Apparently it still is. :o)
The Epistles are the doctrinal teachings of the new church written by those that were there..not one reference to the bread being the actual body of Christ..a rememberance to be treated solomely like the passover..a holy time of Gods presence..but no mention that even the disciples that were there understood it to be the actual body..
No mention doesn't necessitate no belief. Scripture appears to be an abridged version of events. Sole reliance on it could be limiting. See John 20:30-31 and John 21:25. I would also point out that understanding can take on evolutionary processes. You mentioned earlier that Peter did not have the same kind of conversion that Paul did. Peter's was an ebb and flow, a slow lifting of the curtain, which I think is the more common way (as opposed to being knocked off your horse, blinded, and exposed to disembodied voices. Yet, Paul also confesses his experience with uncertainty in 1 Cor.13:12. Thus, it is not excluded from the realm of possibility that institutional understanding can follow the precedent set by the great apostles. In the case of John 6:64, it is evident from the nonexistence of any kind of controversy, that a different interpretation than Quester's was applied to the verse in question. That was my only point regarding Post #27.
No mention doesn't necessitate no belief. Scripture appears to be an abridged version of events. Sole reliance on it could be limiting. See John 20:30-31 and John 21:25.Necessarily abridged, but selected for the purpose of providing us whatsoever we need as regards our Christian belief.
John 20:30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
John 21:25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
They were present to hear the words of Christ, they heard the inflection, the look in His eyes as He spoke
We are not discussing an "institutional understanding" here Chuck . This is a spiritual matter..
1Cr 2:14 But the natural 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.