Eat_Drink

All old covenant writings quoted in this study are courtesy of Young's Literal Translation (YLT). The new covenant writings are quoted from my Literal Idiomatic Translation.

John 6:52 Therefore the Judeans were fighting toward one another, saying, “How [can] this one inherently power himself to give to us the flesh of him to eat?”

It's obvious that some among the crowd, who heard Jesus speak, absolutely did not understand figures of speech. Apparently it didn't cross their minds that Jesus may be speaking figuratively, as he often spoke. What caught them by surprise is that they couldn't readily understand what Jesus meant. Their surprise and subsequent foolish statement comes out of their own self-realization that they haven't the spiritual ability to follow what Jesus says. They are obviously not experienced at studying God's Word. But they have come to hear Jesus speak, and through “hearing” they may learn and believe (Rom. 10:17) his words.

John 6:53 Therefore the Jesus enunciated to them, “Being true, being true I say to you, if perhaps [you] may not eat the flesh of the Son of the Mortal, and [you] may [not] drink the blood of him, [you] absolutely do not hold life in to yourselves!

There are several clues which Jesus Christ and apostle John have given us to understanding what Jesus means when he uses the metaphors 'eat' and 'drink' in these verses. And there are other clues as well.

The first clue is in the local context;

John 1:14 And the Word (logos) became flesh (sarx) and tented among us.

The second clue is right here in the local context;

John 6:63c, “The individual words (rhēmata) which I have spoken to you (humin), [each one] is Spirit and [each one] is life!”

Jesus Christ, the Word (logos) which became flesh, spoke individual words (rhēmata), each word being Spirit and life. In the new covenant writings, an individual word (Gk. rhēmati)is defined through usage as either an individual word or a short sentence.

The third and fourth corresponding clues, which give us characteristics of Jesus Christ’s identity, are in a remote context in 1 John 1:1-2;

1 John 1:1 “…the Word (logou) of the Life;”

1 John 1:2 “…the life was manifested, … the ageless [life]…”

There are other clues, but these first four seem the most relative to me, in the new covenant writings.

The fifth and subsequent clues, in my opinion, are in the old covenant writings, in contexts remote to John 6:53;

Jeremiah 15:16 Thy words have been found, and I eat them, And thy Word is to me for a joy, And for the rejoicing of my heart, For thy name is called on me, O Jehovah, God of Hosts.

"Thy words (plural) have been found" - Implies that Jeremiah was searching out the words of God's Word, individually. Jeremiah didn't do 60 mph drive-through readings of God’s Word. Jeremiah paid particular attention to each and every word of God's Word, that he “ate”. When Jeremiah searched God's Word to know and understand it, he was not casual, unplanned nor irregular in his search, but he was systematic and thorough, as to take no chance in misunderstanding what the God of the heavens and universe said.

"and I eat them" – The idea of objectively eating the subjective meanings of words, is not only a figure of speech, but is a Hebraism, a Hebrew figure of speech. A Hebraism is linguistic feature typical of Hebrew occurring especially in another language. Jesus spoke in Aramaic, a language cousin of Hebrew.

In Ezekiel we see again this Hebrew figure of speech of "eating" God's words.

Ezekiel 2:8 ‘And thou, son of man, hear that which I am speaking unto thee: Thou art not rebellious like the rebellious house, open thy mouth, and eat that which I am giving unto thee.’

The mouth is where the food enters in to the body; and similarly, the mind is where knowledge, wisdom and truth enter into a being.

The voice, not going against Ezekiel's free will, asked Ezekiel to open his mouth, i.e., allow God’s Word into his mind, and allow the Spirit to speak to him in his mind. In Ezekiel 3:2 Ezekiel agrees to this, "And I open my mouth", and allows the Spirit to cause Ezekiel to "eat" the roll. The Spirit put the words of God's Word into Ezekiel's mind rather quickly, through the vision.

Ezekiel 2:9 And I look, and lo, a hand is sent forth unto me, and lo, in it a roll of a book,

Ezekiel 2:10 and He spreadeth it before me, and it is written in front and behind, and written on it are lamentations, and mourning, and woe!

Ezekiel 3:1 And He saith unto me, ‘Son of man, that which thou findest eat, eat this roll, and go, speak unto the house of Israel .’

Ezekiel 3:2 And I open my mouth, and He causeth me to eat this roll.

Ezekiel 3:3 And He saith unto me, ‘Son of man, thy belly thou dost feed, and thy bowels thou dost fill with this roll that I am giving unto thee;’ and I eat it, and it is in my mouth as honey for sweetness.

"and I eat it, and it is in my mouth as honey for sweetness" - as was the manna to the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sin (Ex. 16:31).

This establishes that the manner of speaking Jesus chose to use, as recorded in John 6, is not only highly figurative, but an ancient Hebraism, meaning “to eat and drink God’s Word”, and in this case, the words of the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. Jesus was emphatically telling them to put his words, the words he was speaking, the word of Spirit and life, into their minds.

Back to John 6:

John 6:54 The one gnawing (trōgōn) the flesh of me and drinking (pinōn) the blood of me holds ageless life; and I shall stand him up to the last day.

Jesus said two things, both of which are major individual aspects of the complete redemption of mortalkind, of all those believing upon his name, JESUS:

“gnawing (trōgōn) the flesh of me” – Jesus’ physical body was broken for the believer’s physical healing (Isa. 53:5; 1 Pet. 2:24). Believers are to gnaw (make sure you get every bit of it) on God’s Word, specifically about that part of our redemption accomplished through Jesus’ broken body:

and,

“drinking (pinōn) the blood of me” – Jesus’ shed blood was for the remission of our sins (Mat. 26:28; Rom. 3:25), for our redemption (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; 1 Pet. 1:18-19), to make peace between God and mortalkind, for all who believe (Eph. 2:14; Col. 1:20), to make us righteous (Rom. 3:25-26; Rom. 5:9), to cleanse our conscience from guilt over dead works (Heb. 9:14), to cleanse our physical bodies from the effects of sin (1 John 1:7; Rev. 1:5), to give us the new birth above (John 3) and the baptism in the gift of holy Spirit which makes us holy (John 6:56; Heb. 13:12; 1 Pet. 1:2-5), the power of the resurrection (John 6:54), wholeness and salvation (Rom. 5:9).

May we keep on "eating" and "drinking" God's Word.