“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
I fully agree with you, but first let's take a look at some meaning of the word literal.....in accordance with, involving, or being the primary or strict meaning of the word or words; not figurative or metaphorical: the literal meaning of a word. following the words of the original very closely and exactly:a literal translation of Goethe. true to fact; not exaggerated; actual or factual: a literal description of conditions. being actually such, without exaggeration or inaccuracy: the literal extermination of a city.
(of persons) tending to construe words in the strict sense or in an unimaginative way; matter-of-fact; prosaic.
Although we have the spiritual part of the word of God we have a the literal part that both have to work together. One must first learn the basic, which Jesus says in John 14: 15
If ye love me, keep my commandments. A man asked Jesus this very question, "...What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?", and Jesus replied, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but
if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. (Matthew 19:16-19).
This includes the Sabbath day on the seventh day of the week (Saturday). This also include, Thou shalt have
no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for
I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. (Exodus 20:3-8)
Now if one understand these Commandments and do them then a person can move forward to the spiritual parts of the word of God. Like what Paul says in (Rom. 7:7,12) (v.7)
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid.
Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said,
THOU SHALT NOT COVET.
Paul asked a question, is the law sin? He said God forbid, he said the only way that he knew what sin was, was by the law. (v.12)
Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
For if any be a hearer of the word, and
not a doer, he is like unto
a man beholding his natural face in a glass: (James 1: 23)
So being doer of the word of God is actually performing the spiritual part of the word of God.