You don't say? /sarc
One has to look at the context and the type of writing the inspired author used.
You mean the apostles vs. "J," "E," "P," and "D?" Wow. Tell me . . . how did "nineteenth century scholarship" finally prove that these unknown human authors, and not G-d Himself, authored the Torah? I'm sure you must know, since you're so sure of it.
John 6 (key Eucharist texts) should be interpreted literally because it reads like a historical account of disciples leaving Him over this hard teaching.
Be honest. You interpret John 6 literally merely because it's part of Catholic cultural identity and makes a demarcation between Catholics and Fundamentalist Protestants. Just as the same Catholic evolutionists believe that J*sus was born without the activity of a human father or that Mary played basketball with the sun on October 13, 1917. These are "Catholic miracles" as opposed to the first eleven chapters of Genesis which is for Protestant "trailer park trash."
Be careful there. That is a biblical miracle that every Evangelical I know would affirm. Where we disagree is with the Catholic doctrine of Immaculate Conception, which teaches that Mary was preserved from original sin from "the moment of the creation of her soul and its infusion into her body."