John 6:58

Verse

This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your fathers, who ate the manna and died, the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

American Standard Version (1901)

This is the bread which came down out of heaven: not as the fathers ate, and died; he that eateth this bread shall live for ever.

Bible in Basic English

This is the bread which has come down from heaven. It is not like the food which your fathers had: they took of the manna, and are dead; but he who takes this bread for food will have life for ever.

Free Bible Version

Now this is the bread that came down from heaven, not the kind your forefathers ate and still died. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever.”

Geneva Bible 1599

This is that bread which came downe from heauen: not as your fathers haue eaten Manna, and are deade. Hee that eateth of this bread, shall liue for euer.

King James (Authorized) Version

This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.

One Unity Resource Bible

This is the bread which came down out of heaven— not as our fathers ate the manna ·what is it·, and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.”

Plain English Version

Yes, I am the bread that came down from heaven. Anyone that eats this bread will live with God for ever. I am not like the bread that your grand-fathers ate a long time ago in the desert. They ate that bread, but later they died. But anyone that eats this bread will live with God for ever.”

Translation for Translators

I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Although our ancestors ate manna, they later died anyway. But those who eat this bread will live forever.”

Unlocked Literal Bible

This is the bread that has come down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.”

Noah Webster Bible

This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers ate manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.

World English Bible

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.”

Young's Literal Translation

this is the bread that came down out of the heaven; not as your fathers did eat the manna, and died; he who is eating this bread shall live — to the age.'

Context

Jesus the Bread of Life

⁵⁷Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me.⁵⁸This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your fathers, who ate the manna and died, the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

Sermons

My Missionary Roots in Africa

Stephen Olford

1.2K

John 6:53-70

St. John Chrysostom

Summary

In this verse, Jesus is speaking to the crowd, emphasizing the spiritual truth that He is the living bread that came down from heaven. He contrasts Himself with the manna that the Israelites ate in the wilderness, highlighting that those who partake of Him will live forever. By equating Himself with the bread of life, Jesus is pointing to the sustenance and eternal life that He offers to all who believe in Him. This statement underscores the central role of Jesus in providing spiritual nourishment and salvation to those who come to Him in faith.

Commentary

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
John Gill

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

This is that bread, &c.--a sort of summing up of the whole discourse, on which let this one further remark suffice--that as our Lord, instead of softening down His figurative sublimities, or even putting them in naked phraseology, leaves the great truths of His Person and Office, and our participation of Him and it, enshrined for all time in those glorious forms of speech, so when we attempt to strip the truth of these figures, figures though they be, it goes away from us, like water when the vessel is broken, and our wisdom lies in raising our own spirit, and attuning our own ear, to our Lord's chosen modes of expression. (It should be added that although this discourse has nothing to do with the Sacrament of the Supper, the Sacrament has everything to do with it, as the visible embodiment of these figures, and, to the believing partaker, a real, yea, and the most lively and affecting participation of His flesh and blood, and nourishment thereby of the spiritual and eternal life, here below).

John Gill Bible Commentary

Many therefore of his disciples,.... Not of the twelve, nor of the seventy, but of the multitude of the disciples, who followed him from place to place, attended on his ministry, and might be baptized in his name; see Joh 4:1; when they had heard this; that his flesh and blood were truly and really meat and drink, and that none had life in them, or should have eternal life, but such as eat and drink the same: said, this is an hard saying; or it is to be objected to; so "an hard thing", the word here used in the Syriac version, and , "it is to me a hard thing", are phrases used to express an objection in the Talmudic writings, where they are often met with: or it is difficult to be understood and received; so , "an hard saying", or "an hard cause", is a cause difficult to be tried and determined, Exo 18:26, and is used of that which seems incredible and absurd, and is surprising and unaccountable: so it is said (z), that "it happened to a certain woman, that she came before R. Abika: she said to him, I have seen a spot; he said to her, perhaps there is a wound in thee; she answered him, yes, and it is healed; he replied, perhaps it may be opened, and the blood brought out; she answered him, yes; and he pronounced her clean. R. Abika saw his disciples look upon one another; and he said unto them, , "is this an hard saying with you?"'' is it a difficult thing with you? does it seem absurd to you? or are you surprised at it? anything difficult, or which seems irreconcilable, is so called: so the slaying the passover between the two evenings is called by Aben Ezra, in Exo 12:6, , "an hard saying". In like sense the phrase is used here; and the allusion may be to food that is hard of digestion, since Christ had been speaking of himself under the metaphors of bread and meat. As some of the doctrines of Christ are comparable to milk, which is easy of digestion; others are like to strong meat, which belongs to those of full age, and cannot be digested by children, by babes in Christ, and much less be received, ate, and digested, with ease and pleasure, by carnal minds; who therefore say, as these Capernaites did, who can hear it? this saying, or doctrine, concerning eating the flesh, and drinking the blood of Christ; or "him" Christ, who delivered this doctrine: such preaching, and such a preacher, are intolerable; there is no hearing, nor bearing them: hence we afterwards read, that these withdrew from the ministry of Christ, Joh 6:66. (z) Misn. Nidda, c. 8, sect. 3.