4. How did Jesus explain whether Moses had given their forefathers the real “bread from heaven”?

⁴ In answer to this, Jesus told them that Moses had not given their forefathers the true bread from heaven. “The bread of God,” said he, “is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”​—John 6:32, 33.

5. What did the Jews then ask of Jesus, and what did he say in explaining the way for them to gain everlasting life?

⁵ At this the Jews said: “Lord, always give us this bread.” Jesus identified himself as being it, saying: “I am the bread of life. He that comes to me will not get hungry at all, and he that exercises faith in me will never get thirsty at all. . . . For this is the will of my Father, that everyone that beholds the Son and exercises faith in him should have everlasting life, and I will resurrect him at the last day.”​—John 6:34-40.

“MY FLESH IN BEHALF OF THE LIFE OF THE WORLD”

9-11. (a) Jesus’ saying that that “bread” given by him is his “flesh” and this “in behalf of the life of the world” raises what question? (b) How does Paul answer that question in 1 Corinthians 10:2-11?

⁹ After Jesus repeatedly said that he was “the bread of life,” he went on to say: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if anyone [of you, my listeners] eats of this bread he will live forever; and, for a fact, the bread that I shall give is my flesh in behalf of the life of the world.”​—John 6:51.

¹⁰ Jesus was thus the true, life-giving Manna from heaven. This symbolic bread, he said, was his flesh. This flesh, he said, was “in behalf of the life of the world.” By adding those words, did Jesus mean that the Jews who ate the manna in the wilderness in the days of Moses pictured the “world” of mankind during the millennial reign of Christ and his glorified congregation?

¹¹ Paul answers: “All got baptized into Moses by means of the cloud and of the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food [the manna] and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they used to drink from the spiritual rock-mass that followed them, and that rock-mass meant the Christ. . . . Now these things became our examples, for us [Christians] not to be persons desiring injurious things, even as they desired them. . . . Now these things went on befalling them as examples, and they were written for a warning to us [spirit-begotten Christians] upon whom the ends of the systems of things have arrived.”​—1 Cor. 10:2-11; Ex. 16:1-35; Num. 11:1-9.

12. How does the situation of the spiritual Israelites during this system of things contrast with that of the world of mankind during the millennium?

¹² So those Israelites in the Sinaitic wilderness under Moses pictured the spiritual Israelites during this system of things. This system is death-dealing, spiritually speaking. Now is when the spiritual Israelites feed on the antitypical heavenly manna, the sacrificed Jesus Christ. During the 1,000-year reign of Christ, resurrected mankind will not be in a wilderness condition like that of Sinai. The restoring of paradise earth wide will be under way. Jehovah will then not be ‘drawing’ mankind to Jesus as He the Teacher now does with the spiritual Israelites. (John 6:44) Rather, the Sovereign Lord Jehovah sets his Son Jesus Christ as King over mankind, and this King calls the dead out of the tombs.

13. To be the antitype of the ancient manna, this “flesh” must be of what kind or how treated?

¹³ Bread made of grain is a bloodless eatable, just as the ancient manna was. Jesus said that the “bread of life,” the antitypical manna, was his flesh “in behalf of the life of the world.” To correspond with the ancient manna, the term “flesh” here must be understood as flesh drained of its blood. What Jehovah gave the Israelites in the wilderness to drink was water, not blood.

14. Why did Jesus’ listeners understand his reference to be to “flesh” drained of its blood, even human flesh?

¹⁴ The Jews listening to Jesus understood matters that way, for, in their contention over what he meant, they said: “How [in what way] can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (John 6:52) They knew God’s law on the subject of blood. When, after the flood of Noah’s day, God enlarged the diet of mankind, he did not give them both animal blood to drink and animal flesh as their solid food to sustain their lives. He gave them water to drink and drained flesh to eat. He claimed the blood for himself as being the Life-Giver to all creatures of flesh and blood. (Gen. 9:1-4) Under the Mosaic law as given to the nation of Israel, the violation of God’s law concerning animal blood was punished with the death penalty for the offender. (Lev. 17:10-12; Deut. 12:16, 22-27) The eating of human flesh, even when drained of its blood, was repugnant to the Jews listening to Jesus. They did not want to become cannibals.​—2 Ki. 6:26-31.a

15, 16. (a) How was the feeding on Jesus’ flesh to be done? (b) According to John 6:53-59, how did Jesus make this point still stronger?

