John 6

Introduction

John 6 is one of the most theologically dense chapters in the Gospel. It moves in three acts: the feeding of the five thousand (vv. 1–15), the walking on water (vv. 16–21), and the extended Bread of Life discourse (vv. 22–71). The three are inseparable. The miracle of the loaves provides the occasion for the discourse; the sea-crossing establishes Jesus' divine identity before the teaching begins; and the discourse itself drives away many followers, culminating in Peter's confession.

The Bread of Life discourse is John's equivalent of the institution of the Lord's Supper — John does not record the Last Supper's bread and cup, but here, in this synagogue at Capernaum, Jesus gives the theological interpretation in advance. The language is deliberately physical and shocking: eat my flesh, drink my blood. Jesus refuses to soften the offense when the crowd recoils. The chapter ends with one of the most poignant scenes in the Gospel: the crowd dispersing, the Twelve standing, and Jesus asking, "Do you also want to leave?" Peter's answer — "Lord, to whom would we go?" — is one of the great confessions of faith, arriving not from triumph but from the recognition that there is simply nowhere else to go.

The Feeding of the Five Thousand (vv. 1–15)

Notes

John's placement of this miracle near Passover (v. 4) is deliberate. The feeding echoes Moses and the manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16), an echo Jesus will make explicit in the discourse that follows. The mountain setting (v. 3) may also evoke Moses at Sinai — Jesus as the new Moses giving a new bread.

The question to Philip in v. 5 is a test: ἐπείραζεν — "to test, try out." Philip's arithmetic is correct but spiritually limited: 200 denarii (about 8 months' wages) would not suffice. Philip measures by human economics. The boy's contribution — five barley loaves and two fish — only sharpens the impossibility. Barley loaves were the food of the poor; wheat bread was more prestigious.

The key action in v. 11 carries deliberate eucharistic language: λαβὼν... εὐχαριστήσας... λαβὼν εὐχαριστήσας διέδωκεν — "having taken... having given thanks... he distributed." The same sequence — take, give thanks, distribute — appears in the accounts of the Last Supper. John's readers would recognize this liturgical pattern. The word εὐχαριστήσας (eucharistēsas) gives us the word "Eucharist."

The crowd's reaction in v. 14 — "This is the Prophet who is coming into the world" — refers to Deuteronomy 18:15, where Moses promised that God would raise up a prophet like himself. The crowd reads the miracle correctly as a sign but draws the wrong conclusion: they want to make Jesus a political king by force (ἁρπάζειν), "to seize/snatch"). Jesus refuses, withdrawing alone to the mountain.

Walking on the Sea (vv. 16–21)

Notes

This episode is brief in John compared to the Synoptic accounts, which include Peter's attempt to walk on water (Matthew 14:28-31). John's focus is on one moment: Jesus' self-identification.

The critical phrase in v. 20 is ἐγώ εἰμι — literally "I am." In English translations this often becomes "It is I" or "It's me," but those renderings mute the resonance. ἐγώ εἰμι is the divine name — the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה (ehyeh asher ehyeh, "I am who I am") from Exodus 3:14. When Jesus says ἐγώ εἰμι walking on the sea in the dark, it is an implicit claim to divine identity. The disciples' fear is appropriate: they are encountering not merely a wonder-worker but the one who commands the waters.

The image of walking on the sea also carries OT resonance. In Job 9:8, God is the one who "treads upon the waves of the sea." In Psalm 77:19, God's "way was through the sea" during the Exodus. Jesus does here what Scripture reserves for God alone.

The sudden arrival at shore (v. 21) is narrated without explanation — another Johannine understatement. The miracle is not dwelt on; it simply happens. The chapter's real subject is the discourse about to begin.

