Charles Ellicott Commentary John 6:51

"I am the living bread which came down out of heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: yea and the bread which I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world." — John 6:51 (ASV)

I am the living bread. The words are again repeated (John 6:48), but with a new fullness of meaning. He spoke before of bread which was “of life,” characterized by life, producing life. He now speaks of this bread as “living,” containing the principle of life in itself. (John 5:26). Once again, too, He answers their demand for bread from heaven (John 6:31). The lifeless manna fell and lay upon the ground until they gathered it, and perished if they did not. Each day’s supply met the need of each day, but met that only. He is the bread containing life in Himself, coming by His own will and act from heaven, living among men. He imparts life to those who eat by coming to and believing on Him, so that it becomes in them a principle of life, too, which cannot die, but shall live forever.

And the bread that I will give is my flesh. The following words, “which I will give,” should probably be omitted, and the whole clause should be read—And the bread that I will give is My flesh for the life of the world. The words are in every way full of meaning, and the history of their interpretation is a long chapter in the history of Christian doctrine.

Their connection with the words used at the institution of the Lord’s Supper will be dealt with in Excursus C: The Sacramental Teaching of St. John’s Gospel. Their meaning for the immediate hearers is to be found in the thoughts which led up to them, and which they would suggest to a spiritually-minded Jew.

These words are, indeed, to be spiritually interpreted (John 6:63), and many, even among the disciples, feel it is a hard saying which they cannot hear (John 6:60); but the elements of the interpretation are to be sought in the Jewish mind.

They had followed Him after a miracle that multiplied a few common barley loaves and fishes, making them more than enough for thousands (John 6:22–24). He then rebuked their mere bread-seeking spirit and declared to them the true food (John 6:26, John 6:29).

They, in turn, demanded a sign from heaven like the manna (John 6:30–31). He answered that the manna was the Father’s gift, and that He Himself is the true bread from heaven (John 6:32–35).

He also showed, parenthetically, the real ground of their unbelief (John 6:36–46). He then returned to the thought of the bread of life, which they had murmured at (John 6:41–42), and which He explained more fully (John 6:47–51).

He now identifies the bread of which He has spoken as His flesh, and says that He will give that for the life of the world. This form of human flesh is, as bread, the means by which life is conveyed; it is the word by which the Eternal Spirit speaks to the spirit of man. (Compare to John 1:14, which is the only other passage in this Gospel, and Luke 24:39, of the resurrection body, which is the only other passage in the New Testament where the word “flesh” is used of the person of Christ.)

These are the thoughts which have immediately led to these words; but many a chord in the Jewish mind ought to have vibrated to them. The emphatic “I will give,” whether it is repeated or not, refers perhaps to the contrast with Moses (John 6:32), but certainly to a gift in the future, and, therefore, not to the Incarnation, but to the Crucifixion.

The great Teacher, whom many of them had heard, realized that the human form they now looked upon was the Lamb of God of Isaiah’s prophecy (John 1:36). It was now the time of their Paschal Feast (John 6:4), when Jewish families were assembling to eat the flesh which told of the deliverance from Egyptian bondage and the birth of the nation’s life. Every day of Temple service told of flesh given in sacrifice for sin, and eaten in maintenance of the individual life. His words, uttered at this Passover, and fulfilled at the next, announce a gift of His own flesh as the true Paschal Lamb, as the sacrifice for the sins of the world, and as the sustenance of the true life of mankind.