The Gospel According to John (American Standard Version, 1901) · 11 of 37 · tr. American Standard Version (1901)
6:41-6:67
[6:41] The Jews therefore murmured concerning him, because he said, I am the bread which came down out of heaven.
[6:42] And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how doth he now say, I am come down out of heaven?
[6:43] Jesus answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.
[6:44] No man can come to me, except the Father that sent me draw him: and I will raise him up in the last day.
[6:45] It is written in the prophets, And they shall all be taught of God. Every one that hath heard from the Father, and hath learned, cometh unto me.
[6:46] Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he that is from God, he hath seen the Father.
[6:47] Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth hath eternal life.
[6:48] I am the bread of life.
[6:49] Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
[6:50] This is the bread which cometh down out of heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
[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.
[6:52] The Jews therefore strove one with another, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
[6:53] Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves.
[6:54] He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
[6:55] For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
[6:56] He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me, and I in him.
[6:57] As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he that eateth me, he also shall live because of me.
[6:58] This is the bread which came down out of heaven: not as the fathers ate, and died; he that eateth this bread shall live for ever.
[6:59] These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.
[6:60] Many therefore of his disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a hard saying; who can hear it?
[6:61] But Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at this, said unto them, Doth this cause you to stumble?
[6:62] What then if ye should behold the Son of man ascending where he was before?
[6:63] It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life.
[6:64] But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who it was that should betray him.
[6:65] And he said, For this cause have I said unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it be given unto him of the Father.
[6:66] Upon this many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
[6:67] Jesus said therefore unto the twelve, Would ye also go away?
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
'Not that any man hath seen the Father' (6:46) negates the possibility of direct positive apprehension of the supreme God, pointing toward a via negativa regarding the Father's nature.
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
'Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he that is from God, he hath seen the Father' (6:46) states the radical concealment of the supreme God beyond ordinary perception, accessible only through the Son.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
'No man can come to me, except the Father that sent me draw him' (6:44) and 'except it be given unto him of the Father' (6:65) assert that the divine actively orders human salvation, not leaving it to human initiative or chance.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
'It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life' (6:63) explicitly reveals that the outer, literal meaning conceals an inner spiritual truth accessible only to those who believe.
The doctrine that the divine or a spiritual principle takes on a specific, bounded material or bodily form — descending from an unconditioned state into individual, corporeal existence — as a discrete act rather than a diffuse pervading presence. The Christian Word made flesh, the Hindu avatara, the Egyptian pharaoh as living Horus, the Vajrayana tulku. Distinct from divine_immanence (the general claim that the divine pervades all of creation diffusely, not a specific embodiment-event) and separation_from_source (the felt exile FROM origin, the opposite motion) in describing a specific, individuated descent INTO a particular body or form.
Jesus explicitly identifies himself as 'the bread which came down out of heaven' and 'the living bread which came down out of heaven,' presenting his flesh as the means of eternal life — a direct statement of divine descent into bodily form as a discrete salvific act.
The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.
'As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father' (6:57) presents the divine as an active, dynamic, personal source of life rather than an abstract principle.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
Jesus as 'the bread which came down out of heaven' functions as the mediating principle between the transcendent Father and the material world, through whom all who come to the Father are drawn and taught.
The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.
'He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me, and I in him' (6:56) is an explicit statement of mutual indwelling and merging of the individual with the divine.
Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.
The command to eat flesh and drink blood is deliberately paradoxical, causing disciples to declare 'This is a hard saying; who can hear it?' (6:60), destabilizing ordinary understanding to force a deeper spiritual reading.
The phenomenon where spiritual messengers or healers are rejected by their own community due to familiarity or lack of awe.
The Jews murmur and reject Jesus because they know his earthly parents (6:41-42), and many disciples walk away after the teaching (6:66) — the messenger rejected by those who know him only in his familiar, bounded form.
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
'He that eateth me, he also shall live because of me' (6:57) and 'he shall live for ever' (6:51, 6:58) describe the believer as being progressively transformed into a partaker of divine life, not merely justified.