WILL YOU ALSO GO AWAY
JOHN 6:53-58
d. Eating the flesh of the Son of Man (6:49–58)
The remainder of the discourse resorts to metaphor. If Jesus’ opponents find his words unacceptable when he unpacks his ‘I am the bread of life’ claim in non-metaphorical fashion (vv. 35–48), he will revert to the metaphor itself, and extend it. Now the terms ‘eat’ and ‘feed’ dominate the passage (vv. 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 57, 58). This makes attempts to see a major break at v. 51 or v. 52 (or, with Bultmann, pp. 234–235, and others, at v. 51c) rather speculative (on the unity of the passage, cf. notes preceding vv. 22ff., above).
6:49–50. The contrast between the Old Testament manna and Jesus the bread from heaven has already been introduced (vv. 30–33). Now one further aspect of that contrast is developed: the manna in the wilderness, heaven-sent though it was, and useful for sustaining natural life under desert conditions, could not bestow eternal life. The proof is irrefutable: all the Fathers died. By contrast, Jesus is the bread come down from heaven such that, if anyone eats of this bread (i.e. appropriates Jesus by faith, as in the preceding verses), eternal life is the assured result.
6:51. The first two sentences of this verse forcefully recapitulate the last two verses, and again (cf. vv. 35, 48) portray Jesus identifying himself as the living bread, an expression synonymous with ‘the bread of life’. In the third sentence, the term ‘bread’ is further elucidated: This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Both clauses have generated much discussion.
The first of these two clauses inevitably calls to mind the institution of the eucharist: ‘This is my body’ (
