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?
In agreement placemarker.
Jesus taught that in order for us to have eternal life we must eat his flesh
He repeats this phrase or its variations six times.
He makes it graphically clear that the flesh is literal as the body on the Cross was literal
Many disciples left Jesus because they refused to believe Jesus that this was His literal flesh. you, imadrmd1 would be one of those disciples. you are among those who reject Jesus, the Word of God's very words
as our Lutheran brethren say From the Lutheran LCMS.org website
All three accounts of the institution of the Lord's Supper in the Gospels (Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:14-23) explicitly state that Jesus took BREAD, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to his disciples saying, "Take, eat; this [i.e., this BREAD, which I have just blessed and broken and am now giving to you] is my body." Jesus uses similar language in referring to "the cup" (of wine) as "his blood."... Perhaps the most explicit expression of this truth, however, is found in 1 Cor. 10:16-17, where Paul writes: "The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread." Paul clearly says here that we all "partake" of "BREAD" when we receive the Lord's Supper--even as we also partake of and "participate in" the true body of Christ. And he says that we all "partake" of the wine (the cup), even as we also partake of the true blood of Christ. Similarly, in 1 Cor. 11:26, Paul says: "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." Paul expressly states here ........................that those who eat this bread and drink this cup are also partaking of the true body and blood of Christ. So "real" is this participation in Christ's body and blood, in fact, that (according to Paul) those who partake of the bread and wine "in an unworthy manner" are actually guilty of "profaning the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Cor. 11:27). (Partaking of the Lord's Supper "in a worthy manner," of course, is not something that we "do" or "accomplish" on the basis of our "personal holiness" or "good works." It means receiving God's free and gracious gifts of life and forgiveness offered in the Lord's Supper in true repentance produced by the work of the Spirit through God's Law and in true faith in Christ and his promises produced by God's Spirit through the Gospel).