This verse explains why Jesus" statements in John 6:53-54 are true. Jesus" person is what truly satisfies and sustains life. This is the true function of food and drink. [source][source][source]
Context Summary
John 6:52-59 - Eat And Live
In John 6:57 our Lord gives the secret of His inner life. At the beginning of His ministry He told the tempter that man did not live by bread alone, but by God's Word. Here He goes further and says that He lived not only by the words of God, but by God Himself. There is also this other truth, that each of us is called to exercise toward Christ the same attitude and dependence that He exercised toward the Father. It is impossible by one illustration to set forth the eternal facts of the spiritual world. Metaphor has to be heaped on metaphor. Already our Lord had dealt with the symbol of manna and bread; He now goes further in order to emphasize the truth that the power to communicate life can only be acquired through death. Our Lord, therefore, describes the bread of the soul-life as His flesh, which he would give for the life of the world. Obviously flesh is that which has passed through death. But it should always be borne in mind that the Christian soul does not dwell exclusively on the death of Jesus, but on the life of Him who died. It is the risen and ascended Christ, who died for our sins but whom God exalted to His right hand, that should fill our thoughts. [source]
Chapter Summary: John 6
1Jesus feeds five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes 15Thereupon the people would have made him king; 16but withdrawing himself, he walks on the sea to his disciples; 26reproves the people flocking after him, and all the fleshly hearers of his word; 32declares himself to be the bread of life to believers 66Many disciples depart from him 68Peter confesses him 70Judas is a devil
Greek Commentary for John 6:55
Meat indeed [αλητης βρωσις] So the best MSS., “true food.” See note on John 4:32 for βρωσις brōsis as equal to βρωμα brōma (a thing eaten). Drink indeed Correct text, “true drink.” For ποσις posis see Romans 14:17; Colossians 2:16 (only N.T. examples). [source]
Indeed [ἀληθῶς] Literally, truly. The best texts read ἀληθὴς , true: true meat, true drink. [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for John 6:55
John 4:32Meat [βρωσιν] Originally the act of eating (Romans 14:17) from βιβρωσκω bibrōskō but soon and commonly as that which is eaten like βρωμα brōma once in John (John 4:34). So here and John 6:27,John 6:55. Cf. vernacular English “good eating,” “good eats.” I ye Emphatic contrast. Spiritual food Jesus had. [source]
Romans 14:17Meat and drink [βρῶσις καὶ πόσις] Rev., eating and drinking. Both words, however, occur frequently in the sense of A.V. Meat ( βρῶμα ), that which is eaten, occurs in Romans 14:15. The corresponding word for that which is drunk ( πῶμα ) is not found in the New Testament, though πόμα drinkoccurs 1 Corinthians 10:4; Hebrews 9:10, and both in classical and New-Testament Greek, πόσις theact of drinking is used also for that which is drunk. See John 6:55. A somewhat similar interchange of meaning appears in the popular expression, such a thing is good eating; also in the use of living for that by which one lives. [source]
Parse: Noun, Nominative Feminine Singular
Root: σάρξ
Sense: flesh (the soft substance of the living body, which covers the bones and is permeated with blood) of both man and beasts.
Greek Commentary for John 6:55
So the best MSS., “true food.” See note on John 4:32 for βρωσις brōsis as equal to βρωμα brōma (a thing eaten). Drink indeed Correct text, “true drink.” For ποσις posis see Romans 14:17; Colossians 2:16 (only N.T. examples). [source]
Literally, truly. The best texts read ἀληθὴς , true: true meat, true drink. [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for John 6:55
Originally the act of eating (Romans 14:17) from βιβρωσκω bibrōskō but soon and commonly as that which is eaten like βρωμα brōma once in John (John 4:34). So here and John 6:27, John 6:55. Cf. vernacular English “good eating,” “good eats.” I ye Emphatic contrast. Spiritual food Jesus had. [source]
Rev., eating and drinking. Both words, however, occur frequently in the sense of A.V. Meat ( βρῶμα ), that which is eaten, occurs in Romans 14:15. The corresponding word for that which is drunk ( πῶμα ) is not found in the New Testament, though πόμα drinkoccurs 1 Corinthians 10:4; Hebrews 9:10, and both in classical and New-Testament Greek, πόσις theact of drinking is used also for that which is drunk. See John 6:55. A somewhat similar interchange of meaning appears in the popular expression, such a thing is good eating; also in the use of living for that by which one lives. [source]
Properly, eating, drinking, as 1 Corinthians 8:4; but the nouns are also used for that which is eaten or drunk, as John 4:32(see note); John 6:27, John 6:55; Romans 14:17. For the subject-matter compare Romans 14:17; 1 Corinthians 8:8; Hebrews 9:10, and note on Mark 7:19. The Mosaic law contained very few provisions concerning drinks. See Leviticus 10:9; Leviticus 11:34, Leviticus 11:36; Numbers 6:3. Hence it is probable that the false teachers had extended the prohibitions as to the use of wine to all Christians. The Essenes abjured both wine and animal food. [source]
Βρῶσις , lit. the act of eating, as 1 Corinthians 8:4, Romans 14:17: “one eating of meat.” Sometimes corrosion, as Matthew 6:19. Sometimes of that which is eaten, John 6:27, John 6:55. [source]