The Bread of Life: John 6:25-51

April 14, 2011 by William Hamblin

Continued from Page 2

Many listeners, however, rejected Jesus' claim to have "descended from Heaven" for an interesting reason. "They said, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, "I have come down from heaven"?'" (6:42). In other words, at least some of the people there had known Jesus from infancy, and therefore maintained that he had not descended from heaven. In the first-century context the widespread expectation would be that a being who had descended from heaven could not be an ordinary human. The messianic figure described Daniel 7:14 is "like a Son of Man" (kə-bar ʾěnāš) who descends "with the clouds of heaven." John, however, maintains that the Word/Son of Man's descent from heaven occurred precisely through his being "made flesh" (Jn. 1:14). This creates a Christological paradox that has been debated throughout Christian history: that Jesus could somehow have earthly parents, yet still be the incarnation of God.

After this, Jesus begins to shift the discussion to what would have been a shocking metaphor to first-century Jews: eating his flesh and drinking his blood, which I will discuss next week.

"I Am"
At this point it is worth introducing an intriguing characteristic of Jesus' discourses in John. In the Gospel of John, and only in John, Jesus makes seven statements in which he says "I am . . ." (egō eimi) followed by a Christological title reflecting Jesus' divine attributes and nature. These seven "I Am" statements are:

I am the Bread of Life (Jn. 6:35, 48).
I am the Light of the World (Jn. 8:12, 9:5).
I am the Door (Jn. 10:7-9).
I am the Good Shepherd (Jn. 10:11, 14).
I am the Resurrection and the Life (Jn. 11:25).
I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life (Jn. 14:6).
I am the True Vine (Jn. 15:1, 5).

Elsewhere Jesus refers to himself as "I Am" in the absolute sense, with no predicate (Jn. 8:24, 8:28, 8:59, 13:19), statements that are generally understood to be esoteric allusions to Jesus' divinity. I will discuss the issues raised by these "I Am" statements in detail in my exploration of John 8.

A pdf of the full version of this column, with extensive references and notes, can be found at:

Dropbox:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15865520/Enigmatic%20Mirror/EM-John%206b.pdf

Or Academia.edu:
http://byu.academia.edu/WilliamHamblin/Papers/524699/John_6_25-51_The_Bread_of_Life

Updates and discussion can be followed on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/An-Enigmatic-Mirror/180889785272535

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About William Hamblin

William James Hamblin is professor of Near Eastern History at Brigham Young University. You can follow and discuss "An Enigmatic Mirror" on Facebook.

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