John 6:35

Jesus now identified Himself as the bread about which He had been speaking (cf. John 6:47; Isaiah 55:1-2). The Jews regarded the real bread from heaven as the Law. [Note: Edersheim, 2:30.] Jesus did not say He had the bread of life but that He was that bread. He claimed to be able to satisfy completely as bread and water satisfy physically. His hearers did not need to return to Him repeatedly as they had assumed (John 6:34) since He would also satisfy permanently (cf. John 13:9-10). The "nevers" are emphatic in the Greek text. Coming to Jesus and believing are synonymous concepts just as bread and water together represent total human need. Jesus did not mean that continual dependence on Him was unimportant (cf. John 15:4-5). He meant that believing on Him would satisfy the basic human need and desire for life. Again Jesus linked life with Himself. He is what sustains and nourishes spiritual life. It is by feeding on Him that we obtain life initially and continue to flourish spiritually.

Jesus’ claim to be the Bread of Life, three times in this discourse (John 6:35; John 6:48; John 6:51), is the first of seven such claims that John recorded Jesus making in his Gospel. Jesus used the same expression (Gr. ego eimi, "I am," plus a predicate) in each case. Two other instances of ego eimi and a predicate occur (John 8:18; John 8:23), but they are slightly different in meaning. Ego eimi without the predicate appears in John 6:20; John 8:24; John 8:28; John 8:58; and John 18:6. Each of these seven "I am" claims expresses Jesus’ relationship to humankind’s basic spiritual needs metaphorically.

"Jesus is the one who bears the divine name (cf. Exodus 3:14). For John, this story takes on the character of a theophany, not unlike the Transfiguration recorded by the Synoptics." [Note: Harris, p. 177.]