“Eat My Flesh & Drink My Blood”: Literal of Symbolic? 2 minute apologetics by John Martignoni, president of the Bible Christian Society. www.biblechristiansociety.com

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7 COMMENTS

  1. Question: if we were to take what he said literally, then do we take other things he said like to hate your family and follow him, give to the other your cheek if the other is slapped and so forth?

    I am Catholic student.

    • John 6 is literal because his disciples walked away because this teaching was too hard. John 6:66 is where Judas fell and became the Anti-Christ. Do you have enough faith to believe it is His Flesh and Blood? The fall of man came through eating. The redemption of man came through eating also. The poetry of God.

  2. To “hate your family” is to not put anyone above God. You must first loo at the translation of the verse in order to determine its meaning. We are asked to take some things literal and others figurative. For example the parables…lessons on how to live not actual construction of a home. Though I guess it could be applied there as well.

  3. Leon, in general, whether to take things literally or not tends to depend on context and wording. So, for example, when Jesus said He was the vine, we know that people understood it metaphorically because they did not leave Him. However, when He said to eat and drink of His flesh and blood, people walked away, saying it was a hard saying that they couldn’t believe, and Jesus did not call them back to explain it was metaphorical.

    Specifically regarding turning the other cheek, I’m copying this from another website, but have also heard it preached by a very reliable priest:

    “At the time of Jesus, striking someone deemed to be of a lower class with the back of the hand was used to assert authority and dominance.[3] If the persecuted person “turned the other cheek,” the discipliner was faced with a dilemma. The left hand was used for unclean purposes, so a back-hand strike on the opposite cheek would not be performed.[4] The other alternative would be a slap with the open hand as a challenge or to punch the person, but this was seen as a statement of equality. Thus, by turning the other cheek the persecuted was in effect demanding equality”.

  4. The main concern I have with the concept of literal is the concept of the Trinity being a Divine mystery. How can you flesh Jesus literally and still be confused about the nature of God? Those two concepts don’t seem to harmonize well. You may want to tie those two things together a little better.

    • God put His Trinitarian nature into the entire universe. In the beginning God created Space, Time and Matter. Each of these have a 3 in one nature. Space = Length x Width x Height, Time = Past, Present and Future, Matter = Solid, Liquid and Gas. The entire universe is Trinitarian.

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