This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that eateth this bread shall live for ever.
ταυτα ειπεν εν συναγωγη διδασκων εν καπερναουμ
12 Church Fathers comment on this verse
“These things He said in the synagogue, teaching in Capernaum,” where He had worked many miracles. Therefore they ought to have listened to Him with special attention. But why did He teach in the synagogue and in the temple? He did so both to catch the people gathered there, and to show that He was not acting contrary to the Father.
Why did He teach in the synagogue? Partly to draw more people, and partly to show that He was not an opponent of the Law read in the synagogues.
In presenting to us the exposition of wondrous mysteries, the wise Evangelist most rightly assigns the beginning of this teaching to Christ the Savior. By the majesty of the Person he puts the adversary to shame and beforehand strikes fear into those intending to object. For the renown of the teacher sometimes makes the hearer readier for faith and demands quicker assent from those being instructed.
He adds very fittingly, "in the synagogue." By this he says, as it were, that not one or two persons heard these words of Christ. He is shown to have taught openly before all, "in the synagogue," as He Himself says through Isaiah the prophet: "I have not spoken in secret, nor in a dark place of the earth" (Is 45:19).
He openly imparted this teaching to all. Thus He made condemnation unavoidable for the Jews, and through their unbelief in Him made their guilt heavier. For if they had not yet been taught so holy a mystery, they might have demanded a reasonable remission of punishment. They could have pleaded their complete ignorance and endured only the lighter anger of the Judge.
But when they knew, and had often been initiated into the mystery, yet insulted Him by disobedience, should they not most justly suffer punishment without any mercy? Should they not receive the strictest condemnation from Him whom they dishonored? The Savior Himself said something similar about them: "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin" (Jn 15:22).
Therefore we must beware of disobedience, and even renounce it, as the cause of death. Let us honor faith as the cause of life in all that Christ teaches. In this way we shall escape punishment with them.
He also adds that Christ spoke this in "Capernaum," to show that he remembered the event exactly. For one who knew both the place and the village, how could he err in setting forth the teaching of Christ?
We have just heard the Lord's words from the Gospel, continuing the previous discourse. The present discourse is needful for your ears and minds, and very fitting for this day. For it concerns the Body of the Lord, of which He said that He gives it to be eaten for eternal life.
In this He revealed the greatness of this benefit and His gift. He revealed what it means that He gives His Flesh to be eaten, when He said: "He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him" (Jn 6:56).
If a man has eaten and drunk, this is the sign that he abides in Christ, and Christ in him. It is the sign that he lives in Christ, and Christ lives in him. If a man communicates, it is so that he may not be forsaken.
Thus He taught and admonished us through mystical words. By eating His Flesh, we are to be found in His Body and become His members. He is the Head, and He does not refuse our unity with Him.
See the commentary on Jn 4:43-44.
All the angels in heaven marvel at what is taking place on earth. Those born of earth and living in the lower world are raised in spirit and surpass them in ascent, becoming partakers of Christ crucified (Heb 3:14).
All eat His Body and, zealously worshiping the Bread of Life, obtain the hope of immortality and salvation. Although only bread lies before the bodily eyes, the Bread of Heaven Himself invisibly and mystically sanctifies them, granting incorruption.
The Master Himself is the first to teach us all that the Bread of which we partake is the Flesh of Emmanuel. Before going to His voluntary Passion, Christ broke the Bread of Salvation and said to His apostles, as it is written: "Come now, taste it, and by tasting obtain eternal life. For this food is My Flesh, since I, whom you see, am the Bread of Heaven, granting incorruption."
All of us who have found the fullness of faith in Christ have come to know this. When we approach the Bread of the Mystery with zeal and taste from the Cup of Salvation, we preserve pure and unfeigned knowledge. Partaking with faith in Him of Christ's Body and His Blood, we hope for a manner of life equal to the angels.
For truly, the most holy Body of Jesus Christ, who endured the Passion, is the Bread of Heaven, granting incorruption. Cf. Mt 26:26-28; Mk 14:22-24; Lk 22:19-20; 1 Cor 11:23-25.
The Jews dispute among themselves, not with Jesus: how can He give His flesh to men to eat?
The Lord expresses still more definitely what He has said about His Flesh. "There is no room here for doubt and no room for reinterpretation. It is exactly as I have said: the bread of life is My Flesh. Therefore whoever wishes to have eternal life must eat of My Flesh and drink of My Blood.
If he does not eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, he will not have life in himself. How the one who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood becomes a partaker of eternal life is explained by this: he who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him.
That is, his being is mingled with Mine and permeated by It. And I have life in Myself from the Father. My life passes into him. He does not die; I will raise him up on the last day. My Flesh in him must not remain dead.
Thus the Lord concludes: this is the true bread, which came down from heaven and gives life, My Flesh."
The hearers of Jesus Christ were even more scandalized by His teaching about believers eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood than by His words, "I came down from heaven." Yet they did not say this openly (6:61). They only murmured among themselves about the strangeness of His speech.
But Jesus Christ says: "Does this offend you? If it is hard for you to understand My word about eating My Flesh and drinking My Blood, how will you respond to something still harder for you to understand? How will you respond to the Son of Man ascending with His glorified Body to God the Father, where, as the Son of God, He was from eternity?"
In the synagogue: see the note on Mt 4:23. In Capernaum: compare Jn 6:24-25. See the note on Mt 4:13. This is a simple historical observation about the place where this especially remarkable discourse was delivered.
The Lord Jesus Christ, not yet revealing the manner in which believers would eat His divine Flesh, develops His teaching in verses 53-58. He speaks more fully of the Mystery of Holy Communion, in which believers will truly and substantially, not merely figuratively, eat the Body and Blood of Christ.
Through this they will enter into close spiritual communion with Christ and receive the pledge of eternal life. The Lord instituted the Mystery of Holy Communion at the Mystical Supper, on the eve of His sufferings. Here, in His discourse with the Jews, He is only preparing believers for this mystery.
When He instituted the Mystery of Holy Communion at the Mystical Supper, the Lord also answered the perplexed question of the Jews. How, and in what manner, can believers eat the Flesh and Blood of Christ? Under the form of bread and wine, believers will eat the Body and Blood of Christ.
The Lord did not reveal this mystery in His discourse with the Jews because not only they, but even the chosen among them, the apostles, could not yet receive it. They did not yet have firm faith in Christ as the Son of God, incarnate for the salvation of mankind through His sufferings on the Cross and His death.
Indeed, at the end of chapter six, the Evangelist John notes that not only the Pharisees and scribes began to murmur. Many of the disciples of Jesus Christ also did so, though they were disposed toward Him and free of Pharisaic hostility.
Verse 59. “These things He said in the synagogue, teaching in Capernaum.” Since people gathered in the synagogue on the Sabbaths (Lk 4:16; Acts 13:14, 42), the assembly before which the Savior gave His instruction in the Capernaum synagogue was undoubtedly on the Sabbath. Thus the Lord presented the teaching about Himself as the bread of life, and about the holy Eucharist, not only before the apostles, but before the people and the teachers of the Jewish nation. He was not constrained from speaking aloud of the highest mysteries of Christianity before the people and the representatives of Judaism. He acted freely in the office of heavenly Teacher.
This instruction in the synagogue apparently begins with verse 43, after the murmuring of the Jews (vv. 41-42). Until verse 41, the Lord seems to speak on the seashore, surrounded by the crowd that sought Him and found Him near Capernaum (vv. 22-26 and following). That the Lord preached many times in the synagogues is clear from many places in the Gospels, such as Mt 4:23; Mk 1:39; Lk 6:6.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 7 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS