[Propertalk] Gospel references for August 16, 2009, Part 1

[Joe Parrish]

In verse 53, however, Jesus switches to a less common word, trogo, a rather onomatopoetic word that has a connotation closer to "munch" or "gnaw." It is a graphic word of noisy eating, the sort of eating an animal does. The audibility of the eating, however, is not the important point; this is eating that is urgent, even desperate. It is eating as though life depends on it, because it does.

Just what this "gnawing" means, however, is not easy to discern. In fact, verses 51-58 make up one of the most widely and hotly disputed passages in John's Gospel. At the heart of the debate is whether or not these statements refer to the eating and drinking of the Eucharist, a question only compounded by the absence of Jesus' words regarding his body and blood at the last supper in John. 

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...the early church (for example, Ignatius and Justin Martyr) did speak about the "flesh" of Jesus in the Eucharist. 
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this text is at one level a meditation on the Eucharist... 

http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=8/16/2009&tab=4

Brian Peterson,Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary
Columbia, SC  
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...to eat someone's flesh was a Semitic figure of speech for to slander did not make Jesus' statement easier to understand!

http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/bpr20m.shtml

Chris Haslam, Anglican Diocese of Montreal 
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John uses the word "flesh" (Greek: sarx) while the synoptic gospels and Paul use the word "body" (Greek: soma). 
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Verse 53: The separation of blood from flesh emphasize the reality of Jesus' death. 
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This passage speaks of salvation many times, sometimes in the present (a present reality) (in vv. 53a, 54a) and sometimes in the future (in vv. 54b, 57b, 58b). Salvation through participating in the Eucharist is happening now, and will happen in the future. While this is obvious in John, it can also be found in Matthew.

http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/bpr20l.shtml

Chris Haslam, Anglican Diocese of Montreal 
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As the text stands which has been passed on to us, we see that the eucharist is clearly being understood as a means of opening oneself to this life. It would be a mistake, however, to isolate it as though it were the only means and especially to isolate its elements as having a power which exists independently of the Son and are somehow at our disposal, like medicine. 

http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/MkPentecost11.htm

William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia
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How frequently does one need to eat and drink in order to have this life? Martin Luther writes: "You have to worry that whoever does not desire or receive the sacrament at the very least around four times a year despises the sacrament and is no Christian, just as anyone who does not listen to or believe the gospel is no Christian" ["Preface to the Small Catechism," Book of Concord, Kolb & Wengert, ed., p. 250]
And a little later: "... you do not have to make any law concerning this.... Only emphasize clearly the benefit and the harm, the need and the blessing, the danger and the salvation in this sacrament. Then they will doubtless come on their own without any compulsion. If they do not come, give up on them and tell them that those who do not pay attention to or feel their great need and God's gracious help belong to the devil" ["Preface to the Small Catechism," Book of Concord, Kolb & Wengert, ed., p. 251]

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Besides the word "flesh" (sarx,) being distinctively Johannine in regards to the eucharist feast, John is also unique in using the word trogo for "to eat" (vv. 54, 56, 57, 58). (He also uses the more common esthio -- vv. 5, 23, 26, 31, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 58.) Trogo is a cruder term, sometimes translated: "to chew" or "to gnaw" or "to eat audibly". BAGD says: "John uses it, in order to offset any Docetic tendencies to 'spiritualize' the concept so that nothing physical remains in it, in what many hold to be the language of the Lord's Supper."

http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/john6x51.htm

Brian Stoffregen
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