Theme · narrative

Bread of Life

God feeds Israel with manna in the wilderness — bread from heaven, gathered daily, sufficient for each day's need. The showbread in the tabernacle represents God's provision in his presence. Elijah is sustained by bread delivered by ravens and angels. Jesus feeds five thousand with five loaves, then declares, 'I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger.' He connects the manna to himself: 'Your fathers ate manna and died, but whoever eats of this bread will live forever.' At the Last Supper, he breaks bread and says, 'This is my body, given for you.'

Passages expressing this theme

1Cor 10:17 — For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.
1Cor 11:24 — And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
Deut 8:3 — And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but
Exod 16:4 — Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law,
Exod 16:15 — And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.
Exod 16:35 — And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.
Exod 25:30 — And thou shalt set upon the table shewbread before me alway.
Gen 14:18 — And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.
Matt 4:4 — But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Matt 6:11 — Give us this day our daily bread.
Matt 14:19 — And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the di
Matt 26:26 — And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
Ps 78:24 — And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
Ps 78:25 — Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full.