John 6:41-59

41Jesus had said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ When he said this, the Jewish leaders there did not like it. So they started to say bad things about Jesus.

42They said, ‘This is Jesus, the son of Joseph. We know his father and his mother. He should not say that he came down from heaven.’

43Jesus answered, ‘Stop saying these bad things about me to each other.

44The Father has sent me. Nobody can come to me unless the Father brings them to me. I will raise those people up on the last day, so that they have life for ever.

45The prophets wrote in the Bible, “God will teach all the people.” Everyone who hears the Father's message and learns from him will come to me.

46I came from God and I am the only one who has seen the Father. Nobody else has seen him.

47I tell you this: The person who believes my message has life for ever.

48I am the bread that causes you to live.

49Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, but they died.

50This bread that comes down from heaven is different. Anyone who eats this bread will not die.

51I am the bread that gives life to people. This bread came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live for ever. The bread that I will give is my own body. I will give it so that all people in the world may have life with God.’

52Then the Jewish leaders became angry and they argued with each other even more. They said, ‘This man cannot give his body to us so that we can eat it!’

53Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you this: You must eat the body of the Son of Man and you must drink his blood. Unless you do those things, you do not have true life.

54Every person needs to eat my body and they need to drink my blood. If they do those things, they have life for ever with God. I will raise them up on the last day.

55My body is the true food and my blood is the true drink.

56Anyone who eats my body and drinks my blood lives in me. And I live in them.

57The Father, who has life, sent me. I live because of him. In the same way, anyone who takes me as their food will live because of me.

58This is the bread that came down from heaven. It is not like the manna that your ancestors ate. They ate it but they died. But the person who eats this bread will live for ever.’

59Jesus said these things while he was teaching in the Jewish meeting place at Capernaum.