can listen to such teaching?"

61 But, knowing in Himself that His disciples were dissatisfied about it, Jesus asked them,

62 "Does this seem incredible to you? What then if you were to see the Son of Man ascending again where He was before?

63 It is the spirit which gives Life. The flesh confers no benefit whatever. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and are Life.

64 But there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were that did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him.

65 So He added, "That is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it be granted him by the Father."

66 Thereupon many of His disciples left Him and went away, and no longer associated with Him.

67 Jesus therefore appealed to the Twelve. "Will you go also?" He asked.

68 "Master," replied Simon Peter, "to whom shall we go? Your teachings tell us of the Life of the Ages.

69 And we have come to believe and know that *you* are indeed the Holy One of God."

70 "Did not I choose you--the Twelve?" said Jesus, "and even of you one is a devil."

71 He alluded to Judas, the son of Simon the Iscariot. For he it was who, though one of the Twelve, was afterwards to betray Him.