John 6: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Jesus feeds a crowd of about five thousand from five barley loaves and two small fish, and afterward walks on the water to his disciples during a rough night crossing. The next day the crowd finds him in Capernaum, where he tells them not to work for food that spoils and calls himself the bread of life that came down from heaven. When he says that people must eat his flesh and drink his blood to have life, many of his disciples call it a hard teaching and stop following him. Peter answers for the twelve that they will stay, and Jesus says that one of the twelve is a devil.

Claim by Claim

1. 6:1
   • After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the sea of Galilee.
   • The sea of Galilee is also called the sea of Tiberias.
2. 6:2
   • A large crowd followed Jesus.
   • The crowd followed him because they saw the signs he was doing on those who were sick.
3. 6:3
   • Jesus went up onto the mountain.
   • Jesus sat there with his disciples.
4. 6:4
   • The Passover was near.
   • The Passover is a feast of the Jews.
5. 6:5
   • Jesus lifted up his eyes.
   • Jesus saw a large crowd coming toward him.
   • Jesus asked Philip where they should buy bread for these people to eat.
6. 6:6
   • Jesus said this to test Philip.
   • Jesus himself knew what he was about to do.
7. 6:7
   • Philip answered that two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for them.
   • Philip said it would not be enough for each one to receive a little.
8. 6:8
   • One of Jesus' disciples spoke to him.
   • That disciple was Andrew.
   • Andrew was Simon Peter's brother.
9. 6:9
   • Andrew said there was a boy there.
   • Andrew said the boy had five barley loaves.
   • Andrew said the boy had two small fish.
   • Andrew asked what these were among so many people.
10. 6:10
    • Jesus said to make the people sit down.
    • There was much grass in that place.
    • The men sat down.
    • The men numbered about five thousand.
11. 6:11
    • Jesus took the loaves.
    • Jesus gave thanks.
    • Jesus distributed the loaves to the disciples.
    • The disciples distributed the loaves to those who were seated.
    • The fish were likewise distributed, as much as they wanted.
12. 6:12
    • The people were filled.
    • Jesus told his disciples to gather up the leftover fragments.
    • Jesus said this was so that nothing would be lost.
13. 6:13
    • They gathered the fragments together.
    • They filled twelve baskets with fragments.
    • The fragments came from the five barley loaves.
    • The fragments were left over by those who had eaten.
14. 6:14
    • The people saw the sign that Jesus did.
    • The people said that this man is truly the prophet who is to come into the world.
15. 6:15
    • Jesus perceived that they were about to come and seize him by force.
    • They intended to make him a king.
    • Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself alone.
16. 6:16
    • Evening came.
    • Jesus' disciples went down to the sea.
17. 6:17
    • The disciples got into a boat.
    • They set out across the sea toward Capernaum.
    • It was already dark.
    • Jesus had not yet come to them.
18. 6:18
    • A great wind was blowing.
    • The sea was stirred up.
19. 6:19
    • They had rowed about twenty-five or thirty stadia.
    • They saw Jesus walking on the sea.
    • Jesus was drawing near to the boat.
    • They were afraid.
20. 6:20
    • Jesus said to them, 'It is I.'
    • Jesus told them not to be afraid.
21. 6:21
    • They were willing to take Jesus into the boat.
    • Immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.
22. 6:22
    • The next day the crowd stood on the other side of the sea.
    • The crowd saw that there had been no other boat there except one.
    • The crowd saw that Jesus' disciples had entered that one boat.
    • The crowd saw that Jesus had not gone into the boat with his disciples.
    • The crowd saw that his disciples had gone away alone.
23. 6:23
    • Other boats came from Tiberias.
    • The boats came near the place where the people ate the bread.
    • The Lord had given thanks over that bread.
24. 6:24
    • The crowd saw that Jesus was not there.
    • The crowd saw that his disciples were not there.
    • The crowd got into the boats.
    • The crowd came to Capernaum.
    • The crowd was seeking Jesus.
25. 6:25
    • They found Jesus on the other side of the sea.
    • They called him Rabbi.
    • They asked him when he had come there.
26. 6:26
    • Jesus answered them.
    • Jesus said, 'Truly, truly, I say to you.'
    • Jesus said they were seeking him not because they saw signs.
    • Jesus said they were seeking him because they ate of the loaves and were filled.
27. 6:27
    • Jesus said not to labor for the food that perishes.
    • Jesus said to labor for the food that endures to everlasting life.
    • Jesus said the Son of man will give that food to them.
    • Jesus said that God the Father has sealed the Son of man.
28. 6:28
    • They asked Jesus what they should do to work the works of God.
29. 6:29
    • Jesus answered them.
    • Jesus said the work of God is that they believe in the one whom God has sent.
30. 6:30
    • They asked Jesus what sign he would show so that they might see and believe him.
    • They asked what he would do.
31. 6:31
    • They said their fathers ate the manna in the wilderness.
    • They said it is written that he gave them bread from heaven to eat.
32. 6:32
    • Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you.'
    • Jesus said Moses did not give them the bread from heaven.
