"Eating Flesh" and "Drinking Blood" in Jewish Symbolism
Jesus tells his listeners to eat his flesh and drink his blood (John 6:53, 6:54, 6:56). In Jesus' Jewish culture, as among Arabs today, to ‘eat the flesh’ or 'drink the blood' was a metaphor for grievous injury (Psalm 27:2, Isaiah 9:18-20, Isaiah 49:26, Micah 3:1-3).
A rule for interpreting Scripture is to work according to the Jewish customs, idioms, and usages of the time. By this rule, in light of the Lord's Supper, Jesus clearly wants hie hearers to take him literally and consume him in Holy Communion, rather than take him metaphorically and do him harm.
Concluding that Jesus is introducing a new metaphor using the wording as an existing Jewish metaphor overrides the normal rules of hermeneutics.
Furthermore, Jesus would not use an existing Jewish metaphor's words for expressing a new metaphor because it would make his meaning incomprehensible.
Imagine telling someone you are going to "Buy the farm", or "Kick the bucket", or "Go six feet under." Either they take you figuratively, recognizing your reference to death, or take you literally, expecting you to preform that action. Now imagine the difficulty you would have making yourself understood if you used the phrase "going six feet under" metaphorically, but to express an idea nothing like 'dying' or 'coming to an end'. One's true meaning becomes incomprehensible.
Therefore, I believe Jesus says to "eat his flesh" and "drink his blood" because that is what he literally desires for them to do.
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(Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.)
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