John 6:51 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

I am the living bread— Because it was a matter of infinite importance to his hearers, that they should form a just notion of his ability to save them, and believe in him as the Redeemer of the world, our Lord affirmed the third time, that he was himself the living bread which came down from heaven, to give eternal life and glory; and that all who would faithfully and perseveringly eat of it should live for ever, because he was about to give them his flesh to eat, by making it an expiation for the sins of the world. The word Αρτος rendered bread in this discourse, might be better translated, according to the Hebrew idiom, the meat; and particularly in this verse. There is a beautiful gradation observable in our Lord's discourse. The first time that he called himself the bread of life, John 6:35 he assigned the reason of the name somewhat obscurely; He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. The second time that he called himself the bread of life, John 6:47-48 he spake to the same purpose as before, but more plainly; he that believeth on me hath everlasting life, therefore I am the bread of life, connecting this with his affirmation, John 6:46 that he was the only teacher of mankind who had ever seen and was most intimately acquainted with all the councils of the Father, and that he gave life to men by his doctrine, being on that account also the bread of life. The third time he called himself bread, he added to the name, the epithet of living, not only because he gives spiritual life to men, raises them from the dead, and makes the faithful eternally happy, but because he gives them this life by means of his human nature, which was not an inanimate thing, like the manna, but a living substance; for he told them plainly, that the bread or meat which he would give them, was his flesh, which he would give for the life of the world; and spake of men's eating it, in order to its having that effect: but to the meaning of this expression he had before directed them, when in calling himself the breadof life, he always joined the believing on him, as necessary to men's living by him; wherefore to eat, in the remaining part of this discourse, is to believe, including all the fruits of faith. There appears another beautiful gradation in this verse, compared with John 6:21. The Jews had insinuated, that feeding a few thousand, with the five loaves, was an inconsiderable thing, compared with what Moses did; but our Lord declares the purposes of his grace and bounty to be far more extensive, as reaching to the whole world, andgiving life, immortal life, to all that should believe in him, the great atoning sacrifice for all mankind.