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Eucharist -- Is It Cannibalism? Part 3.

      Last week we examined in detail John 6:27 about food “which endures to eternal life,” which the “Son of Man” shall give because He has the Father’s “seal” (or “stamp”), being God the Son.

      Now before we get to certain people’s cannibalism accusation (Jn 6:52), Jesus has more to say about the nature of this food. In 6:33, He calls it the “bread of God ... which comes down from Heaven, and gives life to the world.” In 6:35, He says, “I AM the bread of life” such that any who comes to Him will never hunger or thirst (another image of eternity). In 6:48, He says, “I AM the bread of life,” and in 6:51, “I AM the living bread which came down from Heaven.” So Jesus is identifying Himself, and His “I AM” (the name of God) with the food people should strive for.

      Jesus speaks of this food as the “bread of life” specifically because the people asked Jesus for a sign, and a sign like the bread, Manna, that their ancestors had eaten in the wilderness after their exodus from Egypt (Jn 6:30-31). Exodus16 tells the story of the Manna, the “Bread from Heaven” (Ex 16:4; cf., Ps78:24; Neh 9:15). The request enables Jesus to make clear that, indeed, He is not speaking of just any bread, of earthly food, but He is speaking of a new and different Manna, a new miraculous “Bread from Heaven” (Jn 6:32-33, 35, 41-42,48-51, 58). This is important. It is the core of all Jesus is saying here, including the importance of “eating” His “flesh.”

      Now Jewish expectations of the Messiah included a return of Moses who would lead the people out to a new age of salvation, and also bring back the miracle of the Manna. Christian scholars call these expectations of a New Moses, a New Exodus, and the New Manna. The Jewish expectations are well portrayed in the non-scriptural book of 2 Baruch, at 29:3-8: “And it will happen ... the Messiah will begin to be revealed.... And those who are hungry will enjoy themselves and they will moreover see marvels every day.... And it will happen at that time that the treasury of Manna will come down again from on high, and they will eat of it in those years because these are they who will have arrived at the consummation of time.”

      Notice from the passage that the Manna (“New Manna”) is linked both to the coming age of salvation (the “New Exodus”) and to the coming of the Messiah who will be accompanied by miracles “every day.” Furthermore, in Jesus’ saying that He shall give this bread (Jn 6:51), He is identifying Himself with Moses (as the “New Moses”) (Jn 6:32; cf., Ex 16:4-8) who, in Jewish tradition, was expected to bring back the Manna.

      Jesus then draws a contrast between the old Manna and the New Manna. Those who ate the old Manna in the wilderness died (Jn 6:49, 58; cf., Num 14:29, 32). It was a bread that perishes and they who ate it perished (cf., Jn 6:27). In contrast, the eating of the New Manna, the Bread of Life, is for the purpose that one “may eat of it and not die” but “live forever” (Jn 6:50-51) having “eternal life” (Jn 6:27). The old Manna was miraculous, but the New Manna is far more miraculous!

      There is one more point. In the wilderness, God gave both bread and flesh in the form of quail. “At twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread; then you shall know that I AM the Lord your God” (Ex 16:12). So when Jesus says, “The bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh” (Jn 6:51), He is pointing to His fulfillment of God’s prophetic giving to the Israelites both bread from heaven and flesh from heaven. Combined with this gift of bread and flesh, Jesus’ “I AM” words (Jn 6:35, 41, 48, 51) also go to fulfilling the promise of knowing the Lord God in the eating of the miraculous food.

      Now it is this identification of the New Manna with Jesus “flesh” to be “eaten” that gives rise to the cannibalism accusation (Jn 6:52), which Jesus next addresses. (To be continued.)

Dibby Allan Green

Thanks to Dr. Brant Pitre for insights from his book, Jesus and the Lasts Supper (Grant Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2015), p. 70-71, 176-177, 197-201.

Originally published in the print edition of the Mojave Desert News of September 7, 2023. 
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church is located in California City, CA. Visit our website at ollcalcity.org. 
Dibby Allan Green has a BA in Religious Studies (Westmont College, 1978) and MA in Theology (Augustine Institute, 2019), is a lay Catholic hermit, and a parishioner of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish.
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