This
is the bread which came down out of heaven—not as our fathers ate the manna, and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.
John 6:58-59
John 6 [52.] The Jews therefore contended with one another, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
John 6 [53.] Jesus therefore said to them, “Most certainly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you don’t have life in yourselves. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he who feeds on me, he will also live because of me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven—not as our fathers ate the manna, and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.
John 6 [60.] Therefore many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying! Who can listen to it?”
Meaning:
These two verses close Jesus’ teaching on the bread of life. Verse 58 gathers up the main themes of the whole discourse in a single sentence, and verse 59 tells us where it was given. What follows is the reaction of his disciples (John 6:60-63).
- “This is the bread which came down out of heaven”
The conversation had begun when the crowd reminded Jesus that “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness” and asked for a sign (John 6:31). Jesus has answered that he himself is the bread from heaven. “This” now points to Jesus, and especially to the flesh he will give for the life of the world (John 6:51). The manna came down from the sky; Jesus came down from the Father.
- “not as our fathers ate the manna, and died”
God had promised Moses, “I will rain bread from the sky for you” (Exodus 16:4), and the psalm calls the manna “the bread of angels” (Psalm 78:25). It was a real miracle that kept Israel alive for forty years. But it could not give eternal life. The generation that ate it still died, many of them in the wilderness because of unbelief. Paul wrote that they “all ate the same spiritual food,” yet “with most of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness” (1 Corinthians 10:3-5). Jesus had already drawn this contrast: “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died” (John 6:49).
- “He who eats this bread will live forever”
The contrast is complete. Manna sustained physical life for a day at a time; Jesus gives life that lasts forever. To “eat this bread” is to receive Jesus by faith, as the parallel promises in this chapter show: “he who believes in me has eternal life” (John 6:47) and “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” (John 6:54). Living forever does not mean that believers will escape bodily death, but that death will not end their life with God. Jesus told Martha, “Whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:26), and he promises to raise his people “at the last day.”
- “He said these things in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum”
John adds a note of place. The conversation that began by the lake (John 6:24-25) ended in the synagogue of Capernaum, the town Jesus had made his home in Galilee (Matthew 4:13). He had taught and healed in this synagogue before (Mark 1:21; Luke 4:31). Luke records that a Roman centurion had built it for the town: “he loves our nation, and he built our synagogue for us” (Luke 7:5). The remains of a later white limestone synagogue can still be seen at Capernaum, standing on the foundations of an older building that may date from Jesus’ time. The setting matters: Jesus’ claim to be greater than Moses’ manna was made openly, in the place where the law and the prophets were read every Sabbath.
The Significance of John 6:58-59
- Temporary gifts and eternal life
The manna met a real need, but it could not save. Many good things in life, such as food, health, work and family, are gifts of God, but none of them can give eternal life. Only Christ can. The crowd wanted more manna; Jesus offered himself.
- A public claim that calls for a decision
Jesus made his claim in the synagogue, before people who knew the Scriptures well. He did not hide his meaning to win followers. Everyone who hears his words today must decide, as his first hearers did, whether to turn away or to come to him.
Cross-References:
Exodus 16:4: "Behold, I will rain bread from the sky for you" God’s promise of manna in the wilderness.
Psalm 78:24: "He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky." The manna remembered in Israel’s worship.
John 6:50: "This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, that anyone may eat of it and not die." Jesus, the bread that gives life.
John 11:25: "I am the resurrection and the life." Life that death cannot end.
Conclusion: Jesus ended his teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum by declaring that he is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike the manna, which their ancestors ate before dying in the wilderness, those who eat this bread by receiving him in faith will live forever. The claim was made publicly, in the place of Scripture and prayer, and it called for a response.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible