1After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.

2A great crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on those who were sick.

3Jesus went up the mountain and there he sat down with his disciples.

4(Now the Passover, the Jewish festival, was near.)

5When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming to him, he said to Philip, “Where are we going to buy bread so that these may eat?”

6(But Jesus said this to test Philip, for he himself knew what he was going to do.)

7Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be sufficient for each one to have even a little.”

8One of the disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to Jesus,

9“There is a boy here who has five bread loaves of barley and two fish, but what are these among so many?”

10Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” (Now there was a lot of grass in the place.) So the men sat down, about five thousand in number.

11Then Jesus took the loaves and after giving thanks, he gave it to those who were sitting. He did the same with the fish, as much as they wanted.

12When the people were filled, he said to his disciples, “Gather up the broken pieces which remain, so that nothing will be lost.”

13So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces from the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

14Then, when the people saw this sign that he did, they said, “This truly is the prophet who is to come into the world.”

15When Jesus realized that they were about to come and seize him by force to make him king, he withdrew again up the mountain by himself.

16When it became evening, his disciples went down to the sea.

17They got into a boat, and were going over the sea to Capernaum. It was dark by this time, and Jesus had not yet come to them.

18A strong wind was blowing, and the sea was getting rough.

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.”

21Then they were willing to receive him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land where they were going.

22The next day, the crowd that had been standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there except the one, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples but that his disciples had gone away alone.

23However, there were some boats that came from Tiberias close to the place where they had eaten the bread loaves after the Lord had given thanks.

24When the crowd discovered that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum seeking Jesus.

25After they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”

26Jesus replied to them, saying, “Truly, truly, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate some of the bread loaves and were filled.

27Do not work for the food that perishes, but work for the food that endures to eternal life which the Son of Man will give you, for God the Father has set his seal on him.”

28Then they said to him, “What must we do, so that we may do the works of God?”

29Jesus replied and said to them, “This is the work of God: That you believe in the one whom he has sent.”

30So they said to him, “What sign then will you do, so that we may see and believe you? What will you do?

31Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'”

32Then Jesus replied to them, “Truly, truly, it was not Moses who gave you the bread out of heaven, but it is my Father who is giving you the true bread from heaven.

33For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

34So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me will not be hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

36But I told you that indeed you have seen me, and you do not believe.

37Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and he who comes to me I will certainly not throw out.

38For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

39This is the will of him who sent me, that I would lose not one of all those whom he has given me, but will raise them up on the last day.

40For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him would have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.”

41Then the Jews grumbled about him because he had said, “I am the bread that has come down from heaven.”

42They said, “Is not this Jesus son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then does he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?”

43Jesus replied and said to them, “Stop grumbling 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, 'Everyone will be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.

46Not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from God—he has seen the Father.

47Truly, truly, he who believes has eternal life.

48I am the bread of life.

49Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

50This is the bread which comes down from heaven, so that a person may eat some of it and not die.

51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats some of this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

52The Jews became angry among themselves and began to argue, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

53Then Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in yourselves.

54Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

55For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

56He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.

57As the living Father sent me, and as I live because of the Father, so he who eats me, he will also live because of me.

58This is the bread that has come down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.”

59But Jesus said these things in the synagogue while he was teaching in Capernaum.

60Then many of his disciples who heard this said, “This is a difficult teaching; who can accept it?”

61Jesus, because he knew in himself that his disciples were grumbling at this, said to them, “Does this offend you?

62Then what if you should see the Son of Man going up to where he was before?

63It is the Spirit who makes alive; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit, and they are life.

64Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who were the ones that would not believe and who it was who would betray him.

65He said, “It is because of this that I said to you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father.”

66Because of this, many of his disciples went away and no longer walked with him.

67Then Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?”

68Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life,

69and we have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God.” ²

70Jesus said to them, “Did not I choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?”

71Now he spoke of Judas son of Simon Iscariot, for it was he, one of the twelve, who would betray Jesus.