![]() (In addition, the witness of the early Church Fathers supports our view as well.) Therefore, since Jesus does not explain the MEANING of His words in the Synoptics, we must look elsewhere to determine what He MEANT by those words - and my point is that John 6 and Paul's commentary on the Verba in 1st Corinthians chapters 10 & 11 show what Jesus MEANT by the Verba - that He gives us His Body and Blood in the bread and wine. So, once again, when a Lutheran says "is means is" to a Reformed person, they say: "So? What's your point? Depending on the context, the words 'This is my body' could mean 'This IS a picture of my body.'" Simply put, when a Lutheran says "is means is" to someone Reformed like Gagnon, he says: "Duh! But the verb 'to be' can be used in a construction to express simile." Again, this was my point with the Greek of Galatians 4:25 and my point about the English statement "This is my son." Yes, I agree with you, in the statement "This is my son" the word "is" means "is" but the CONTEXT in which "This is my son" appears will give these same words either a LITERAL meaning or a FIGURATIVE meaning (This IS a picture of my son). Rolf, we continue to talk past each other. Simply put, Lutherans need to do better that simply saying "is means is." ![]() One other thing, we must remember that the Gospels were written to communities who had already be exposed to the apostles' teaching, and so there was no need to explicate the meaning of Jesus' Verba within the Gospels themselves because they would have already know what Jesus MEANT based on the apostles' teaching which they had received (and Paul's commentary in 1st Corinthians is a good example of this). The early Church Fathers UNANIMOUSLY confess that we eat and drink Christ's Body and Blood in the Lord's Supper. ![]() Finally, when we consider how the early Church Fathers understood Jesus' Verba, even though they were well aware that the verb "to be" MAY express simile, they do NOT understand Jesus' Verba in this way. In addition, Paul's commentary on Jesus' Verba in 1st Corinthians chapters 10 & 11 show that Paul understood Jesus' Verba in a literal albeit mysterious manner. However, there are clues elsewhere in Scripture about what Jesus MEANT when He said "This is My Body/Blood." First, in John 6 Jesus alludes to the Lord's Supper when He speaks of believers eating His flesh and drinking His blood. ![]() So, regarding Jesus' Verba, the question is: What did Jesus MEAN when he said "This my Body/Blood"? Jesus doesn't explain the MEANING of His Verba in the Gospels and the Gospels say nothing about how His disciples react (although, I assume they were clueless about what Jesus actually meant just as they were clueless about the meaning of His upcoming death and didn't understand it until after His resurrection). If my son is setting next to me "in the flesh" I can introduce him to others by saying: "This is my son." However, I can also take out my smart phone and show others a picture of my son and say: "This is my son." Obviously, even though I'm using the same words, I mean one thing in the former context versus the latter context. For example, if you read the Greek of Galatians 4:25 (see attachment because the updated ALPB platform won't allow me to post Greek text!) we see that estin clearly IS used to express simile - and the CONTEXT must determine whether it is expressing simile or being literal.įor example, we do this in English all the time. However, Lutherans have to do a better job of refuting the Reformed than uttering the simplistic statement "is means is." The fact is that the verb "to be" CAN be used to express simile. Rolf, you and I obviously agree about the Lord's Supper.
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