"In John 6, Jesus is talking about believing in Him, not eating anything. Verse 63 settles it: the flesh is of no avail." It's the most serious Protestant reading of the chapter. It deserves a careful answer.
Short answer: No. John 6 begins with believing in Jesus, but at verse 51 He promises a future gift: "the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." When His hearers balk at the literal sense, He presses harder and lets many disciples leave rather than soften His words (John 6:66).
Key verses on John 6
- "the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world" (John 6:51)
- "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you" (John 6:53)
- "For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink." (John 6:55)
- "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." (John 6:68)
Scripture quotations are from the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE), © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
What Catholics Actually Teach
The Church reads John 6 as Jesus' promise of the Eucharist: "The first announcement of the Eucharist divided the disciples, just as the announcement of the Passion scandalized them." Jesus' question to the Twelve "echoes through the ages, as a loving invitation to discover that only he has 'the words of eternal life' and that to receive in faith the gift of his Eucharist is to receive the Lord himself" (CCC 1336).
What Catholics do not teach:
- That faith doesn't matter in John 6. The first half of the chapter is about believing (John 6:29). Catholics agree.
- That Jesus is asking for cannibalism. The crowd imagined pieces of a dead body. The risen, living Christ gives Himself under the appearances of bread and wine.
- That John 6 stands alone. Catholics read it with the Last Supper and St. Paul (see Is the Eucharist Really the Body and Blood of Jesus?).
The Biblical Case
1. The discourse turns at verse 51
Earlier, the focus is faith: "whoever believes has eternal life" (John 6:47). The bread is the Father's gift: "my Father gives you the true bread from heaven" (John 6:32). Then three things change:
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." (John 6:51)
The giver shifts from the Father to Jesus. The tense shifts to the future: "the bread that I will give." And the bread is now His flesh, given "for the life of the world," the language of the cross. From here on, Jesus speaks of eating and drinking.
2. The crowd hears it literally, and Jesus intensifies
"The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, 'How can this man give us [his] flesh to eat?'" (John 6:52). Jesus answers with a solemn "Amen, amen" and adds something harder, His blood (John 6:53). He repeats the point in verse after verse (John 6:53–58): "my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink."
A modest language note: in verses 54–58, St. John's Greek shifts to the verb trōgō, which often means to chew. The shift may be partly stylistic (St. John uses the same verb in John 13:18), so we won't build much on it. But it is a physical word for eating, not a softer one.
3. "Eating flesh" was no metaphor for believing
In the Old Testament, eating someone's flesh as a figure of speech means attacking them: "When evildoers come at me to devour my flesh" (Psalm 27:2); rulers "Who eat the flesh of my people" (Micah 3:3). There is no biblical precedent for "eat my flesh" as a figure for "believe in me."
4. Drinking blood was forbidden, and Jesus did not back off
Of anyone who "consumes any blood," God says, "I will set myself against that individual" (Leviticus 17:10). Why? "since the life of the flesh is in the blood" (Leviticus 17:11). To Jewish ears, "drink his blood" was shocking. Yet Jesus does not soften His words, because His blood carries the life He came to give: "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life" (John 6:54).
5. Jesus corrects misunderstandings, but not this one
In the same Gospel, when the disciples took "asleep" literally, "Jesus said to them clearly, 'Lazarus has died'" (John 11:14). In John 6 there is no such correction. The disciples say, "This saying is hard; who can accept it?" (John 6:60). And "many [of] his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him" (John 6:66). Jesus does not call them back. He asks the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?" (John 6:67). St. Peter answers in trust: "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (John 6:68).
Objections Answered
(a) "The flesh is of no avail" (John 6:63)
At its strongest: Jesus Himself explains the discourse: "It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life" (John 6:63). Just before, He mentions His Ascension (John 6:62); His body would soon leave the earth. So, the argument goes, physical eating profits nothing. Life comes through His words, received by faith.
Answer:
- Jesus says "the flesh," not "my flesh." He has just said His flesh is given "for the life of the world" (6:51). His flesh cannot be "of no avail": "the Word became flesh" (John 1:14) to save us.
- In St. John's Gospel, "flesh" and "spirit" contrast unaided human nature with God's Spirit: "What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit" (John 3:6). The next verses show the point: "there are some of you who do not believe" (John 6:64). The problem is unbelief judging by natural standards, not a literal meaning.
- Here "spirit" does not mean "symbolic." In St. John's Gospel, spirit is God's life-giving power set against unaided human nature (John 3:6). Words that are "spirit and life" come from the Spirit and give life.
- The Ascension remark follows "Does this shock you?" (John 6:61). It raises the stakes; it retracts nothing.
- Most tellingly, the disciples left after verse 63 (6:66). If Jesus had just said, "I only meant it symbolically," there would have been nothing to walk away from.
(b) "In John 6, eating simply means believing."
At its strongest: Jesus links them: "whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst" (John 6:35). And the promises match. Believers have eternal life and will be raised "[on] the last day" (John 6:40); so will those who eat His flesh (6:54). Same result, same act.
