volume 1, issue 1, 2009, pages 32-50

DOI: https://doi.org/10.64438/sbsIMXU6889
Published online: 2009-06-01
Published in print: 2009-06-30

Abstract: The sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, in which Jesus presents himself as the bread of life, is despite varying exegetical views an example of a homogeneous and compact composition (John 6:1-71). This chapter may be entitled as “the Gospel within the Gospel”, because through the metaphor of the bread of life is captured the entire Johannine testimony to a new form of Jesus’s presence by those who believe in him. The participation in the Eucharist is a new form of the participation in the gift of a new life offered by God himself. The Eucharistic speech in the sixth chapter is notably and almost obtrusively, embedded in the context of the celebration of Jewish feasts. Noticeable is also the exception made by Jesus to the cycle of the Jewish calendar, since he is not present in Jerusalem as usual to celebrate the Passover, but on the shore of the Tiberian Sea, where he speaks of a new form of his future presence under the Eucharistic form. In his speech he uses the well-known Biblical metaphor of bread as God’s nourishment for his chosen people. He invests this metaphor with a new content and meaning. The process of relecture, or réécriture can reveal to the reader the function, content and meaning of the sixth chapter in John’s Gospel – the Eucharistic speech – which has till today been the fundamental pillar of faith in the constant presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacramental communion at every Eucharistic celebration.