The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 401

Verily, verily, I 111,y unto yon, Exoept ye him nnd believing on him or which he have eaten the flesh of the Bon of man, and has alrectdy spoken. He thnt docs thus cat have drunk his blood, ye have not life in and drink will satisfy " craving nfier yonraelves. He that eateth (rp~;,.,~," eateth nourishment Rnd refreshment. Unless D ,dth plerumre, C'agernese," is repeRted four man consciously or unconsciously nccepts, times, as perhnps a stronger expt:-ssion than absorbs, the sublime and wondrous gift of c'ld-yo"') my flesh and drinkoth my blood, the Divine humanity from the second Man, hath eternal life ; and I will raise him u11 at tho Lord from heaven, rather thnn from tho the last day. This result, it should be seen, is first man, be hn,s no life in himself. Human identical 1rith thfJ promises m'ade ro "behold- nature apnrt. from the new crention o.nd the ing,"" eomitlg,"" beUem11g." Life and resur- new beginning is " dying, not n living, rection will really follow these acts and P.ntity. The new life quickened by tho ,,onditions; but then it is obvious that Incarnation is not nil that Christ would "beholding," "coming," "believing," must give. 'l'he blood of the Son of mnn, to be ,·oritably cover what is contained in this accepted in the so.me wny, is a fmther ex- last statement. There is no mere tautology. position of the object of fnith. The "eating" These words express more fully the original and " drinking" o.ro therefore pbro.ses which e-0ndition. They are not new conditions, portray the very intimate o.nd close form Lut a further imaginative exposition of the of that contact with, and dopendenco upon, former ones. The believing involves an tho incarnation o.nd the sacrifice of the Son BSSiinilntion into the very subst.mce of the of God, which Christ erewbile defines in believer's nature of that which he here broader, vaguer motaphor. A great ques- specifics o.s "flesh and blood." Reuss and tion has arisen on these verses-whether our Luthn.rdt, and to some extent Moulton, Lord is pointing to, or ma.king prophetio admit that bv "flesh and blood " he means reference to, the institution of the Eucha- no more than '' flesh ; " that under " flesh " rist, a.bout which the fourth evangelist is is included" blood;" that by both he simply strangely silent. 1 Certain of the early means " himself." Lange urges that by Fa.thers-Chrysostom, Cyril, and Theophy- "flesh" is meant "human nature "-his lact-have given it this meaning, though " manhood ; " bnt by " flesh and blood" the great bulk of the po.tristio writers-Ig- (see Matt. xvi. 17; Gal i. 16), "inherited natius, Irenmus, Origen, Clemens Alex., nature "-the humanity of Christ in "his- Tertullia.n, and even Cyprian (though the tori=l manifestation." But he passes on to passage may be applied by them to the say that this manifestation culminates, is Eucharist as one way or method of spiri- completed, in death, and, thus completed, the tually eating and drinking the Son of man) life of Christ is ilie nourishment of the real -do most obviously interpret the passage life of man. Tholuck: "The addition of itself of direct and spiritual, not the indirect aT,,.,. to 1,up~ only expresses, by its ma.in con- and sacramental manducation of the living stituents, the sensible human nature." The Bread. The same view is presented by great bulk of interpreters take the additional Eusebius, Atbanasius, and Cyril of Alex- mention of drinking of his blood to con- andria. For the first four centuries all that note an entire acceptance of the atoning was done wa.s to apply the argument of oh. sacrifice, of the Pa.schal blood-shedding, to vL, in order to press the importo.nce of com- be effected for the delivera.nce of the world municating sacre.mento.lly. This led the (so .A.n!!UStine, Luther, Cslri.n, Grotius, Romanist writers to go further, and regard Liicke, Nea.nder, Keim, Meyer, Weiss, etc.). •• Ea.ting of the flesh," tlten, would e.eceptance of hie humanity, of the mani- ~= the participation in the sacramental body and blood o.s essential to life eternal. Pop8 lnnoccnt I., Bishop of Rome, A.D. 402, was festation of the eternal love in the Son of the first distinguished man who brought up IIlll.n ; and "dri.n.ki.ng his blood " would out of thia passage·" the necessity of com- mean entire mental assimilation also of the municating infants;" and from the time of terrible culmination of his mission in violent, his synodical epistle (A.D. 417) the Latin sacrificial death. This momentous condition Churches interpreted the passage, "Except of life eternal is stated both negatively and you receive the Eucharist, you have no life in positively. Without the participation in thia you." The views of Angw,tine were vacillat- twofold aspect of the Lorrl o.~d his w_orl~ ing or are dubious. Fulgentius shows that there is no life. Unless "cowrng to him, he had, to some extent, broken loose from "believin" on w.m," meo.ns an acceptance of this narrow view when he concluded that his huma~iiy, an apprehension of that Per- baptism without the Eucharist did convey BOnality in whom the Word was incarnate, all the benefits of the body and blood of and au utter surrender of the soul to the Christ. Numerous Schoolmen (see Al- rending of tLat flesh and sl,edding of the 1 The special excul'8118 of Llicke, Lnnge, blocd which is the life, i.e. to the death of Lhc Sc•n of =, it i.& uot the coming to and Waterland, on 'Eucharist,' oh. v., vi. OD, VI, 1-71.] TUE GOSPEL ACCOil.DTNG TO ST. ,JOIIN. 269