ἡ γὰρ σάρξ μου ἀληθής ἐστιν βρῶσις, καὶ τὸ αἷμά μου ἀληθής ἐστιν πόσις.
In fact, the whole passage, John 6:47-59, especially in the Greek, makes it clear that Christ was being quite literal about us eating His flesh and drinking His blood.
“In fact, the whole passage, John 6:47-59, especially in the Greek, makes it clear that Christ was being quite literal about us eating His flesh and drinking His blood.”
If it is so clear, especially in the Greek, then such a meaning, literally eating and drinking of Christ’s material organism, should be clear to all who understand and read the Greek but such is not the case as the treatment of Matthews account (26:26) shows.
In fact, translations such as Weymouth’s, Moffatt’s, Barclay’s, Schonfield’s say the bread “means” or is a symbol signifies, represents, of “my body” quoting Jesus.
Both Thayer’s Lexicon and Vine’s Dictionary say of “drinking” Christ’s blood that it refers to being saved by his death.
Bias on the part of all these people? Perhaps to the degree that such can be charged to every scholar and translator.
Then how to determine the meaning, THE MEANING, not the literalness, of Jesus’ words?
By what happened subsequently. Did the bread of the Passover meal become Christ’s flesh and the Passover wine left over become Christ’s blood in the most literal way?
To justify saying “yes” it would of necessity have to, yet there is no hint that it did.
To justify saying that it did it must of necessity be shown that the bread and wine changed to flesh and blood at some point but the account gives no hint that it did.
In fact all agree that the bread and wine remained such in all perceptible characteristics so the final appeal is to “MYSTERY”, endless rationalizations, and “church fathers”.
Instead of holding the writers of the Gospels to a literalness that we don’t follow in English and need not be forced upon the Greek, why not simply recognize “estin” is also properly used to mean “represents” or “stands for” as at Matthew 13:37-39.
Possibly because once an institution has declared its self “infallible” how can it ever correct its self?