⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”^(A)

⁵² The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”^{(B) 53} So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.^{(C) 54} Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day,^{(D) 55} for my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them.^{(E) 57} Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which the ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

² For I can testify that they have a zeal for God, but it is not based on knowledge.^{(A) 3} Not knowing the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness.^(B)

⁹ Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by regulations about food,^[a] which have not benefited those who observe them.^(A)