After this, Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias). 2 A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs he was doing on those who were sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near.
5 When Jesus looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy bread so these people can eat?” 6 He said this to test him, because he already knew what he was about to do.
7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread wouldn’t be enough for each of them to get even a little.”[1]
8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are those for so many people?”[2]
10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place. So the men sat down — about five thousand of them. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were seated. He did the same with the fish, as much as they wanted.
12 When they had eaten their fill, he said to his disciples, “Gather up the leftover pieces so nothing goes to waste.” 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with pieces from the five barley loaves — what was left over after everyone had eaten.
14 When the people saw the sign that Jesus had done, they said, “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”[3] 15 Jesus knew they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, so he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea. 17 They got into a boat and started across the sea toward Capernaum. It was already dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 A strong wind was blowing, and the sea was getting rough.
19 After they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat. They were terrified.[4] 20 But he said to them, “I am. Don’t be afraid.” 21 Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and right away the boat reached the land they were heading for.
22 The next day, the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there. They also saw that Jesus had not gotten into the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had left alone. 23 Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus answered them, “Amen, amen, I tell you: you’re looking for me not because you saw signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. 27 Don’t work for the food that spoils, but for the food that lasts into eternal life — the food the Son of Man will give you. For God the Father has set his seal on him.”
28 So they said to him, “What should we do so that we’re doing the works of God?”
29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God: that you believe in the one he sent.”
30 So they said to him, “What sign will you do, then, so we can see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the desert, just as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”[5]
32 Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I tell you: Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven. My Father is giving you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 They said to him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But I told you: you’ve seen me, and yet you don’t believe. 37 Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I’ve come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of the one who sent me. 39 And this is the will of the one who sent me: that I should lose none of all he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is my Father’s will: that everyone who looks at the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.”
41 The Jews began grumbling about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They were saying, “Isn’t this Jesus, Joseph’s son? We know his father and mother. How can he now say, ‘I’ve come down from heaven’?”
43 Jesus answered them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up on the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets: ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard from the Father and learned comes to me. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father — only the one who is from God has seen the Father. 47 Amen, amen, I tell you: whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert and died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a person may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, they will live forever. And the bread I will give is my flesh — for the life of the world.”
52 The Jews then argued among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
53 So 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. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me will also live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven — not like the bread your ancestors ate, and they died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
59 He said these things while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
60 When many of his disciples heard this, they said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?”
61 Jesus knew in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, so he said to them, “Does this trip you up? 62 What if you were to see the Son of Man going up where he was before? 63 The Spirit is what gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I’ve spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who don’t believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who the ones were who didn’t believe, and who was going to hand him over. 65 He said, “That’s why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to them by the Father.”
66 From this point, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
67 So Jesus said to the Twelve, “You don’t want to leave too, do you?”
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, who would we go to? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
70 Jesus answered them, “Didn’t I choose you twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He was speaking of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. For he — one of the Twelve — was about to hand him over.[6]
Notes
Note 1. A denarius was roughly a day’s wage for a laborer, so two hundred denarii represented something like two-thirds of a year’s wages. ↩
Note 2. Barley bread was the cheaper grain, the everyday fare of the poor, while wheat was for those who could afford it. ↩
Note 3. The words echo Moses’ promise in Deuteronomy 18:15–18 that God would raise up “a prophet like me” for Israel. By the first century many expected a specific end-times figure answering that description. ↩
Note 4. The Greek says twenty-five or thirty stadia. A stadion was about 185 meters (roughly 600 feet), so that comes to somewhere around three to three and a half miles — putting the disciples out toward the middle of the lake when they saw Jesus. ↩
Note 5. The words quoted concern the manna God rained down during the desert years — wording closest to Psalm 78:24, with the story itself told in Exodus 16. ↩
Note 6. “Iscariot” is most widely read as “man of Kerioth,” a town in Judea — which would make Judas possibly the only non-Galilean among the Twelve. Some have proposed a link to the Latin sicarius (“dagger-man,” a violent zealot), but that reading is far less certain. ↩