Jesus uses the analogy of bread only because that is what the crowd was interested in at that moment . That this is Jesus intent is clear from other passages in this same chapter. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
Physical food is no more in view here than is physical life .
If, however, it seems to enjoin a crime or vice, or to forbid an act of prudence or benevolence, it is figurative. Augustine s view of this passage parallels the Evangelical view. Another example of this kind of metaphor is found in John 4, where Jesus is met at the well by a Samaritan woman. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. This passage has many remarkable similarities to the John 6 passage.