6
“They Numbered about Five Thousand”
1 Some time after these things, Jesus crossed over to the other side of Lake Galilee (also called Lake Tiberias).
2 A huge crowd was following him, because they had seen his miraculous signs of healing the sick.
3 Jesus went up on the mountainside and there sat down with his disciples.
4 (It was almost the time for the Jewish Festival of Passover.)
5 Jesus, then, when he looked up and saw that a very large crowd was coming toward him, said to Philip, “Where can we buy some bread so that these people can have something to eat?”
6 (This he was saying in order to test Philip; he himself, you see, already knew what he was going to do.)
7 “Not even eight months’ wages worth of bread would be enough to feed these people!” Philip replied. “Even if each person had only a tiny bit!”
8 Another of Jesus’ disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him,
9 “There’s a young boy here who has five barley loaves and two small fish. But what good are these for so many people?”
10 “Have the people sit down,” said Jesus. (There was a lot of grass in that place.) So the men sat down; they numbered about five thousand.
11 Jesus, then, took the small round loaves, and after giving thanks, he had the bread distributed to those who were sitting down—the same with the cooked fish, as much as people wanted.
12 When everyone had eaten their fill, Jesus said to his disciples, “Collect the broken pieces that are left over, so that not a scrap is lost.”
13 So they received the leftovers from the people and filled twelve baskets with the broken pieces left from what had begun as five barley loaves.
14 The people, then, when they saw this miraculous sign that Jesus did, began to say, “This man truly is the Prophet who was to come into the world!”
15 Jesus, therefore, knowing that the people were about to come and force him to be their king, withdrew again to the mountainside by himself.
“They Saw Jesus Walking on the Lake”
16 When it was evening, Jesus’ disciples went down to the lake,
17 and they got into a boat and started making their way across the lake towards Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus still had not come to them.
18 The lake, meanwhile, because of a very strong wind, was getting rough.
19 So after they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the lake and coming closer and closer to the boat, and they were frightened.
20 “It’s me!”+ Jesus said to them. “Don’t be afraid!”
21 At that, they were glad to receive him into the boat, and instantly the boat reached the shore toward which they were heading.
“I AM the Bread of Life”
22 The next day, the crowd that had remained on the other side of the lake realized that there had been in that place only one small boat. They also knew that Jesus had not gotten into that boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had left without him.
23 Some other small boats, from the city of Tiberias, came to shore near the place where the crowd had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.
24 When the crowd saw that neither Jesus himself, therefore, nor his disciples, were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.
25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did ˢyou get here?”
26 In reply Jesus told them some very surprising and important things: “Amen, amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: ᵖYou’re looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the bread and had as much you wanted.
27 Don’t work for the food that spoils, but for the food that endures unto life in the coming age, which the Son of Man will give you. It is his authority and authenticity, you see, that God the Father has himself confirmed.”
28 “What must we do if we are to do the things God requires?” they asked.
29 Jesus replied, “Here’s what God wants you to do: Put ᵖyour faith in the one whom he has sent.”
30 So they asked him, “What miraculous sign, then, will you do, so that we may see it and put our faith in you? What will you do?
31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written: ‘It was bread from heaven that he gave them to eat.’+”
32 In response Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: It isn’t Moses who has given you the bread from heaven. No, My Father is the one who gives you the true bread from heaven.
33 The bread of God, you see, is the one comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Please give us this bread, sir, all the time!” they replied.
35 “I AM+ the bread of life,” Jesus said to them. “If someone comes to me, he will certainly not go hungry, and if anyone puts his faith in me, he will never become thirsty again.
36 Yet I told ᵖyou that even though ᵖyou have seen me, you don’t believe.
37 Everyone the Father entrusts to my care will to me come, and if someone comes to me, I will certainly not throw him out.
38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of the one who sent me.
39 Now this is the will of the one who sent me: All those he has entrusted to my care, that I would not lose any of them, but raise them to life at the last Day.
40 Indeed, this is the will of my Father: That all who see the Son and put their faith in him may share in the life of the age to come, and I will raise them to life at the last Day.”
41 Therefore the people started to grumble about him, because he said, “I AM the bread that came down from heaven.”
42 They kept saying, “This is Jesus the son of Joseph, isn’t it? We know his father and mother. How in the world is it, then, that now he is saying, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
43 “Stop grumbling to each other,” Jesus said to them in response.
44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him to life at the last Day.
45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘And all of them will be instructed by God.’+ It is everyone who has listened to the Father and received instruction from him who comes to me.
46 (Not that the Father has been seen by anyone; the one who is from God, he is the only one who has seen the Father.)
47 Amen, amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: If someone believes, he will surely share in the life of the coming age.
48 I AM the bread of life.
49 ᵖYour ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and yet they still died.
50 But the bread that comes down from heaven is of such a kind that if a person eats of it, he will not die.
51 I AM+ the life-giving bread that came down from heaven. If someone eats of this bread, he will live forever into the ages. The bread, moreover, that I myself will give, is this very body of mine, to give life to the world.”
52 At that, the people got into a heated argument with one another. “How can this man possibly give us his body to eat?” they asked.
53 So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: If ᵖyou don’t eat the body of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not experience life within yourselves.
54 It is those who feed on my body and drink my blood who share in the life of the age to come, and I will raise them to life at the last Day.
55 My body, you see, is true food, and my blood is true drink.
56 If someone feeds on my body and drinks my blood, it is me with whom he fellowships, and I with him.
57 Just as the Father, who is full of life, sent me, and I myself am full of life because of my union with the Father, if someone feeds on me, that person, too, will experience life because of his union with me.
58 This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the bread your ancestors ate. They ate that bread, and yet they still died. If someone feeds on this bread, however, he will live forever into the ages.”
59 These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
60 Many of his disciples, therefore, upon hearing these things, said, “This teaching is too hard to accept! Who can put up with such talk?”
61 Knowing without being told that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Is this causing ᵖyou to stumble with offense?
62 Suppose, then, that ᵖyou were to see the Son of Man going back up to where he was before?
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; mere human strength accomplishes nothing. The words that I have spoken to ᵖyou are full of the Spirit and result in life.
64 Yet there are some among you who don’t believe.” (Jesus, you see, had known from the outset which ones did not believe and who it was that would betray him.)
65 Then he added, “That is the reason why I told ᵖyou that no one can come to me unless he has been so allowed by the Father.”
66 As a result of this, many of his disciples deserted him and accompanied him no longer.
67 So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Surely you yourselves don’t want to leave too, do you?”
68 “Lord,” Simon Peter answered, “to whom else would we go? ˢYou possess the very words that lead to life in the age to come.
69 We still believe and remain convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
70 “It was ᵖyou, the Twelve, whom I chose for myself, was it not?” replied Jesus. “One of you, though, is the devil himself!”
71 (He was speaking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. This man, you see, was going to betray him—one of the Twelve.)