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Is means Is - what I've been taught in the Lutheran church: "That word is never used to mean 'represents', it is always a literal 'is'". Is is the Greek word esti (G2076). What about:
Mat 7:12 "In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets."
Greek παντα ουν οσα αν θελητε ινα ποιωσιν υμιν οι ανθρωποι ουτως και υμεις ποιειτε αυτοις ουτος γαρ εστιν ο νομος και οι προφηται
Mat 11:14 "And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come."
Greek και ει θελετε δεξασθαι αυτος εστιν ηλιας ο μελλων ερχεσθαι
Mat 13:19 "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road."
Greek παντος ακουοντος τον λογον της βασιλειας και μη συνιεντος ερχεται ο πονηρος και αρπαζει το εσπαρμενον εν τη καρδια αυτου ουτος εστιν ο παρα την οδον σπαρεις
Mat 13:37-38 “And He said, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, (38) and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one;”
Greek ο δε αποκριθεις ειπεν αυτοις ο σπειρων το καλον σπερμα εστιν ο υιος του ανθρωπου (38) ο δε αγρος εστιν ο κοσμος το δε καλον σπερμα ουτοι εισιν οι υιοι της βασιλειας τα δε ζιζανια εισιν οι υιοι του πονηρου
Joh 15:1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser."
Greek εγω ειμι η αμπελος η αληθινη και ο πατηρ μου ο γεωργος εστιν
http://www.studylight.org/enc/isb/view.cgi?number=T5577
Joh 6:53-58 So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. (54) "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. (55) "For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. (56) "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. (57) "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. (58) "This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever."
But does follow with
Joh 6:63
"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I
have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
Also, indicating a spiritual meaning:
1Co 10:3-4
and all ate the same spiritual food; (4) and all drank the same spiritual drink.
For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.
See http://www.envoymagazine.com/backissues/4.1/god.htm.
Mat_26:26 This is my body - This represents my body. This broken bread shows the manner in which my body will be broken; or this will serve to recall my dying sufferings to your remembrance. It is not meant that his body would be literally “broken” as the bread was, but that the bread would be a significant emblem or symbol to recall to their recollection his sufferings. It is not improbable that our Lord pointed to the broken bread, or laid his hands on it, as if he had said, “Lo, my body!” or, “Behold my body! - that which “represents” my broken body to you.” This “could not” be intended to mean that that bread was literally his body. It was not. His body was then before them “living.” And there is no greater absurdity than to imagine his “living body” there changed at once to a “dead body,” and then the bread to be changed into that dead body, and that all the while the “living” body of Jesus was before them.
Yet this is the absurd and impossible doctrine of the Roman Catholics, holding that the “bread” and “wine” were literally changed into the “body and blood” of our Lord. The language employed by the Saviour was in accordance with a common mode of speaking among the Jews, and exactly similar to that used by Moses at the institution of the Passover Exo 12:11; “It” - that is, the lamb - “is the Lord’s Passover.” That is, the lamb and the feast “represent” the Lord’s “passing over” the houses of the Israelites. It serves to remind you of it. It surely cannot be meant that that lamb was the literal “passing over” their houses - a palpable absurdity - but that it represented it. So Paul and Luke say of the bread, “This is my body broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.” This expresses the whole design of the sacramental bread. It is to call to “remembrance,” in a vivid manner, the dying sufferings of our Lord. The sacred writers, moreover, often denote that one thing is represented by another by using the word is. See Mat_13:37; “He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man” - that is, represents the Son of man. Gen_41:26; “the seven good kine are seven years” - that is, “represent” or signify seven years. See also Joh_15:1, Joh_15:5; Gen_17:10. The meaning of this important passage may be thus expressed: “As I give this broken bread to you to eat, so will I deliver my body to be afflicted and slain for your sins.”
Mat_26:27
And he took the cup - That is, the cup of wine which was used at the
feast of the Passover, called the cup of “Hallel,” or praise, because they
commenced then repeating the “Psalms” with which they closed the Passover.
See Mat_26:30.
This cup, Luke says, he took “after supper” - that is, after they had finished
the ordinary celebration of “eating” the Passover. The “bread” was taken “while”
they were eating, the cup after they had done eating.
