John 6 is about the manna of the OT, which is the same and equal in it's properties as the bread of life in the NT. The manna is a visual in the physical arena to teach and confirm a spiritual truth that is also a prophecy. The two must be matched together because there is a miraculous element to both. The Jews had been teaching about the manna for about 1500 years when the bread of life came on the scene that effectively brought the teaching of the manna to fruition. However, as demonstrated by John in his gospel, very few Jews had any knowledge of the spiritual aspect of the manna in the OT and so the whole exercise of the feeding of the five thousand with the single meal of a young child was completely lost on the participants.
The point of the miracle of the manna being sent from heaven by the Father to the children of Israel in the desert was to give them life and to maintain it. It supplied all they needed to live, but only if they ingested it. It would do no good for anyone in the little boys lunch pail. This was the spiritual message. Jesus Christ was sent by the Father in heaven to a dry and thirsty land. He was the bread of life he said in V 35. He could not give life to anyone unless he was ingested. This is what he said in this chapter. "except you drink my blood and eat my flesh you have no life in you.
47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
48 I am that bread of life.
49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
52 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.
Why do I bring this up in the context of a single Bible that comes from God. It is to illustrate that the Jews during the days of Jesus had one version of the Hebrew Bible and had the WORD of God in their presence explaining it after the nation had studied it for 1500 years and they still did not get it. Today, and on this forum, there might be one person posting here that understands the ways of God enough to know that the entire OT, every word and every story is a physical visual of a spiritual New Testament truth. Change the words and damage the visual and how it reveals the spiritual. Change it 150 times and you have what you have today, total confusion and division about the most simple fundamental truths and men believing complete and total lies to the point they go out and tell the same things themselves.
Here is what Jesus said to these unbelievers who just a few minutes after he said it departed because they did not have a heart for God and did not understand his words.
44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
Look at the tenses of the verbs I have underlined. Two past tense and one present tense. One must be taught of God through his word to be saved by ingesting Jesus Christ.
1Jo 5:10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
What if in those translations you obscured that visual and diminished Jesus Christ? What then?
Col 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.