Bibrōskō (βιβρώσκω) is a primary verb meaning to eat or consume food. It appears only once in the New Testament, in John 6:13, referring to the fragments left over from the feeding of the five thousand — the pieces of bread the crowd had eaten. The verb is related to brōma (food) and brōsis (the act of eating, food).
The feeding of the five thousand — the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels — is the immediate context of John 6, where Jesus delivers His great Bread of Life discourse. The miraculous bibrōskō (eating) of physical bread leads directly to Jesus' declaration: "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry" (John 6:35). The twelve baskets of fragments become the occasion for the crowd's misunderstanding — they want earthly bread, but Jesus offers Himself as the heavenly bread that gives eternal life. The Eucharistic overtones are unmistakable.