How many Christians believe Jesus in John 6?

Question

John 6:22-71
Verse 53: "unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you."
Jesus is present always with us when we eat his flesh and drink his blood in the Eucharist.

Verse 53: "amen, amen I say to you," other translations: "truly, truly I say to you," Jesus says that what he is about to say is true, literal, and factual.
Jesus says eat my flesh. He cannot be more clear. In the original Greek it says chew my flesh.
verse 55: for my flesh is true food, and my blood true drink.

It is a hard teaching because it is. In verse 63 he was talking about the flesh of man, not his own. The body of man is of no avail. Look at verse 66: many of his disciples left him. If jesus was talking symbolically, why did they leave? why didn't Jesus correct them and say he was only talking symbolically? He even asked the 12 apostles if they wanted to leave in verse 67.

Luke 22:19 "This is my body, do this in memory of me."
How come some Christians believe God became man in the incarnation of Jesus, but can't believe Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, just as Jesus says in Luke 22:19?

Lover of thruth: The ceremonial jewish customs are not binding on Christians. That was part of the old covenent, There is the new covenent with Jesus as the sacrafice and lamb.

Answer 1

He explains it here:

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”
Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” Matthew 26:26-29

Mark 14:22-25 and Luke 22:19-20 are similar accounts.

Answer 2

You know, I just finished replying to a post you made decrying the fighting that goes on in Christendom and here you are posting about one of the major sources of disputes between Catholics/Lutherans/etc... and Protestant/Separated Assemblies/etc...

Doesn't that seem rather counterproductive to you? Or is it the fact that people didn't fall in line with the debatable teachings you're posting here that occasioned your next post about how we couldn't witness to the world with all of this fighting going on?

When Jesus said this is my flesh while holding up some bread and this is my blood while holding up some wine it would be obvious to everyone present that He was speaking symbolically since he poured the wine from a bottle instead of his veins and He didn't carve off a piece of his body and pass it around to eat.

Did you ever consider that throughout the Bible God has forbidden the eating of blood? It's ludicrous to say that God endorses cannibalism and the drinking of blood because it has somehow been transmuted into the literal blood and body of Jesus who was fully man as well as God.

Jesus left us with a symbolic ritual to remember his sacrificial death as atonement for our sins that basically replaced the previous ritual of the passover that looked ahead to His coming. Our changed lives come from the indwelling presence and regeneration of the Holy Spirit who gives us new birth in Christ. There's nothing spiritual or beneficial about eating human flesh and drinking human blood.

It's just that kind of "spooky" teachings that turns people who don't have a morbid interest away from the true teachings contained in the Bible.

Answer 3

In John 6, the Apostles did not walk away from Jesus like the people who could not grasp what He said.

The people that walked away asked (and STILL ask) "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

The Apostles on the other hand stayed with Jesus.

The Apostles believed Jesus.

The students of the Apostles believed Jesus.

I'm a Catholic Christian and I believe Jesus.

Non-Catholics believe a Catholic Priest named Martin Luther.

Who are you going to believe?

Answer 4

it is the bread which got here down out of heaven ... Does this reason you to stumble? ... it particularly is the Spirit who provides existence; the flesh income no longer something; the words that I even have spoken to you're spirit and are existence. John8:fifty 8,sixty one,sixty 3 If the disciples understood Jesus to intend that they are to consume literal flesh and drink literal blood, then they might have finished so. they did no longer, so as that's no longer how they understood it. in the beginning up became the notice...and the notice became God.....and the notice became flesh...John one million:one million,14 The words of Jesus might replace into (as) rivers of residing water, and whoever beverages might on no account thirst returned...John 4:10, 14. Such language is trouble-free in John's gospel, and such symbolism is likewise very effective in John's Revelation.

Answer 5

The eating and drinking that Jesus was talking about would obviously have to be done figuratively;otherwise the one doing it would be violating God's law.(Gen.9:4;Acts 15:28,29)
Jesus' words here meant for his followers to exercise faith in the redeeming power of his flesh and blood laid down in sacrifice.
This exercising of faith is required of all who will gain the fullness of life,whether in the heavens with Christ or in the promised paradise earth.

Answer 6

Actually, Jesus says further on something He nowhere says anywhere in the Gospels, that "It is the spirit that quickens [or brings life]; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life." (v. 63)

Yes, I do believe what Jesus says in John 6, just not what you seem to think it says. As for the original Greek, here it is for v. 53:

John 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 .

The definition of that word phago which is the one translated eat is defined as follows by Strong's Greek Dictionary:

5315. fagw phago, fag'-o
a primary verb (used as an alternate of 2068 in certain tenses); to eat (literally or figuratively):--eat, meat.

So it can be literal or figurative. And as for the word sarx we translate as flesh, here is its definition:

4561. sarx sarx, sarx
probably from the base of 4563; flesh (as stripped of the skin), i.e. (strictly) the meat of an animal (as food), or (by extension) the body (as opposed to the soul (or spirit), or as the symbol of what is external, or as the means of kindred), or (by implication) human nature (with its frailties (physically or morally) and passions), or (specially), a human being (as such):--carnal(-ly, + -ly minded), flesh(-ly).

Furthermore, such a literal view is not compatible with what else Jesus has said about literally eating or drinking things:

Matthew 15:10 And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:
11 Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.

Matthew 15:15 Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable.
16 And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding?
17 Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?
18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

Even as it is not that which goes into the mouth that is good or evil or can defile a person, so it is not that which goes into the mouth that can bring eternal life. As Jesus said, it is the spirit that profits, the flesh profits nothing. Physical things are nothing which is why we can eat anything so long as it is with faith. What matters most is our hearts.

Answer 7

To eat and drink means to (assimilate or consume knowledge).

Christ is the tree of life.

Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

Study to show thyself approved.