At the Last Supper “Jesus took bread, and blessed and broke, and gave it to his disciples, and said, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’ And taking a cup, he gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, ‘All of you drink of this; for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is being shed for many unto the forgiveness of sins’” (Mt. 26:26). On an earlier occasion Christ had promised that “the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world,” and continued with the warning, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood you shall not have life in you” (Jn. 6:52-54). Promise and fulfillment are astounding, if Christ’s words are to be taken literally. The fact is that they were taken literally by those for whom the gospel narrative was immediately written, and by Christians universally for the space of 1500 years.
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