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John 6

1After these things Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of Tiberias. 2A large crowd followed him because they saw the signs he was doing for the sick. 3Jesus went up the mountain and sat there with his disciples. 4The Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 5Jesus lifted his eyes and saw a large crowd coming toward him. He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each to receive a little.” 8One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, 9“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two small fish. But what are these for so many?” 10Jesus said, “Have the people recline.” There was much grass in the place. So the men reclined, about five thousand in number. 11Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those reclining, and likewise the fish, as much as they wanted. 12When they were filled, he said to his disciples, “Gather the leftover pieces, so that nothing is lost.” 13They gathered them and filled twelve baskets with pieces from the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. 14When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This truly is the Prophet who is coming into the world.” 15Jesus knew that they were about to come and seize him to make him king, so he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

16When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17got into a boat, and set out across the sea for Capernaum. It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18The sea was rising 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 afraid. 20But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21They were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

22The next day the crowd standing on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one small boat there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but his disciples had left alone. 23But small boats came from Tiberias near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord gave thanks. 24When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the small boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. 25Finding him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

26Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I tell you: you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. 27Work not for food that perishes, but for food that remains for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God himself, has set his seal.” 28They said to him, “What must we do to work the works of God?” 29Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God: that you believe in the one he sent.” 30They said to him, “Then what sign do you do, so that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I tell you: Moses has not given 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, “Sir, always give us this bread.”

35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will certainly not hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. 36But I told you that you have seen me and still do not believe. 37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will certainly not throw out. 38For I have come down from heaven to do not my own will, but the will of the one who sent me. 39This 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 my Father's will: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

41The Jews grumbled about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42They said, “Is this not Jesus, Joseph's son, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble 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, ‘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. 47Truly, truly, I tell you: whoever believes has eternal life. 48I am the bread of life. 49Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and 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 I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

52The Jews argued with one another, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I tell you: unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54Whoever eats 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. 56Whoever eats 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 whoever eats me will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven. It is not like what the fathers ate: they died. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.” 59He said these things while teaching in a synagogue in Capernaum.

60Many of his disciples heard this and said, “This word is hard. Who can listen to it?” 61Jesus knew within himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, and said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? 62Then what if you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63The Spirit is the one who gives life; the flesh benefits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64But there are some among you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who did not believe and who would hand him over. 65He said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him by the Father.”

66Because of this, many of his disciples went back and no longer walked with him. 67Jesus said to the Twelve, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” 68Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have 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 going to hand him over.

Translation notes 4

6:7, 19 — Money and distance. A denarius was a silver coin; two hundred denarii is a large laborer's sum, not two hundred modern dollars. Twenty-five or thirty stadia is roughly three to three and a half miles. Fifteen stadia in 11:18 is about one and three-quarter miles; two hundred cubits in 21:8 is about a hundred yards. These conversions are approximate.

6:10–11, 33, 37–40 — Number and agency. Verse 10 moves from “people” to the explicitly male “men.” Verse 11 says Jesus distributed the food; the draft does not add the disciples as intermediaries. Verse 33 can mean the bread “which comes down” or the person “who comes down”; the draft anticipates Jesus' identification in verse 35. Verses 37 and 39 use a neuter collective expression for what the Father gives, followed by individual believers in verse 40.

6:44, 47, 53–63, 69–70 — Drawing, flesh, and offense. “Draws” should not be reduced to merely offering advice; the word alone also does not decide every theological question about resistance. “In me” is absent from the base at verse 47. Eating flesh and drinking blood are retained without a sacramental or symbolic explanation inserted. The Greek changes its verb for eating, but that does not require “gnaw”: the later verb also occurs for ordinary eating at 13:18. “Hard” in verse 60 can mean difficult to accept, not simply difficult to understand. “Holy One of God” in verse 69 differs from longer titles in other witnesses. “A devil” in verse 70 is a harsh characterization of Judas; it does not literally identify him as Satan.

6:23 — Boats. The base reads “But small boats came.” Another reading gives “Other small boats came.” Both explain how boats were available for the crowd's crossing in verse 24.