¹⁵ Jesus wanted his Jewish listeners to understand that the eating of his flesh would be done in a figurative way. So, to make this point still stronger, he next said something that would be still more objectionable if taken in a literal way. We read:

¹⁶ “Accordingly Jesus said to them: ‘Most truly I say to you, Unless you [my Jewish listeners] eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. He [of you, my listeners] that feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life, and I shall resurrect him at the last day; for my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. He that feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood remains in union with me, and I in union with him. Just as the living Father sent me forth and I live because of the Father, he [of you, my listeners] that feeds on me, even that one will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. It is not as when your forefathers ate [the manna in the wilderness] and yet died. He that feeds on this bread will live forever.’ These things he said as he was teaching in public assembly at Capernaum.”​—John 6:53-59.

17. (a) What was the impact of those words of Jesus in the Jewish synagogue, even upon many of his disciples? (b) So Jesus’ words in John 6:53 were directed, in large part, to whom, and what did these become?

¹⁷ Here the expression “in public assembly” is, literally in the original Greek text, “in synagogue.” It is the same expression that Jesus used in John 18:20, saying: “In a synagogue and in the temple, where all the Jews come together.” So Jesus was addressing a Jewish audience who were in the Mosaic law covenant. This included many disciples of Jesus. We can imagine the impact of Jesus’ words when he spoke, not only of feeding on his flesh, but also of drinking his blood. “Therefore many of his disciples, when they heard this, said: ‘This speech is shocking; who can listen to it?’” (John 6:60) This statement shows that not all of Jesus’ disciples were shocked by his speech. Besides the shocked ones, there were more “disciples,” including the 12 apostles. (John 6:61-66) Thus Jesus’ words in John 6:53 were directed in large part to his disciples and, by extension, to those who would become his disciples before the “last day.” These became spiritual Jews, spiritual Israelites.​—Rom. 2:28, 29.

18, 19. (a) To whom did the blood of the sacrificial victim belong, and therefore the making of a meal upon Jesus’ blood and flesh meant what? (b) How was such a meal referred to by Jesus because of the faith of a Gentile army officer and also by a certain Jew commenting on Jesus’ words at a dinner?

¹⁸ The Jews in the Mosaic law covenant knew that the blood as well as the fat of a sacrificial victim belonged to Jehovah. (Lev. 3:16, 17) When Jesus ascended to heaven and appeared in Jehovah’s presence, he offered to Jehovah his “blood” or the value of it as a redemption price. (Heb. 9:12-14; John 6:61, 62) Since the blood belonged to Jehovah, the drinking of it and the eating of the flesh of Jesus would indicate having a meal with Jehovah. God would thus be sharing the blood of his Lamb Jesus Christ with the disciples of this Lamb. Jesus spoke of such a meal with Jehovah as the Greater Abraham, when he foretold that many Gentile believers (like the believing Gentile “army officer”) would come from all parts of the earth and “recline at the table with Abraham [Jehovah] and Isaac [Jesus Christ] and Jacob [the spirit-begotten Christian congregation] in the kingdom of the heavens.”​—Matt. 8:5-12.

¹⁹ Once when speaking of a dinner having real merit because of those who were invited to attend, Jesus explained why it had merit, saying: “You will be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous ones.” This brought to a person’s mind the privilege of having a meal with Jehovah God, for we read: “On hearing these things a certain one of the fellow guests said to him: ‘Happy is he who eats bread in the kingdom of God.’” (Luke 14:12-15) In response to this exclamation Jesus gave the parable of the “grand evening meal” spread by a certain householder. By this Jesus showed that not all would have the happiness of dining with God in the Kingdom.​—Luke 14:16-24.

24. (a) How was Jesus the “bread” that came down from heaven? (b) How did Jesus live because of the Father, and how do those feeding on him live because of him?

²⁴ However, Jesus reminded Judas and the rest of his Jewish audience there in that assembly in Capernaum of how their forefathers ate manna in the wilderness to sustain themselves. In closing his talk, he said: “This is the bread that came down from heaven. . . . He that feeds on this bread will live forever.” (John 6:58) He had been “the Word” of God up in heaven, but, at God’s due time, he “became flesh.” (John 1:14) Thus as a perfect fleshly Son of God he was “the living bread that came down from heaven,” the antitypical manna. His flesh, which served as symbolic manna for the spiritual Israelites,b also serves “in behalf of the life of the world.” (John 6:51) Today Jesus Christ lives again in the heavens, immortal, because of his heavenly Father, for this “living Father” resurrected him from the dead to spirit life. Correspondingly, the disciple that “feeds” on the antitypical manna (Christ’s “flesh”) before the coming of “the last day” will, as Jesus said, “live because of me,” for the living Jesus will resurrect him “at the last day.”​—John 6:54, 57, 58.