758
n vv. 40, 44, ἀναστήσω αὐτὸν "τῇ ἐσχάτῃ ἡμέρᾳ. ἐστι 7 βρῶσις, καὶ τὸ αἷμά µου ἀληθῶς ἐστι πόσις.
54. Vii.
37, etc. y Dan. i. 1ο, z Freq. in
Vi
55-7 γὰρ σάρξ µου ἀληθῶς } 56. 6 τρώγων
pou τὴν σάρκα, καὶ πίνων µου τὸ αἷμα, "ἐν ἐμοὶ péver, κἀγὼ ἐν αὐτῷ.
a Web. ii 57. καθὼς ἀπέστειλέ pe "ὁ Lav πατὴρ, κἀγὼ ζῶ διὰ τὸν πατέρα”
1
to. Rom. « ix. 26." Ὁ pdvva, καὶ ἀπέθανον ' 6
b) Gen.xxi. as K 2» 11. Deut. αἴιωνα.
1.17. Jer. Vi. I0.
me x a a ‘Thess. i. καὶ 6 τρώγων pe, κἀκεῖνος ζήσεται δι ἐμέ. ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καταβάς' οὐ καθὼς ἔφαγον ot πατέρες ὑμῶν τὸ
58. οὗτός ἐστιν 6 ἄρτος
τρώγων τοῦτον τὸν ἄρτον {ήσεται εἰς τὸν 5ο. Ταῦτα εἶπεν ἐν συναγωγῇ διδάσκων ἐν Καπερναούμ. 6ο. Πολλοὶ οὖν ἀκούσαντες ἐκ τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ εἶπον, “> Σκλη-
1 For αληθως in both occurrences αληθης is read in ΝΕΒ6.
their attention was thus more likely to be fixed on the necessity of using Him as the living bread. The difficulty of the statement disappears when it is perceived that the figure of speech is not to be found in the words “ flesh” and ‘* blood,” but in the words “ eating” and “ drinking”. The actual flesh and blood, the human life of Christ, was given for men; and men eat His flesh and drink His blood, when they use for their own advantage His sacrifice, when they assimilate to their own being all the virtue that was in Him, and that was manifested for their sakes. As Liicke points out, the σὰρξ καὶ αἷμα form together one conception and are equiva- lent to the µε of ver. 57. If αἷμα stood alone it might refer especially to the death of Christ, but taken along with odpé it is more natural to refer the double expression to the whole mani- festation of Christ; and the “eating and drinking” can only mean the com- plete acceptance of Him and union with Him as thus manifested. [τρώγω, originally the munching of herbivorous animals, was latterly applied to ordinary human eating.]}—Vv. 55, 56. This is further shown in νν. 55, 56. ἡ γὰρ σάρξ µου ἀληθῶς [better ἀληθής] ἐστι βρῶσις, “‘ For my flesh is a genuine food and my blood is a genuine drink”; with an implied contrast to those things with which men ordinarily endeavour to satisfy themselves. The satisfying, genuine character of Christ as the bread consists especially in this, that 6 τρώγων εκ. ἐν ἐμοὶ µένει κἀγὼ ἐν αὐτῷ. He becomes as truly assimilated to the life of the individual as the nourishing elements in food enter into the substance of the body. The believer abides in Christ as finding his life in Him (Gal. ii. 20); and Christ abides in the believer, continually imparting to him what con-
stitutes spiritual life. For in Christ man reaches the source of all life in the Father (ver. 57), καθὼς ἀπέστειλέ µε 6 tov πατὴρ . . . δι ἐμέ The living Father has sent Christ forth as the bearer of life. He lives διὰ τὸν πατέρα, not equivalent to διὰ τοῦ πατρός, through or by means of the Father, but “ because of,” or “‘ by reason of the Father”. The Father is the cause of my life; I live because the Father lives. [Beza quotes from the Plutus of Aristoph., 470, the declaration of Penia that µόνην ᾿Αγαθῶν ἁπάντων οὖσαν αἰτίαν ἐμὲ Ὑμῖν, δι ἐμέ τε ζῶντας ἡμᾶς. The Father is the absolute source of life; the Son is the bearer of that life to the world; cf. v. 26, where the sane dependence of the Son on the Father for life is expressed. The second member of the compacison, introduced by καί (see Winer, p. 548; and the Nic. Ethics, passim), is not, as Chrys. and Euthymius suggest, κἀγὼ ζῶ, but καὶ 6 τρώγων µε, κἀκεῖνος ζήσεται (better ζῆσει) δι épe. (For the form of the sentence cf. x. 14.) Every one that eateth Christ will by that connection participate in the life of God.—Ver. 58. οὗτός éorw...aidva. These characteristics, now mentioned, identify this bread from heaven as something of a different and superior nature to the manna.—Ver. 59. With his usual exact specification of time and place John adds ταῦτα . . . ἐν Καφαρναούμ. Lampe says: ‘‘Colligi etiam inde potest, quod haec acciderint in Sabbato”’; but the synagogue was available for teaching on other days, and it is not likely that on a Sabbath so many persons would have followed Him across the lake.