himself, whom that manna typifiedd and required that
all should live by faith in him for the salvation of their souls, as their forefather did on the manna for the sustenance of their bodies.]
This filled them with extreme astonishment and disgust —
[That he should speak of himself as " coming down from heaven," was unaccountable ; since they knew, as they sup- posed, his earthly parentage, as well as they did that of any
other man e That he should speak of "giving them
his flesh to eat," was equally incomprehensible; since they could annex no idea to it but that which was too horrible to
think off Then, as to the consequences that he spake
of, as infallibly arising to them from their eating, or declining to eat, his flesh, they could not endure to hear such assertions from his lips.
Hence they "murmured" among themselves; and declared it all to be utterly unintelligible, and unworthy to be received by any rational being. Their confidence, in relation to this view of it, is strongly expressed in that pointed interrogation, " Who can hear it ? " And so strong was their disgust at it, that " from that time many of his Disciples went back, and walked no more with himg." So general, too, was this feeling, that it seemed as if the Apostles themselves would follow the example of his other Disciples h.]
But that to which I would more especially call your attention is, to inquire,
II. Whence it was that it proved so particularly offensive to them ?
It should seem that they were offended because of,
1 . The strangeness of the image —
[Never had they heard any thing like it before. Had he spoken of himself as a sacrifice, they might have more readily received the idea of " eating his flesh ;" because, under their own law, the offenders in many cases partook of their own sacrifices. But even then, as they knew nothing of human sacrifices, it would have proved sufficiently dark and unintel- ligible to them. But when he spake of " drinking his blood," it was disgusting to them in the extreme : for not even the prohibitions relative to idolatry were stronger than those which related to the tasting of blood. If they viewed it literally,
d Here the parallel may be drawn from the context. See Discourse on ver. 53 — 55.
e ver. 41, 42. f ver. 52. s ver. 66. h ver. 67.