₅₆Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me, and I live in them. ₅₇The living Father sent me, and because of him I live also. In the same way whoever eats me will live because of me. ₅₈This, then, is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the bread that your ancestors ate. They later died, but those who eat this bread will live for ever.”

₅₉Jesus said this as he taught in the synagogue in Capernaum.

₆₀Many of his followers heard this and said, “This teaching is too hard. Who can listen to it?”

₆₁Without being told, Jesus knew that they were grumbling about this, so he said to them, “Does this make you want to give up? ₆₂Suppose, then, that you should see the Son of Man go back up to the place where he was before? ₆₃What gives life is God's Spirit; human power is of no use at all. The words I have spoken to you bring God's life-giving Spirit. ₆₄Yet some of you do not believe.” (Jesus knew from the very beginning who were the ones that would not believe and which one would betray him.) ₆₅And he added, “This is the very reason I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father makes it possible for him to do so.”

₆₆Because of this, many of Jesus' followers turned back and would not go with him any more. ₆₇So he asked the twelve disciples, “And you — would you also like to leave?”

₆₈Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. ₆₉And now we believe and know that you are the Holy One who has come from God.”