    • Jesus said his Father gives them the true bread from heaven.
33. 6:33
    • The bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven.
    • The bread of God gives life to the world.
34. 6:34
    • They called him Lord.
    • They asked him to give them this bread always.
35. 6:35
    • Jesus said, 'I am the bread of life.'
    • Jesus said the one who comes to him will never hunger.
    • Jesus said the one who believes in him will never thirst.
36. 6:36
    • Jesus said he had told them that they have seen him and do not believe.
37. 6:37
    • All that the Father gives Jesus will come to him.
    • Jesus will never cast out the one who comes to him.
38. 6:38
    • Jesus came down from heaven.
    • Jesus did not come down to do his own will.
    • Jesus came down to do the will of the one who sent him.
39. 6:39
    • The will of the Father who sent Jesus is that he lose nothing of all that the Father has given him.
    • The will of the Father who sent Jesus is that he raise it up at the last day.
40. 6:40
    • The will of the one who sent Jesus is that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life.
    • Jesus will raise him up at the last day.
41. 6:41
    • The Jews murmured about Jesus.
    • They murmured because he said, 'I am the bread which came down from heaven.'
42. 6:42
    • They asked whether this was not Jesus, the son of Joseph.
    • They said they knew his father and his mother.
    • They asked how he now says that he came down from heaven.
43. 6:43
    • Jesus answered them.
    • Jesus told them not to murmur among themselves.
44. 6:44
    • No one can come to Jesus unless the Father who sent him draws that person.
    • Jesus will raise that person up at the last day.
45. 6:45
    • It is written in the prophets that they shall all be taught by God.
    • Everyone who has heard from the Father and has learned comes to Jesus.
46. 6:46
    • No one has seen the Father.
    • The one who is from God has seen the Father.
47. 6:47
    • Jesus said, 'Truly, truly, I say to you.'
    • The one who believes in Jesus has everlasting life.
48. 6:48
    • Jesus said, 'I am the bread of life.'
49. 6:49
    • Their fathers ate the manna in the wilderness.
    • Their fathers died.
50. 6:50
    • This is the bread that comes down from heaven.
    • Its purpose is that a person may eat of it and not die.
51. 6:51
    • Jesus said, 'I am the living bread which came down from heaven.'
    • If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.
    • The bread that Jesus will give is his flesh.
    • Jesus will give his flesh for the life of the world.
52. 6:52
    • The Jews argued among themselves.
    • They asked how this man can give them his flesh to eat.
53. 6:53
    • Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you.'
    • Unless they eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, they have no life in themselves.
54. 6:54
    • Whoever eats Jesus' flesh and drinks his blood has eternal life.
    • Jesus will raise him up at the last day.
55. 6:55
    • Jesus' flesh is truly food.
    • Jesus' blood is truly drink.
56. 6:56
    • Whoever eats Jesus' flesh and drinks his blood remains in Jesus.
    • Jesus remains in that person.
57. 6:57
    • The living Father sent Jesus.
    • Jesus lives because of the Father.
    • The one who eats Jesus will live because of Jesus.
58. 6:58
    • This is the bread that came down from heaven.
    • It is not like what the fathers ate.
    • The fathers who ate died.
    • The one who eats this bread will live forever.
59. 6:59
    • Jesus said these things in the synagogue.
    • He said them while teaching in Capernaum.
60. 6:60
    • Many of his disciples heard this.
    • They said this is a hard saying.
    • They asked who can hear it.
61. 6:61
    • Jesus knew in himself that his disciples were murmuring about this.
    • Jesus asked them whether this offended them.
62. 6:62
    • Jesus asked what if they should see the Son of man ascending to where he was before.
    • The question is left unfinished.
63. 6:63
    • It is the spirit that gives life.
    • The flesh profits nothing.
    • The words Jesus has spoken to them are spirit.
    • The words Jesus has spoken to them are life.
64. 6:64
    • Jesus said there are some among them who do not believe.
    • Jesus knew from the beginning who those were that did not believe.
    • Jesus knew who would betray him.
65. 6:65
    • Jesus said this is why he told them that no one can come to him unless it is given to him by his Father.
66. 6:66
    • From that time many of his disciples went back.
    • They no longer walked with him.
67. 6:67
    • Jesus asked the twelve whether they also wanted to go away.
68. 6:68
    • Simon Peter answered him.
    • Peter called him Lord.
    • Peter asked to whom they would go.
    • Peter said Jesus has the words of eternal life.
69. 6:69
    • Peter said they believe and are sure that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
70. 6:70
    • Jesus answered them.
    • Jesus asked whether he had not chosen the twelve of them.
    • Jesus said one of them is a devil.
71. 6:71
    • Jesus was speaking of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
    • Judas was the one who would betray Jesus.
    • Judas was one of the twelve.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

6:1

The lake had more than one name. Galilee was the region around it; Tiberias was a city built on its western shore in the AD 20s by Herod Antipas and named in honor of the Roman emperor Tiberius. The Roman name was the one an outsider would recognize, which is likely why John supplies it.

