1. God will feed the multitudes
2. I am God - I can walk on water
3. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life,[o] which the Son of Man will give you
4. This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent
5. my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
6. I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger,
7. I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
8. unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. 54 Whoever eats[s] my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.
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He is crystal clear - and He emphasizes that this is not an allegory, but repeats thrice that this is what you are to do - eat of His Body and drink of His blood
I’ve done a similar thing before with John 6, but since Jesus is having a conversation, and not preaching a sermon, both what He says and what is said to Him should be included.
This is beginning from John 6:
The people who followed Jesus to Capernaum after He fed the multitude: Rabbi, when camest thou hither?
Jesus: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
The people: What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
Jesus: This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
The people: What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
Jesus: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
The people: Lord, evermore give us this bread.
Jesus: I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
(The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.)
The people: Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?
Jesus: Murmur not among yourselves. 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. 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. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. 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.
The people: How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
Jesus: 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. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. 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.
Many of his disciples: This is an hard saying; who can hear it?
Jesus to his disciples: Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not.
(For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.) Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
(From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.)
Jesus to the twelve: Will ye also go away?
Simon Peter: Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.
Jesus: Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?
(He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.) -End of chapter-
Here are two more things about John 6 to consider:
- It emphasizes something extremely important that the entire book of John, and also the Gospels themselves, emphasize: the sin of unbelief.
- What’s more, the whole Bible also emphasizes the sin of unbelief. Instead of rather entering immediately into the Promised Land after being delivered from Egypt,
the Israelites were forced to wander for 40 years in the wilderness, until the entire adult generation except for Joshua and Caleb had died out, due to their unbelief. The New Testament book of Hebrews discusses that quite a bit.
once he ascended that became impossible. He is certainly speaking spiritually - as he specifically says in verse 63. “ It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”
At the time and place of Jesus' dealing with the human parasites who were traipsing after Jesus to obtain the material benefits that He was miraculously dispensing, Jesus was clear to the Twelve, His chosen disciples, for whom His earthly residence was largely dedicated to their training in theology and evangelism. A part of that training was showing them the nature of the use of figurative language in parables, so that they could understand and apply them. However, what he was saying in this pericope was not clear to the unspiritual adherents, as it never has been to those not possessing the gift of spiritual discernment, as it very obviously is not to you.
And because of this, you unadvisedly make the above claim, not even distinguishing what kind of speech it is that Jesus was using in John 6 regarding Himself, His Body, and His Blood. He was speaking allegorically, and this literary device employed metaphorical examples, ones He often used in communicating spiritual Truths. It could not have been plain literal, but you seem not to know how to differentiate between allegory and metaphor, a significant error in scriptural interpretation. Here's what "BECOME A WRITER TODAY: (click Here) concisely says about this issue:
Allegory Vs Metaphor: What’s The Difference?However one evaluates the content of John 6, it is inescapable that it is filled with metaphorical figurative-literal language, which Jesus had taught His disciples to interpret as such, beginning in October (Heshvan) of A. D. 31, toward the end of their second year of discipleship with Him. By this time they had become spiritually mature enough to be able to contemplate the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, which had been withheld even from yhe prophets of the Old Testament, and since from anyone not born from above.
Many writers use the metaphor and allegory regularly but often without knowledge of what the devices are and how they work. Skilled writers know the differences and how to wield each one well.
Allegories are not the same as symbolism, because allegories are complete narratives. Symbolism uses one object (symbol) to stand for another within a narrative, but does not extend through the entire narrative. While allegories sometimes use symbolism, they are not the same thing.
In some ways, allegories are extended metaphors. They compare two unrelated things in a story, however, the objects are not really what they appear to be.
Because of that, your maturity in the use of language does not permit you to be an authoritative commentator on the Bible, whatever your schooling.In another passage, Jesus pinpoints your standing as a commentator on His Word. In the first nine verses of this passage, Matthew 13:1-23, Jesus gave the gathered crowd (including His disciples) a brief parable about how more disciples were to be made. At that moment, none of the hearers grasped the significance because the lesson was couched in figurative-literal language. But a bit later He explained the meaning to His inner circle of personally chosen students:
10And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? 11He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.Thus, this was a parable, for Jesus said It was. And years later, when formulating their reports of Jesus' instruction on this day, Matthew and Mark wrote in their Gospels a very important overall feature of Jesus' uniform oral teaching method as follows:
12For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
13Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. 14And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: 15For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
16But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. 17For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. 18Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.
"All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:" (Mt. 13:34 AV; 5o AD).So when the commentators on scripture say of John's Gospel that there are no parables in it, they are and must be wrong, for Blessed John would not have made Matthew's Gospel (written four decades before) and Mark's/Peter's Gospel (written three decades before) fabrics of lies. When John wrote his more spiritual gospel it included mre aspects of the principles His Master was teaching them. Chapter 6, a report of Jesus encounter with a multitude, an event six months after the chronology of Matthew 13, was most certainly understood by the Twelve as filled with metaphorical inference not understood by the unspiritual material-minded soulish masses that He was addressing. And doubtless Jesus was preparing His intimate circle for the event ending His last meal on earth in His Own flsh-and-blood, incarnate body, the tokens of which at that moment could not possibly been literally of His Own Substance in either the natural, observable sense; but only in the figurative sense.
"But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples" (Mk. 4:34 AV; ~65 AD).
What I see in all of this, Cronos, is that you do not perceive or understand or believe what the Holy Scriptures convey in these passages, likely never having been born from above, and thus unable to discern spiritual truths even when they are displayed before you and rightly interpreted for you.
Am I wrong? Will another spiritually mature reader of this response say that I am wrong in this? Can you say that you have been spiritually reborn through faith alone in Jesus The Messiah alone, by the grace of God His Father alone?
If not, I believe that you are not fit to comment on matters you do not yet understand. And why?
The basis for my opinion is found in 1 Corinthians 2:12-15 (AV):
12Now wethe authors of this epistle, spiritual men of God have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 13Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14But the naturalψυχικός=psuchicos, soulish man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15But hea spiritually reborn human that is spiritualπνευματικός=pneumatikos, non-carnal, regenerate judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. 16For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that hethe spiritual human may instruct himthe soulish, (il)logical man? But wethe authors of this epistle and all regenerate humans like them have the mind of Christ.And who is it that has the mind of The Christ?
"5Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Php. 2:5-8 AV).Are you, Cronos, humble enough that you can bow before the Word of God that tells of the magnificent servant mind of the Messiah, and through faith alone be willing to have Him as your master, and not some council of fallible, wrong-headed, religionists?
Do not forget that the truly miracle-generated bread (Jn. 6:26-27) or the miracle-generated “wine” (= non-alcoholic grape juice)(Jn. 2:7-8) was neither really Jesus’ Flesh nor Jesus’ Blood, and saved no one that ate of it; indeed, did not seem to even promote their spirituallty, at most only their temporal body and soul.
Hey Thomas!
When you stick yer fingers into my wounds; you really should LICK the blood off of them instead of washing your hands later.
...thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape. (Deuteronomy 32:11-14)