Transubstantiation - Interpretations of Biblical Evidence

Interpretations of Biblical Evidence

Those who believe that in the Eucharist the bread and wine become instead the body and blood of Christ see this as plainly indicated in the New Testament, both in the Eucharistic discourse given by Christ in John 6, and in 1st Corinthians 11, where St. Paul several times equates the body and blood of Jesus with the "bread" and "cup of benediction" used in the Eucharist. Christians who deny that there is such a change (transubstantiation) deny that the New Testament teaches it. Some of them even see the New Testament as contradicting it.

Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Roman Catholics, who together constitute the majority of Christians, hold that the consecrated elements in a valid celebration of the Eucharist indeed become the body and blood of Christ. This belief is held also by some Reform and Protestant Christian churches, Lutherans and Anglicans, though they generally deny transubstantiation.

While there is a large body of theology noting the many Scriptural supports for transubstantiation, in general, Orthodox and Catholics consider it unnecessary to "prove" from texts of Scripture a belief that they see as held by Christians without interruption from the earliest, apostolic times. They point out that the Church and its teaching existed before it assembled and canonized the New Testament, and even before any individual part of the New Testament was written. They also point out that early Christians such as Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, and Clement of Rome (who were much closer to the event than those who have later proposed a figurative interpretation of the Eucharist), described the Eucharist as truly the body and blood of Christ. They see nothing in Scripture that in any way contradicts this age-old Christian belief that the reality beneath the visible signs in the Eucharist is the body and blood of Christ and no longer bread and wine. Instead, they see this teaching as the same teaching in the Bible's reports of what Christ himself and Paul the Apostle taught.

As the scriptural support required by their sola scriptura position, Protestants who believe that in the Eucharist the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ turn to the words of Jesus himself at his Last Supper, as reported in the Synoptic Gospels and Saint Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians. In that context, Jesus said of what to all appearances were bread and wine: "This is my body … this is my blood" or, in the case of what appeared to be wine, "… this cup is the new covenant in my blood".

Many Protestants reject a literal interpretation of these words. They compare them to non-literal expressions by Jesus such as "I am the door", "I am the vine", "You are the salt of the earth ... You are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:13-14),"Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees" (Matthew 16:6-12). In this last example, the disciples thought that the reason Jesus said it was because they had brought no bread; but Jesus explained that he was referring to the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

These Protestants add that "eating and drinking" is sometimes used metaphorically, as of Jeremiah "eating" God's words (Jeremiah 15:16), or David speaking of water as blood, since it was obtained at the risk of the lives of his men (2 Samuel 23:17).

Those who hold that Jesus' words, "This is my body", "This is my blood", were not metaphorical claim that there is a marked contrast between metaphorical figurative expressions, which of their nature have a symbolic meaning, and what Jesus said about concrete things such as the bread and wine.

In the phrase "This is my body"as expressed in the original Greek (Τοῦτό ἐστιν τὸ σῶμά μου), the word "τοῦτο" ("this" or "this thing") is a grammatically neuter pronoun, and so of the same grammatical gender as the noun "σῶμα" (body), but of a different grammatical gender from that of the word "ἄρτος" (bread), which is a masculine noun. Some claim that this is an indication of the change of the reality from bread (ἄρτος) to body (σῶμα).

As indications that the bread and wine are indeed changed to the body and blood of Christ, appeal is made to expressions used by Saint Paul in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, in particular his rhetorical question, "The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?" (1 Corinthians 10:16), and his statement, "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord." (1 Corinthians 11:27). Protestant commentators, such as Matthew Henry (1662–1714) say that use of the word "bread" shows there has been no change.

Paul's subsequent recommendation, "Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself" (2 Corinthians 11:28-29), has likewise been interpreted either as indicating the reality of the disputed change or as implying no such change. Marvin R. Vincent, in particular, objected to what he called the mistaken King James Version translation of κρῖμα in verse 29 as "damnation", rather more literally as "judgment".

It has been noted that Paul wrote: "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord" (emphases added). This has been interpreted as stating that unworthy participation of either the bread or the cup of the Lord involves guilt concerning both the body and blood of the Lord, an indication of the presence of Christ in each of the two cases.

Another Scripture text that Catholics generally understand as related to the Eucharist is the Gospel of John's account of Jesus as saying: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you … he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him" (6:53-56), a statement that he did not tone down when, as a result, many of his disciples then abandoned him (6:66), shocked at the idea. Protestants tend to interpret this passage in connection with John 6:63, where Jesus says "the flesh profits nothing, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life", which they say means that the redeemed live by faith. Some also invoke John 6:57, "Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me", describing how one "lives".