The next segment of John's Gospel that we will be considering in this part of our study is the bread of life discourse in John 6. Here John presents yet another dialogue between Jesus and ‘the Jews’. That the conflict setting of the Johannine community has influenced this text is suggested by the way ‘the Jews’ respond to what Jesus says: they ask for a miraculous sign (6.30–1), and grumble and argue in response to his words (6.41, 52). The result is that even many of his disciples turn back from following him (6.66). This may indicate that we have to do here with a later conflict, an inner-Christian one, a possibility to which we shall return our attention later in the present chapter. Nonetheless, the fact that the opponents are here referred to as ‘the Jews’ suggests that, whomever else the author may have had in mind, the same opponents that were in view in the other passages we have been examining are still in view here. These factors, as well as many features of the text that we shall consider below, suggest that the bread of life discourse will prove relevant to our study.

The focus of the conflict

The focal point of the narrative, which provides its starting point and most of its imagery, is the Jewish manna tradition. The crowd asks Jesus for a miraculous sign to demonstrate his claims, just as Moses' claims were confirmed by the miracles he accomplished.