This is my body - Here it must be observed that Christ had nothing in his hands, at this time, but part of that unleavened bread which he and his disciples had been eating at supper, and therefore he could mean no more than this, viz. that the bread which he was now breaking represented his body, which, in the course of a few hours, was to be crucified for them. Common sense, unsophisticated with superstition and erroneous creeds, - and reason, unawed by the secular sword of sovereign authority, could not possibly take any other meaning than this plain, consistent, and rational one, out of these words. “But,” says a false and absurd creed, “Jesus meant, when he said, Hoc Est Corpus Meum, This is my body, and Hic Est Calix Sanguinis Mei, This is the chalice of my blood, that the bread and wine were substantially changed into his body, including flesh, blood, bones, yea, the whole Christ, in his immaculate humanity and adorable divinity!” And, for denying this, what rivers of righteous blood have been shed by state persecutions and by religious wars! Well it may be asked, “Can any man of sense believe, that, when Christ took up that bread and broke it, it was his own body which he held in his own hands, and which himself broke to pieces, and which he and his disciples ate?” He who can believe such a congeries of absurdities, cannot be said to be a volunteer in faith; for it is evident, the man can neither have faith nor reason, as to this subject.
Let it be observed, if any thing farther is necessary on this point, that the
paschal lamb, is called the passover, because it represented the destroying
angel’s passing over the children of Israel, while he slew the firstborn of the
Egyptians; and our Lord and his disciples call this lamb the passover, several
times in this chapter; by which it is demonstrably evident, that they could mean
no more than that the lamb sacrificed on this occasion was a memorial of, and
Represented, the means used for the preservation of the Israelites from the
blast of the destroying angel.
Besides, our Lord did not say, hoc est corpus meum, (this is my body), as he did
not speak in the Latin tongue; though as much stress has been laid upon this
quotation from the Vulgate as if the original of the three evangelists had been
written in the Latin language. Had he spoken in Latin, following the idiom of
the Vulgate, he would have said, Panis hic corpus meum signficat, or, Symbolum
est corporis mei: - hoc poculum sanguinem meum representat, or, symbolum est
sanguinis mei: - this bread signifies my body; this cup represents my blood. But
let it be observed that, in the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Chaldeo-Syriac languages,
as used in the Bible, there is no term which expresses to mean, signify, denote,
though both the Greek and Latin abound with them: hence the Hebrews use a
figure, and say, it is, for, it signifies. So Gen_41:26, Gen_41:27.
The seven kine Are (i.e. represent) seven years. This Is (represents) the bread
of affliction which our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. Dan_7:24.
The ten horns Are (i.e. signify) ten kings. They drank of the spiritual Rock
which followed them, and the Rock Was (represented) Christ. 1Co_10:4.
And following this Hebrew idiom, though the work is written in Greek, we find in Rev_1:20,
The seven stars Are (represent) the angels of the seven Churches: and the seven
candlesticks Are (represent) the seven Churches. The same form of speech is used
in a variety of places in the New Testament, where this sense must necessarily
be given to the word. Mat_13:38-39.
The field IS (represents) the world: the good seed Are (represent or signify)
the children of the kingdom: the tares Are (signify) the children of the wicked
one. The enemy Is (signifies) the devil: the harvest Is (represents) the end of
the world: the reapers Are (i.e. signify) the angels. Luk_8:9.
What might this parable Be? Τις ΕΙΗ η παραβολη αυτη: - What does this parable
Signify? Joh_7:36.
Τις ΕΣΤΙΝ αυτος ο λογος: What is the Signification of this saying? Joh_10:6.
They understood not what things they Were, τινα ΗΝ, what was the Signification
of the things he had spoken to them. Act_10:17.
Τι αν ΕΙΗ οραμα, what this vision Might Be; properly rendered by our
translators, what this vision should Mean. Gal_4:24.
For these Are the two covenants, αυται γαρ ΕΙΣΙΝ αι δυο διαθηκαι, these Signify
the two covenants. Luk_15:26.
He asked, τι ΕΙΗ ταυτα, what these things Meant. See also Luk_18:36.
After such unequivocal testimony from the Sacred writings, can any person doubt
that, This bread is my body, has any other meaning than, This bread Represents
my body?
The Latins use the verb, sum, in all its forms, with a similar latitude of
meaning. So, Esse oneri ferendo, he is Able to bear the burthen: bene Esse, to
Live sumptuously: male Esse, to Live miserably: recte Esse, to Enjoy good
health: Est mihi fistula, I Possess a flute: EST hodie in rebus, he now Enjoys a
plentiful fortune: Est mihi namque domi pater, I Have a father at home, etc.:
Esse solvendo, to be Able to pay: Fuimus Troes, Fuit Ilium; the Trojans are
Extinct, Troy is No More.
