John 6:55

For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(55) For my flesh is meat indeed.—Better, for My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. This verse further explains that he who eateth the flesh and drinketh the blood hath eternal life, for he has the true elements of life. It is an answer, too, to the question. How can this Man give us His flesh to eat? (John 6:52.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:52-59 The flesh and blood of the Son of man, denote the Redeemer in the nature of man; Christ and him crucified, and the redemption wrought out by him, with all the precious benefits of redemption; pardon of sin, acceptance with God, the way to the throne of grace, the promises of the covenant, and eternal life. These are called the flesh and blood of Christ, because they are purchased by the breaking his body, and the shedding of his blood. Also, because they are meat and drink to our souls. Eating this flesh and drinking this blood mean believing in Christ. We partake of Christ and his benefits by faith. The soul that rightly knows its state and wants, finds whatever can calm the conscience, and promote true holiness, in the redeemer, God manifest in the flesh. Meditating upon the cross of Christ gives life to our repentance, love, and gratitude. We live by him, as our bodies live by our food. We live by him, as the members by the head, the branches by the root: because he lives we shall live also.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Is meat indeed - Is truly food. My doctrine is truly that which will give life to the soul.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

54. Whoso eateth … hath, &c.—The former verse said that unless they partook of Him they had no life; this adds, that whoever does so "hath eternal life."

and I will raise him up at the last day—For the fourth time this is repeated (see Joh 6:39, 40, 44)—showing most clearly that the "eternal life" which such a man "hath" cannot be the same with the future resurrection life from which it is carefully distinguished each time, but a life communicated here below immediately on believing (Joh 3:36; 5:24, 25); and giving to the resurrection of the body as that which consummates the redemption of the entire man, a prominence which in the current theology, it is to be feared, it has seldom had. (See Ro 8:23; 1Co 15:1-58, throughout).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I, as a Christ crucified, not merely considered as to my Divine nature, but as to both natures united in one person, and particularly with respect to my death and suffering, am indeed the food of souls; not a typical food, as manna was, but a true and real food, which nourisheth them to eternal life, and the most excellent food for them. In which sense Christ is called the true light, John 1:9, and the true vine, John 15:1.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For my flesh is meat indeed,.... Not in a corporeal, but in a spiritual sense; and the same is said of his blood:

and my blood is drink indeed, &c. that is, they are both "truly" meat and drink, as the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions render it; or are "true" meat and drink, as the Arabic version: in opposition to what was typical meat and drink; as the manna in the wilderness, the water out of the rock, the flesh and wine at the passover, the meat and drink offerings under the law, or any other meats and drinks under that dispensation; and which, though not when Christ said these words, yet now are abolished, being unprofitable, and not to be fed upon. Moreover, these phrases may denote the reality, substance, and solidity of that spiritual food believers have in Christ, in opposition to the imaginary food of sensual sinners, who feed on ashes and bread of deceit; and to that of self-righteous persons, who spend their labour and money for, and live upon that which is not bread, even upon their works of righteousness; and to the superficial tastes of hypocrites and formal professors; and to the charge of enthusiasm; and even to the outward elements of bread, and wine, in the Lord's supper, since instituted; and as it may be attended upon by persons destitute of the grace of God. And these words may also be expressive of the virtue, efficacy, and excellency of this food, it being soul quickening, nourishing, strengthening, satisfying, and delightful food, as well as spiritual and savoury; not to carnal persons, or outward professors, but to new born babes, and true believers; and which, by them, may be had, and to the full, and that in due season, even every day, and is what will abide for ever.

Geneva Study Bible

For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 6:55-56. This is further shown in John 6:55-56. ἡ γὰρ σάρξ μου ἀληθῶς [better ἀληθής] ἐστι βρῶσις, “For my flesh is a genuine food and my blood is a genuine drink”; with an implied contrast to those things with which men ordinarily endeavour to satisfy themselves. The satisfying, genuine character of Christ as the bread consists especially in this, that ὁ τρώγων … ἐν ἐμοὶ μένει κἀγὼ ἐν αὐτῷ. He becomes as truly assimilated to the life of the individual as the nourishing elements in food enter into the substance of the body. The believer abides in Christ as finding his life in Him (Galatians 2:20); and Christ abides in the believer, continually imparting to him what constitutes spiritual life. For in Christ man reaches the source of all life in the Father (John 6:57), καθὼς ἀπέστειλέ με ὁ ζῶν πατὴρ … διʼ ἐμέ. The living Father has sent Christ forth as the bearer of life. He lives διὰ τὸν πατέρα, not equivalent to διὰ τοῦ πατρός, through or by means of the Father, but “because of,” or “by reason of the Father”. The Father is the cause of my life; I live because the Father lives. [Beza quotes from the Plutus of Aristoph., 470, the declaration of Penia that μόνην Ἀγαθῶν ἁπάντων οὖσαν αἰτίαν ἐμὲ Ὑμῖν, διʼ ἐμέ τε ζῶντας ὑμᾶς.] The Father is the absolute source of life; the Son is the bearer of that life to the world; cf. John 5:26, where the same dependence of the Son on the Father for life is expressed. The second member of the comparison, introduced by καί (see Winer, p. 548; and the Nic. Ethics, passim), is not, as Chrys. and Euthymius suggest, κἀγὼ ζῶ, but καὶ ὁ τρώγων με, κἀκεῖνος ζήσεται (better ζῆσει) διʼ ἐμέ. (For the form of the sentence cf. John 10:14.) Every one that eateth Christ will by that connection participate in the life of God.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

55. my flesh is meat indeed, &c.] According to the best reading; My Flesh is true food and My Blood is true drink; i.e. this is no misleading metaphor, but an actual fact.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 6:55. Ἀληθῶς, truly) This affirmation is opposed to the doubt of the Jews.—βρῶσις· πόσις) Food, drink, by which the believer is as truly fed, as food and drink feed the bodies of men, John 6:56, at its close, “He that eateth My flesh, etc., dwelleth in Me, and I in him.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 55. - A new justification is given for this great statement: For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. (The two active verbals are adopted, "eating," "drinking;" but βρῶσις and πόσις are used very frequently by the Attic writers for "food" and "drink," as well as for the processes of eating and drinking.) That is, Christ's flesh and blood stand in the same relation to the true life of man that food and drink do to the physical life of earth; and so, unless we duly and fully assimilate Divine humanity, we have no life in us. If we cannot assimilate food, we die. It must become part of our life blood and permeate our system; so "the coming and believing" must mean such an acceptance of the Christ that the love of God penetrates our whole being, "even the joints and marrow of soul and spirit;" unless it does so, we have no life in us. Lange, even here, presses the idea of the flesh and blood of Christ as being true food, seeing that by believing historic contemplation we participate in the "historic form of his manifestation," and by spiritual contemplation and fervent faith we drink in the blood which is the life. The difference between ἀληθής and ἀληθῶς is nearly that between ἀληθής and ἀληθίνος. The former is the antithesis of the merely apparent food; the latter would have meant genuine food answering to the ideal of food. "The true food" is the food for the inner man - food in all reality. The Lord was speaking to them of a unique relation which he sustained to the human race, and which cannot be explained away into some mere euphemism for the blessedness and stimulating character of the gospel message. This is made still more evident by his next words - John 6:55

Vincent's Word Studies

Indeed (ἀληθῶς)

Literally, truly. The best texts read ἀληθὴς, true: true meat, true drink.