The Crowd Seeks Jesus (vv. 22–25)

Notes

The crowd's reasoning is confused but persistent. They know something impossible has happened — only one boat, and it left without Jesus — but they follow anyway. Their question "when did you get here?" (πότε ὧδε γέγονας) is naive. They are interested in the logistics; Jesus is about to redirect them to eternal realities. The Capernaum synagogue (v. 59) is the setting for what follows — a public theological debate, not a private conversation.

Bread That Does Not Perish (vv. 26–34)

Notes

Jesus immediately diagnoses the crowd's motive in v. 26: they seek him not because they understood the σημεῖον (sign pointing to something beyond itself) but because they were filled — ἐχορτάσθητε, "you were satisfied/gorged." The word is used for animals feeding; it is blunt. They want more bread, not the Bread.

The contrast in v. 27 — food that perishes vs. food that endures — uses ἀπόλλυμι, "to perish/be lost") and μένω, "to remain/abide") — two signature Johannine words. Perishable food satisfies temporarily; the food Jesus gives lasts εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον, "unto eternal life."

The "seal" language in v. 27 — ἐσφράγισεν, "he sealed" — refers to the act of authentication, like a royal signet seal on a document. God has certified or accredited Jesus as the one who can give this food.

The exchange in vv. 30–31 is ironic. The crowd, having just eaten miraculous bread, asks for a sign. Their example is the manna — implying that Moses gave something greater than what Jesus has done. Jesus corrects the Scripture interpretation: Moses did not give the manna; God the Father gave it. And the true bread from heaven is not what Moses provided — it is something the Father gives now, in the present (δίδωσιν, present tense). The crowd's response in v. 34 — "give us this bread always" — mirrors the Samaritan woman's "give me this water" (John 4:15): they understand just enough to want it, but not yet what it is.

I Am the Bread of Life (vv. 35–51)

Notes

The first "I am the bread of life" statement (v. 35) is the first of the seven "I AM" predicate sayings in John (bread of life, light of the world, gate, good shepherd, resurrection and life, way/truth/life, true vine). ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ἄρτος τῆς ζωῆς — the bread of the life, with definite articles. This is the bread that gives life in its fullest, divine sense.

The crowd's reaction in vv. 41–42 is described with a significant word: ἐγόγγυζον, "they were grumbling/murmuring." This is the same word the Septuagint uses for Israel's murmuring against Moses and God in the wilderness (Exodus 16:2, 7–8; Numbers 11:1). The echo is pointed: the generation that received manna grumbled; the crowd that received the miracle bread is now grumbling in exactly the same way. Plus ça change.

The language of divine election in vv. 37–44 is some of the most direct in the Gospel. Three interlocking truths: (1) all that the Father gives Jesus will come to him; (2) those who come, Jesus will never cast out (οὐ μὴ ἐκβάλω ἔξω, the emphatic double negative "I will by no means cast out"); (3) no one can come unless the Father ἑλκύσῃ — "draws/drags" — him. This verb ἑλκύω appears in John also at John 12:32: "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." Drawing to Christ is the Father's work and ultimately the cross's work.

The quotation in v. 45 — "They shall all be taught by God" — is from Isaiah 54:13, a passage about the restored Israel of the new covenant. Jesus applies it to those who truly hear the Father and come to him. The paradox is then sharpened in v. 46: no one has seen the Father except Jesus himself. So being "taught by God" does not mean direct mystical access to the Father — it means coming to Jesus, who alone has seen and knows the Father.

The progression in vv. 48–51 moves from "I am the bread of life" (v. 48) to "I am the living bread" (v. 51) to the shocking identification: "the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." The word σάρξ, "flesh," is deliberately physical and offensive. Jesus could have said "self" or "life." He says "flesh" — the same word from John 1:14: "the Word became flesh." The incarnation is the gift.

Eating Flesh and Drinking Blood (vv. 52–59)

Notes

When the crowd objects in v. 52, Jesus does not soften or explain. He intensifies. The language in vv. 53–58 shifts to an even more graphic verb: τρώγω, "to munch, chew, gnaw" — a more visceral word than the earlier φάγω, "to eat"). John uses τρώγω five times in vv. 54–58, each time increasing the physical realism. Whatever Jesus means, he refuses to let his hearers escape into abstraction.

