John 6:35

I am the bread of life (Egw eimi o arto th zwh). This sublime sentence was startling in the extreme to the crowd. Philo does compare the manna to the qeio logo in an allegorical sense, but this language is far removed from Philo's vagueness. In the Synoptics ( Mark 14:22 ; Matthew 26:26 ; Luke 22:19 ) Jesus uses bread (arto) as the symbol of his body in the Lord's Supper, but here Jesus offers himself in place of the loaves and fishes which they had come to seek ( Luke 24 26 ). He is the bread of life in two senses: it has life in itself, the living bread ( Luke 51 ), and it gives life to others like the water of life, the tree of life. John often has Jesus saying "I am" (egw eimi). As also in Luke 6:41 Luke 6:48 Luke 6:51 ; Luke 8:12 ; Luke 10:7 Luke 10:9 Luke 10:11 Luke 10:14 ; Luke 11:25 ; Luke 14:6 ; Luke 15:1 Luke 15:5 . He that cometh to me (o ercomeno pro eme). The first act of the soul in approaching Jesus. See also verse Luke 37 . Shall not hunger (ou mh peinash). Strong double negative ou me with first aorist (ingressive) active subjunctive, "shall not become hungry." He that believeth on me (o pisteuwn ei eme). The continuous relation of trust after coming like pisteuhte (present tense) in verse Luke 29 . See both verbs used together also in Luke 7:37 . Shall never thirst (ou mh dipshsei pwpote). So the old MSS. the future active indicative instead of the aorist subjunctive as above, an even stronger form of negation with pwpote ( Luke 1:18 ) added.