51. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh. I will give my flesh so that the people in the world may have life.”
52. Then the Jews began to argue among themselves. They said, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
53. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth. You must eat the flesh of the Son of Man. And you must drink his blood. If you don’t do this, then you won’t have real life in you.
54. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. I will raise him up on the last day.
55. My flesh is true food. My blood is true drink.
56. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I live in him.
57. The Father sent me. The Father lives, and I live because of the Father. So he who eats me will live because of me.
58. I am not like the bread our ancestors ate. They ate that bread, but still they died. I am the bread that came down from heaven. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
59. Jesus said all these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
60. The followers of Jesus heard this. Many of them said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?”
61. Jesus knew that his followers were complaining about this. So he said, “Does this teaching bother you?
62. Then will it also bother you to see the Son of Man going back to the place where he came from?
63. It is not the flesh that gives a person life. It is the spirit that gives life. The words I told you are spirit, and so they give life.