41 After this Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee, that is, Tiberias. And a great crowd was following him, for they saw the miracles he worked for the sick. Jesus went up onto the mountain, and sat there with his disciples. And the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. So Jesus lifted up his eyes and saw that a great crowd had come to him, and he said to Philip: Where shall we buy bread so that these can eat? He said this, making trial of him, for he knew what he was going to do. Philip answered: Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not enough for everyone to have a little bit. Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter and one of the disciples, said to him: There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two little fishes; but what is that for all these people? Jesus said: Have the people take their places on the ground. There was plenty of grass in the place. So the men took their places, to the number of five thousand. Then Jesus took the loaves and gave thanks and passed them out to the people who were lying there, and so too with the fishes, as much as they wanted. And when they were ffiled, he said to his disciples: Gather up the broken pieces that are left over so that nothing will be lost. So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets from what was left of the five barley loaves after the people had eaten. When the people saw what miracles he had done, they said: Truly this is the prophet who is coming into the world. Jesus, realizing that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, withdrew back up the mountain, all by himself. When night came his disciples went down to the sea, and embarking on a ship, they began to cross over the sea to Capernaum. And now it was dark and Jesus had not yet come to them; and the sea was rough from a great wind blowing. When they had rowed about twenty-five or thirty furlongs they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming close to the ship, and they were frightened. But he said to them: It is I, do not be afraid. They wanted to take him aboard the ship, and immediately it was at the shore for which they were making.
The next day the crowd that was standing on the other side of the sea had seen that there had been no other ship there except the one, and that Jesus had not gone aboard the ship with his disciples, but the disciples had gone away without him. But ships from Tiberias arrived near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves boarded the ships and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus. And when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him: Master, when did you reach here? Jesus answered them and said: Truly truly I tell you, you look for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were fed. Try to earn, not the food that perishes, but the food that remains into life everlasting, which the son of man will give you, for God the Father set his seal upon him. Then they said to him: What shall we do, to do the work of God? Jesus answered and said to them: This is the work of God, to believe in the one he sent. Then they said to him: What sign are you accomplishing, for us to see and believe you? What work are you doing? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said to them: Truly truly I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven; for the bread of God is what comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to him: Lord, give us always this bread. Jesus said to them: I ^ the bread of life. He who comes to me will not be hungry, and he who believes in me will not be thirsty, ever. But I have said to you that you have seen but do not believe. All that my father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will not drive out, because I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me; and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all he gave me but raise it up again on the last day. For this is the will of my father, that everyone who sees the son and believes in him shall have life everlasting, and I shall raise him up on the last day.
Now the Jews murmured about him because he had said: I ^ the bread which came down from heaven; and they said: Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it that he now says: I have come down from heaven? Jesus answered and said to them: Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me pulls him; and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets: And they shall all be taught from God. Everyone who has listened and learned from the father comes to me. Not because anyone has seen the father, except for the one who is beside God; he has seen the father. Truly truly I tell you, he who believes has life everlasting. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the bread which lives, which came down from heaven. If one eats of this bread he will live forever, and the bread I will give, for the sake of the life of the world, is my flesh.
The Jews quarreled with each other, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus said to them: Truly truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life everlasting, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is the true food, and my blood is the true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood stays in me, and I in him. As the living father sent me and I live through the father, so he who eats me will also live through me. This is the bread which came down from heaven; not as our fathers ate and died, he who eats this bread will live forever.
All this he said as he taught in the synagogue in Capernaum. Then many of his disciples hearing him said: This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it? And Jesus knew in his heart that his disciples were murmuring about this, and said to them: Is this too difficult for you? What if you were to see the son of man going up to where he was before? It is the spirit that makes life, the flesh is no help. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who were the ones who did not believe and who was the one who would betray him. And he said: This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is given him from the father. Because of this, many of his disciples left him thenceforth and no longer went about with him. So Jesus said to the twelve: You do not wish to go away? Simon Peter answered him: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life, and we have believed, and we know that you are the holy one of God. Jesus answered them: Did I not choose you twelve? And one of you is an enemy. He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot; for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.