Of course, the apostles used "great plainness of speech" (2 Corinthians 3:12 (kjv)).
Jesus says in Matthew 4: 4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. So if you believe that the Bible is the word of God, then literal it would be.
“The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying,
How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
John 6:52 KJV
“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.
Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
John 6:53-54 KJV
literal ? Or is there a spiritual understanding applicable ?
“Many therefore of his disciples,
when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?…
yes if Jesus was speaking literally it would be a very hard teaching out Canabalism but he wasn’t speaking literally
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing:
the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”
John 6:60, 63 KJV
to take him literally often is why people go away from following him
“From that time
many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”
John 6:66
Jesus was actually revealing thkngs from Moses law when he was telling them these things
Jesus is the Passover lamb in the ot the congregation of Israel would once a year gather and kill a spotless male Passover lamb his blood would cover the people from death and they would eat the Passover lambs flesh .
and then another area he’s revealing is the manna from Heaven which God sent from heaven through Moses to feed the people in the desert , he’s explaining g that was only a prophecy of his coming the. BRead of life who would give life to the world
when we say the New Testament is spiritual what that means is it is fulfilling the law and prophets and what was written before about Christ
like the Passover lamb who’s flesh and blood saved the people from death. Or like the manna which gave them food in the wilderness to sustain them
literal isn’t the way to understand Jesus , but receiving the Holy Spirit is the way