As part of the fourth gospel's continuing efforts to disclose Jesus' identity so that people might believe, the "bread of life" discourse is crucial. Jesus distinguishes the "living bread" from all other human attempts to nourish body and soul. Not even the manna gathered in the wilderness can compare to the eternally nutritious power of the true bread of heaven.

Chapter six begins with two of the most startling and impressive "signs" Jesus ever delivered: feeding five thousand hungry listeners with a mere five loaves of barley bread and two little fish, and an aquatic stroll toward a boat-load of astonished disciples sailing three or four miles out from shore. The supernatural character of these two signs is obvious and yet was apparently not universally convincing.

After once more being …