1After this, Jesus went across to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias.
2Many people followed him because they had seen the miracles he performed on those who were sick.
3Jesus went up into a mountain and sat there with his followers.
4The Jewish Passover Festival was approaching.
5Jesus looked up and saw a large Crowd coming toward him. He asked Philip, "Where can we buy enough bread for all these people to eat?"
6He asked this to test Philip, because he already knew what he was going to do.
7Philip answered him, "Even if we spent two hundred silver coins, it wouldn't be enough bread for each person to have a little bit."
8One of his followers, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him,
9"There's a boy here who has five small barley loaves and two fish. But that's nothing for so many people."
10Jesus said, 'Tell the people to sit down.' There was a lot of grass in that place, so the men sat down, about five thousand of them.
11Then Jesus took the loaves of bread, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the disciples, who then passed them out to the people sitting there. He did the same with the fish, giving them as much as they wanted.
12When everyone had eaten enough, Jesus told his disciples, 'Gather the leftover pieces so that nothing is wasted.'
13So they gathered the leftovers and filled twelve baskets with the broken pieces from the five barley loaves that were left by those who had eaten.
14When the people saw the miraculous sign Jesus had performed, they began to say, 'This really is the Prophet who is supposed to come into the world.'
15Jesus knew that they were about to come and forcefully make him their king, so he went up into the mountains by himself again.
16When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake,
17got into a boat, and started across the lake toward Capernaum. It was already dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them.
18The lake became rough because a strong wind was blowing.
19After they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the water and coming near the boat, and they were terrified.
20But he said to them, 'It is I. Don’t be afraid.'
21Then they were happy to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat arrived at the shore where they were going.
22The next day, the crowd that was still on the other side of the lake noticed that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not gotten into it with his disciples, but that his disciples had left alone.
23However, some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.
24So when the crowd saw that Jesus and his disciples were not there, they got into boats themselves and went to Capernaum, looking for Jesus.
25When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Teacher, when did you get here?”
26Jesus answered them, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the bread and were satisfied.
27Don’t work for food that spoils, but for food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For God the Father has approved him with his mark.”
28So they asked him, “What must we do to perform the works that God requires?”
29Jesus answered, “This is the work God requires: to believe in the one he has sent.”
30They then asked him, “What miraculous sign will you perform so that we can see it and believe you? What work will you do?
31Our ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”
32Jesus then told them, “I tell you the truth, it wasn’t Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
33For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34They said to him, “Sir, always give us this bread.”
35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
36But as I told you, you have seen me and still you don’t believe.
37Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and I will never turn away anyone who comes to me.
38For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me.
39And this is the will of him who sent me: that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up on the last day.
40For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who looks at the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day."
41The Jews began to grumble about Jesus because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven."
42They said, "Isn't this Jesus, Joseph's son? We know his father and mother. How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?"
43So Jesus answered them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves.
44No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up on the last day.
45It is written in the Prophets, 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.
46Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.
47I tell you the truth, whoever believes in me has eternal life.
48I am the bread of life.
49Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
50This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that anyone who eats it will not die.
51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, they will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
52Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
53Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
54The person who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
55For my flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink.
56Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I live in them.
57Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so anyone who feeds on me will also live because of me.
58This is the bread that came down from heaven. It is not like the bread our ancestors ate and still died. The person who eats this bread will live forever.”
59Jesus said these things in the synagogue while teaching in Capernaum.
60When many of his followers heard this, they said, “This is a difficult teaching! Who can accept it?”
61But Jesus, knowing that his followers were complaining about this, asked them, “Does this offend you?
62What if you were to see the Son of Man going back up to where he was before?
63It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh accomplishes nothing. The words I speak to you are spirit and are life.
64But some of you don’t believe him.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who didn’t believe and who would betray him.)
65He went on to say, “That is why I told you that no one can come to me unless my Father has given them permission.”
66Because of this, many of his followers turned away and stopped accompanying him.
67So Jesus asked the twelve remaining disciples, “You don’t want to leave too, do you?”
68Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, whom else would we go to? You have the words that lead to eternal life.
69We have believed and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
70Jesus replied to them, “Didn’t I choose all twelve of you, yet one of you is a devil?”
71He was speaking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, because Judas, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.