John 6:54
What does John 6:54 mean?
A plain-English look at John 6:54 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What John 6:54 means
He promises that whoever eats His flesh and drinks His blood has eternal life, and He will raise him up at the last day. The benefits are both present and future: life now, resurrection then. Participation in His death becomes the means of sharing His life. The promise mirrors earlier assurances, but now tied explicitly to His sacrificial flesh and blood. Jesus pledges personally to raise those who thus partake, underlining His authority over death. This is deeply relational—receiving Him as life, not performing a ritual for its own sake.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
KJV
King James Version · 1611Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949He who takes my flesh for food and my blood for drink has eternal life: and I will take him up from the dead at the last day.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862he who is eating my flesh, and is drinking my blood, hath life age-during, and I will raise him up in the last day;
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say unto you: except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life eternal, and I will raise him up at the last day:
Context
This positive assurance follows the stark necessity of verse 53. It balances the warning with a gracious promise and repeats the resurrection hope introduced earlier. The next two verses will elaborate that His flesh and blood are true food and drink, and that those who partake abide in mutual indwelling with Him, extending the theme from life and resurrection to ongoing communion.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Isaiah 25:6
And in this mountain will Jehovah of hosts make unto all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
- Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.
- John 4:14
but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life.
- John 6:27
Work not for the food which perisheth, but for the food which abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him the Father, even God, hath sealed.
- John 6:63
It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life.
- Proverbs 9:4
Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: As for him that is void of understanding, she saith to him,
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