6:2

The King James "miracles" translates a Greek word meaning signs. John uses that word consistently for what Jesus does: it points at what an act indicates, not merely at its power to astonish.

6:3

"A mountain" renders a phrase that can equally mean the hill country, the high ground set back from the shore, rather than one named peak.

6:4

Passover was the yearly spring festival marking Israel's escape from slavery in Egypt, kept with a lamb and with bread made without yeast. Jews traveled to Jerusalem to keep it, so the roads through Galilee would have been busy at this season.

6:6

In the King James, "to prove him" means to test him. It does not mean proving something is true.

6:7

The King James "pennyworth" translates denarius, a Roman silver coin that was the standard day's wage for an ordinary laborer. Two hundred of them is roughly two hundred days of a working man's income, which is Philip's point: even a sum that large would not stretch far enough.

6:9

Barley was the cheap grain, often about half the price of wheat, and barley bread was poor people's food. The loaves were small flat rounds, closer to pita than to a modern loaf, and the "small fishes" were most likely the salted or pickled fish eaten as a relish alongside bread. The word for the boy can mean either a young child or a young servant.

6:10

The wording shifts: Jesus says to seat the people, but the Greek word behind the count of five thousand is the one meaning adult males, so the crowd on the hillside was larger than the number given. The note about plenty of grass fits the season, since the slopes around the lake are green only in spring, near Passover.

6:11

The thanks is the ordinary blessing said over food at a Jewish meal, in which the head of the table thanked God for bringing bread out of the earth. The Greek verb is eucharisteo, from which the word eucharist later came.

6:12

"Fragments" means broken pieces, not crumbs and scraps. Bread was torn rather than sliced, and gathering up what was left of it was ordinary table practice.

6:13

The baskets are the stiff wicker carrying baskets a traveler took his food in, one each for the twelve disciples. Each held a fair amount, perhaps a couple of gallons, so the leftovers outweighed what they started with.

6:14

"That prophet that should come into the world" is a particular expected figure, not any prophet at all. Moses had said God would raise up a prophet like himself for Israel to listen to, and by this period a definite figure was widely looked for.

6:15

Galilee and Judea were under Roman control, and proclaiming a man king was a political act with immediate consequences, treated as the opening move of a revolt rather than as an honor.

6:17

Capernaum was a fishing town on the north shore of the lake and the base Jesus worked from in Galilee.

6:18

Strong winds rushed down the hills onto this lake. The water could turn rough very fast.

6:19

The King James "furlongs" translates stadia. One stadion was about six hundred feet, so twenty five or thirty of them is roughly three to three and a half miles. The lake is about seven miles across at its widest, so they were out near the middle of it.

6:20

"It is I" renders the Greek ego eimi, literally "I am." It is the ordinary way of identifying yourself in the dark, and it is also the exact phrase that opens the sayings later in this chapter, "I am the bread of life." Both senses sit in the Greek and no English wording can carry both at once.

6:25

Rabbi is a Hebrew form of address for a teacher, literally something like "my master." At this date it was a courteous title for a respected teacher, not yet the formal office it became in later Judaism.

6:26

"Verily, verily" translates "amen, amen," a Hebrew word meaning roughly "this is firm" or "so it is." Ordinarily a person said it to endorse someone else's words; in the gospels Jesus puts it in front of his own, which is unusual.

6:27

In 1611 "meat" meant food of any kind, not flesh, so the King James "meat which perisheth" is food that goes bad. "Son of man" is the phrase Jesus habitually uses of himself: in Hebrew idiom it can mean simply a human being, and it is also the title of the figure in Daniel's vision who is given lasting authority. To "seal" something was to press an owner's mark into wax or clay, certifying both that it was genuine and whose it was.

6:30

A "sign" meant a miracle that proved a person was really sent by God.

6:31

Manna was the flaky food described in Exodus, which the Israelites gathered each morning through the forty years in the desert after leaving Egypt. The name comes from their own question on first seeing it, "man hu," what is it? The line quoted, "He gave them bread from heaven to eat," comes from Psalm 78, which retells that story.

6:32

The argument turns partly on a tense that the King James preserves: Moses "gave," past and finished, while the Father "giveth," present and continuing. The Greek can also be read as shifting the emphasis to who did the giving, since on the Exodus account it was God rather than Moses who sent the manna.