Answer: Catholics agree that faith is required and that 6:35–47 is about faith. But matching promises do not make two things identical. Jesus also ties entering the kingdom to being "born of water and Spirit" (John 3:5), and baptism does not just mean believing. The text shifts at verse 51: a future gift, His flesh, then His blood. And the crowd fought not over believing but over "How can this man give us [his] flesh to eat?" (6:52). Faith and the Eucharist are not rivals. Faith is how we receive the gift.
(c) "Even Augustine said, 'Believe, and you have eaten.'"
At its strongest: Commenting on John 6, St. Augustine wrote: "To what purpose do you make ready teeth and stomach? Believe, and you have eaten already" (Tractates on John 25.12). If the greatest Father of the West read the chapter as faith, Catholics cannot claim the Fathers for a literal reading.
Answer: Check the verse he is explaining. Tractate 25 covers John 6:15–44, and that line comments on "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent" (John 6:29), the faith section that Catholics agree is about believing. It is not his comment on verses 51–58. And St. Augustine did not set faith against the Eucharist. On the Psalms he says Christ "walked here in very flesh, and gave that very flesh to us to eat for our salvation; and no one eats that flesh, unless he has first worshipped," and adds that "we sin in not worshipping" (Exposition on Psalm 99 8; Psalm 98 in his numbering). You do not adore a symbol. For St. Augustine, faith receives the real gift; it does not replace it. That is the Catholic position.
The Early Church Agrees
- St. Ignatius of Antioch (Letter to the Smyrnaeans, c. AD 110), on heretics of his day: "They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again." (7)
- St. Ignatius of Antioch (Letter to the Romans, c. AD 110), echoing John 6: "I desire the bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ . . . and I desire the drink of God, namely His blood, which is incorruptible love and eternal life." (7)
- St. Justin Martyr (First Apology, c. AD 155), describing Sunday worship to the emperor: "the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh" (66). Note the words "flesh and blood," the vocabulary of John 6:53–56.
- St. Cyril of Jerusalem (Catechetical Lectures, mid-fourth century; traditionally attributed to him) reads John 6 the same way: "They not having heard His saying in a spiritual sense were offended, and went back, supposing that He was inviting them to eat flesh." (22.4) Yet "spiritual" did not mean symbolic for St. Cyril. In the same lecture: "Judge not the matter from the taste, but from faith be fully assured without misgiving, that the Body and Blood of Christ have been vouchsafed to you." (22.6)
Conclusion
Verse 63 does not quietly cancel John 6. Jesus moves from faith to flesh, adds His blood, repeats Himself, and lets disciples walk away. His hearers heard Him speaking of real eating, and that is the sense He refused to retract.
If you are Protestant, you already share St. Peter's trust that Jesus has "the words of eternal life." We invite you to trust Him on the hard saying too.
Come home. The Bread of Life Jesus promised in John 6 is given at every Mass in the Catholic Church. That gift depends on a validly ordained priesthood, which is why the Catechism teaches that communities from the Reformation "have not preserved the proper reality of the Eucharistic mystery in its fullness, especially because of the absence of the sacrament of Holy Orders" (CCC 1400). Christ did not found many churches. He founded one, on St. Peter and the apostles (Matthew 16:18), and that Church is the Catholic Church. "It is through Christ's Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained" (CCC 816). If you are a baptized Christian, you already share "a certain, although imperfect, communion" with her (CCC 838). Every truth you already hold is a call to the rest of the way. Christ is calling you into the Catholic Church.
Your next step: Come to Mass this Sunday at your local Catholic church. You can find one near you at MassTimes.org. Everyone is welcome; if you're not yet Catholic, pray with us but don't receive Communion yet. When you're ready to become Catholic, call the parish office and ask about OCIA, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. They will walk you through every step. Read our guide: How Do I Become Catholic? Not ready yet? Get our free pocket guide below and keep learning.
FAQ
Does John 6 mention the Last Supper? No. It takes place in the synagogue at Capernaum (John 6:59). Jesus promises the gift there; at the Last Supper He gives it: "Take and eat; this is my body" (Matthew 26:26).
What does "the flesh is of no avail" mean? Unaided human nature, which cannot accept Jesus' teaching without the Father's grace (John 6:63–65). Not Jesus' own flesh.
Why didn't Jesus explain Himself to those who left? Because they had understood that He meant real eating and drinking. What they got wrong was the manner: they pictured a dead body, not the living Christ given under the appearances of bread and wine. He corrected real misunderstandings elsewhere (John 11:14). Here He asked the Twelve whether they would leave too.
Sources
Scripture (NABRE, bible.usccb.org): Leviticus 17:10–11; Psalm 27:2; Micah 3:3; Matthew 16:18; Matthew 26:26; John 1:14; John 3:5–6; John 6:15–69; John 11:11–14; John 13:18.
Catechism of the Catholic Church (vatican.va): 816, 838; 1336; 1400.
Church Fathers (newadvent.org): Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans 7 (ANF vol. 1, trans. A. Roberts and J. Donaldson); Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Romans 7 (ANF vol. 1, trans. A. Roberts and J. Donaldson); Justin Martyr, First Apology 66 (ccel.org, ANF vol. 1); Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 22.4, 22.6 (NPNF2 vol. 7, trans. E. H. Gifford); Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John 25.12; Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 99 8.