Ritualised cannibalism

Can I remember this right? I'll check when I get home tonight...
"And when they had supped, Jesus took bread, and broke it, and said, 'This is my body, which is broken for you. Eat it, all of you, in remembrance of me.'"Sounds pretty cannibalistic, or at least theophagous, to me. The ritual is specifically and explicitly about "eating flesh and drinking blood," and involves a god that was "fully man" as the meal. That's cannibalism. Yes, it's symbolic, unless you're a transsubstantion fan, but that doesn't change Metatron's point.

quote:

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What they are eating is not the flesh nor is it the blood, it doesn't even symbolize it directly. It symbolizes the event of the body being broken and the blood being shed, ie, the crucifixion.

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And the eating of this stuff of which he said "This is my body" is therefore symbolic of eating a Hostess Ding Dong? You are being almost astoundingly obtuse here. Read the verses. It's freakin' symbolic god-or-human flesh-eating and blood-drinking. "The Bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it," to quote one of my unfavorite phrases.

I don't get into Bible-y discussions too often, but this one really is kind of interesting. Here we have a directive from a deity to practice (yes, dammit, symbolic) cannibalism or something very like it - at least eating of the deity, who happens to be in a man's form. And here we have Christians denying that this practice is even symbolic or metaphorical cannibalism. If any of us were to read about a similar ritual among the Foofoo tribesmen of Baja Oklahoma, we'd all instantly say, "Wow! A cannibal ritual!" But because that doesn't seem dignified, the Eucharist can't be one! Peculiar.What I would really like to know is how this odd little bit got attached to a Hebrew/Greek religion, where the only cannibal I remember was Cronos - and his doings were kind of frowned upon.

I'd forgotten about Dionysius - and I don't know any Mithraic stuff at all. Hmm. Another flaw in my education....