King James Bible
"Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead."
Jesus references the Israelites' experience during the Exodus when God provided manna as daily bread for forty years. This miraculous provision sustained physical life but was temporary, requiring daily gathering and pointing to something greater. Despite eating divinely provided bread, that generation eventually died, highlighting manna's limitation—it could only sustain temporal life. This stark conclusion prepares for Jesus' contrast with himself as the true bread that gives eternal life.