The relationship of this passage to the Eucharist has been debated for two millennia. The Catholic and Orthodox traditions read this as a direct teaching on the real presence in the Eucharist. Most Protestant interpreters read it as metaphorical or spiritual eating — an image for faith and union with Christ — pointing to v. 63: "The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life." On this reading, the "eating" is the same as the "believing" of v. 40.

What is clear is the language of mutual indwelling in v. 56: ἐν ἐμοὶ μένει κἀγὼ ἐν αὐτῷ — "remains in me and I in him." The verb μένω (menō, "abide/remain") is John's word for the deepest form of union — used in the vine and branches discourse (John 15:4-7) and in the farewell discourses for the Spirit's indwelling. The point is not primarily about liturgical mechanics but about the intimacy of the believer's relationship with Christ.

The Trinitarian structure of v. 57 is notable: the Father is the living source; the Son lives from/by the Father; the believer lives from/by the Son. There is a chain of life flowing from the Father through the Son to those who receive him.

Many Disciples Turn Back (vv. 60–66)

Notes

The word for "hard/difficult" in v. 60 is σκληρός, which means "hard, harsh, severe" — as in hard wood, or a hard word that cannot be bent. The disciples are not saying the teaching is intellectually difficult to understand; they are saying it is hard to swallow, unacceptable. They are offended.

Jesus responds in v. 61 with σκανδαλίζει — "does this cause you to stumble/take offense?" — the word that gives us "scandal." His rhetorical question in v. 62 is an a fortiori argument: if the language about eating flesh is too much, what will you do when you see the Son of Man ascending back to where he was before — the pre-existent divine state? The ascension would be either a greater scandal or the key that unlocks everything.

The crucial interpretive verse is v. 63: "The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life." This is John's own commentary on the discourse. The "flesh" that profits nothing is not Jesus' flesh (which he has just called "true food") but fleshly, earthly understanding — the approach that hears "eat my flesh" as mere cannibalism and stops there. The words are to be received spiritually, through the Spirit who gives life. This does not necessarily mean the eating language is merely symbolic — but it means the eating that Jesus envisions operates at a level that flesh alone cannot access.

V. 66 is one of the saddest verses in John: ἀπῆλθον εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω — "many of his disciples went back to the things behind." These are not merely curious onlookers; they were disciples — μαθηταί, learners who had been following Jesus. The mass departure is recorded without drama. Jesus does not chase them.

Peter's Confession (vv. 67–71)

Notes

Jesus' question to the Twelve — μὴ καὶ ὑμεῖς θέλετε ὑπάγειν — expects a negative answer grammatically (μή) but is left genuinely open. Jesus does not hold the Twelve by compulsion. The same will-to-come that applied to all through the Father applies here: they can leave.

Peter's confession here is notably different from his Synoptic confession at Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:16). There he says "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Here: "You are the Holy One of God" (ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ). This title appears in the OT for the priests consecrated to God's service and for God himself as the "Holy One of Israel." It is a high title — not merely "teacher" or "prophet" — affirming Jesus' consecration to and identification with God.

But what makes Peter's answer so moving is the reason he gives: "to whom shall we go?" It is not triumphant faith. It is the faith of those who have looked around and found no alternative. Peter does not say "We have understood." He says, "We have believed and have come to know" — in that order. Faith precedes full understanding. The knowing grows from the believing, not the other way around.

The chapter closes with a shadow: one of the Twelve is a διάβολος — a devil, a slanderer, an adversary. John names him as Judas, "who was going to betray him." The betrayal is already known, already present within the circle of the chosen. The election of the Twelve does not guarantee the faithfulness of every member. And this, too, is woven into what the Father has permitted.