This Is My Flesh

In John 6:51-59, John describes the Eucharist of Jesus by modeling Dionysus. In particular, John 6:53, "e;unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you"e; is one of the most difficult verses found anywhere in the Bible. To explain this, a new approach is needed when one consistently contemplates why John uses flesh (I I I I ) instead of body (I I ?a), and "e;This is my flesh"e;, instead of "e;This is my body."e; The Dionysiac ritual of eating and tearing raw flesh shows cannibalistic elements. Unlike other negative descriptions of cannibalism in ancient literature, Dionysus is described as both an eater and a giver of raw flesh. By reevaluating the negative term of cannibalism, John positively applies this Dionysiac cannibalism to the Eucharistic words in 6:51-59. Because emphatically and slightly ironically, scholars' arguments show that John 6 is still a "e;hard teaching"e; of Jesus, Jesus' hard saying (6:60) is a consequence of this cannibalistic language and the ambiguous features of Dionysus.