6:34

"Lord" here is the ordinary polite address, closer to "sir," the word anyone might use to a person of standing.

6:35

This is the first of a series of sayings in John that begin with the Greek ego eimi, "I am," followed by an image: bread, light, door, shepherd, vine.

6:37

"In no wise cast out" is an emphatic double negative in the Greek, much stronger than a plain "not." The verb is the one used for throwing someone out of a house or driving a person out of a town.

6:39

"The last day" was a standing expression for the end of the present age, when the dead were expected to be raised and judged. Many Jews of the period held that expectation; others, including the Sadducees, denied it.

6:41

"The Jews" in John does not usually mean the Jewish people as a whole, since Jesus, his disciples and this crowd are all Jewish. It generally marks out a particular group: often the religious authorities, and here the local hearers who object. "Murmured" is the King James word for grumbling, and it is the same word used in Exodus for the complaints of the wilderness generation against Moses and against God.

6:42

Naming a man's father was the normal way to place him. Their objection is that his family is known and unremarkable, so in their view his origin is not an open question.

6:44

The verb behind "draw" is physical: it is used for hauling in a loaded fishing net and for pulling a sword from its sheath. It carries more force than inviting or persuading; how much more has been argued over for centuries.

6:45

The quotation is from Isaiah, and "the prophets" names the section of Hebrew scripture that holds the prophetic books, a normal way of citing by division rather than by author. "Taught of God" is older English for "taught by God."

6:49

This desert was dry, empty land. Their ancestors walked through it for forty years.

6:51

"Flesh" translates sarx, the word for the physical substance of a body. It is the same word John uses when he writes that the Word became flesh, and the same word that appears in verse 63 with a wider sense.

6:52

"Strove" in the King James means argued or disputed with each other, not fought physically.

6:53

Drinking blood was flatly forbidden in the Law of Moses. Leviticus says the life of a creature is in its blood, and blood was to be drained out and never consumed. That prohibition is the background against which this saying landed on the people hearing it.

6:54

The King James uses "eateth" throughout, but the Greek verb changes at this point, from the ordinary word for eating to a blunter one meaning to chew or gnaw, the sort of word used of an animal at its food. That harsher verb is kept for the rest of the passage.

6:55

"Meat" is 1611 English for food of any kind. "Indeed" here means truly or genuinely: real food, real drink.

6:56

"Dwelleth in me, and I in him" translates a verb meaning to stay, remain or lodge somewhere. It is about continuing to be in a place rather than about a feeling.

6:57

"He that eateth me" uses the chewing verb introduced in verse 54. "Live by me" is older English for live because of me, or by way of me as the source.

6:59

A synagogue was the local assembly where Jews gathered to hear the scriptures read and explained, found in any town of size. It was a different thing from the temple in Jerusalem: nothing was sacrificed in a synagogue, and a visiting teacher could be invited to speak, which is what is happening here.

6:60

"Hard" here means harsh or hard to accept, not hard to understand. "Who can hear it" uses hear in its older sense of listening and going along with: who can put up with this?

6:61

"Offend" translates skandalizo, which means to trip someone up or make them stumble. It is far stronger than the modern sense of giving offense to someone's feelings.

6:62

The sentence is unfinished in the Greek: "What then if you should see the Son of man going up where he was before..." with no conclusion supplied. The King James "What and if" preserves that broken shape; "what and if" was older English for "what then if."

6:63

"Quickeneth" is 1611 English for gives life or makes alive; "quick" meant living, as in the phrase the quick and the dead. "Flesh" here is the same Greek word as in verse 51 but in its wider sense, human nature or human effort taken on its own.

6:64

"Betray" means to hand a friend over to people who want to hurt him.

6:66

"Walked no more with him" is an idiom rather than a comment on travel: to walk with a teacher meant to go about as his follower. The word "disciple" in this chapter covers a wide circle of such people, not only the twelve.

6:67

"The twelve" is the fixed inner group Jesus had picked out of that larger body of followers, which is why many disciples can leave while the twelve are still there to be asked.

6:69

The King James follows later Greek manuscripts, which read "that Christ, the Son of the living God." The earliest manuscripts read "the Holy One of God," which is what most modern translations print. "Christ" is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew "Messiah," meaning anointed one.

6:70

"A devil" translates diabolos, a word meaning slanderer or false accuser. Applied to a person it charges him with that behavior, and it is also the standard word for the figure called the devil; both senses are live in the Greek.

6:71

"Iscariot" is most likely "man of Kerioth," a place name distinguishing this Judas from the other disciple of the same name. In the Greek the word can attach to Simon as readily as to Judas, which is why some translations read "Judas, son of Simon Iscariot."