Eat My Flesh, Drink My Blood

(Please start reading with the lead post in this series.)

The words of the Lord Jesus in John 6:41-59 are often cited in discussions of the Lord’s Supper, in seeking to understand the true nature of the bread and the cup. In particular,

Jhn 6:53 Then Jesus said unto them, 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. 54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

This paper discusses John 6 in detail. It makes the following points:

• John 6:22-71 is not a single “bread of life discourse,” but three separate discourses, addressed to three different groups, and probably in different locations.
• The verses in question are addressed to “the Jews,” whom the chapter compares to the murmuring Israelites during Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness.
• It is not describing the last supper, which still lay a full year in the future, but rather is commenting on the miraculous multiplication of the loaves and fishes in the first part of the chapter.
• In the first discourse, to the multitudes, the Lord sets forth much simple conditions to receive eternal life, and in the third discourse, to the disciples, the Lord directs attention away from his physical flesh and toward his words.
• The language used with the Jews in 6:41-59, like the Lord’s teaching in Matthew 13, is symbolic and parabolic, and intended to confuse those who have already rejected his simpler statements.