In Greek also, and Hebrew, it often signifies to live, to die, to be killed.
Ουκ ΕΙΜΙ, I am Dead, or a dead man. Mat_2:18
: Rachel weeping for her children, οτι ουκ ΕΙΣΙ, because they Were Murdered. Gen_42:36
: Joseph is not, יוסף איננו Yoseph einennu, Ιωσηφ ουκ ΕΣΤΙΝ, Sept., Joseph is
Devoured by a Wild Beast. Rom_4:17
: Calling the things that Are not, as if they were Alive. So Plutarch in
Laconicis: “This shield thy father always preserved; preserve thou it, or may
thou not Be,” Η μη ΕΣΟ, may thou Perish. ΟΥΚ ΟΝΤΕΣ νομοι, Abrogated laws. ΕΙΜΙ
εν εμοι, I Possess a sound understanding. Εις πατερα υμιν ΕΣΟΜΑΙ, I will Perform
the Part of a father to you. ΕΙΜΙ της πολεως της δε, I Am an Inhabitant of that
city. 1Ti_1:7
: Desiring to Be teachers of the law, θελοντες ΕΙΝΑΙ νομοδιδασκαλοι, desiring to
be Reputed teachers of the law, i.e. Able divines. Τα ΟΝΤΑ, the things that Are,
i.e. Noble and Honorable men: τα μη ΟΝΤΑ, the things that are not, viz. the
Vulgar, or those of Ignoble Birth.
Tertullian seems to have had a correct notion of those words of our Lord,
Acceptum panem et distributum discipulis, corpus illum suum fecit, Hoc Est
Corpus Meum dicendo, id est, Figura corporis mei.
Advers. Marc. l. v. c. 40.
“Having taken the bread, and distributed that body to his disciples, he made it his body by saying, This is my body, i.e. a Figure of my body.”
That our Lord neither spoke in Greek nor Latin, on this occasion, needs no proof. It was, most probably, in what was formerly called the Chaldaic, now the Syriac, that our Lord conversed with his disciples. Through the providence of God, we have complete versions of the Gospels in this language, and in them it is likely we have the precise words spoken by our Lord on this occasion. In Mat_26:26-27, the words in the Syriac version are, hanau pagree, This is my body, hanau demee, This is my blood, of which forms of speech the Greek is a verbal translation; nor would any man, even in the present day, speaking in the same language, use, among the people to whom it was vernacular, other terms than the above to express, This represents my body, and this represents my blood.
As to the ancient Syrian Church on the Malabar coast, it is a fact that it never held the doctrine of transubstantiation, nor does it appear that it was ever heard of in that Church till the year 1599, when Don Alexis Menezes, Archbishop of Goa, and the Jesuit Fransic Rez, invaded that Church, and by tricks, impostures, and the assistance of the heathen governors of Cochin, and other places, whom they gained over by bribes and presents, overthrew the whole of this ancient Church, and gave the oppressed people the rites, creeds, etc., of the papal Catholic Church in its place. Vid. La Croz. Hist. du Ch. des Indes.
This was done at the Synod of Diamper, which began its sessions at Agomale, June 20, 1599. The tricks of this unprincipled prelate, the tool of Pope Clement VIII., and Philip II., King of Portugal, are amply detailed by Mr. La Croze, in the work already quoted.
But this form of speech is common, even in our own language, though we have
terms enow to fill up the ellipsis. Suppose a man entering into a museum,
enriched with the remains of ancient Greek sculpture: his eyes are attracted by
a number of curious busts; and, on inquiring what they are, he learns, this is
Socrates, that Plato, a third Homer; others Hesiod, Horace, Virgil, Demosthenes,
Cicero, Herodotus, Livy, Caesar, Nero, Vespasian, etc. Is he deceived by this
information? Not at all: he knows well that the busts he sees are not the
identical persons of those ancient philosophers, poets, orators, historians, and
emperors, but only Representations of their persons in sculpture, between which
and the originals there is as essential a difference as between a human body,
instinct with all the principles of rational vitality, and a block of marble.
When, therefore, Christ took up a piece of bread, brake it, and said, This IS my
body, who, but the most stupid of mortals, could imagine that he was, at the
same time, handling and breaking his own body! Would not any person, of plain
common sense, see as great a difference between the man Christ Jesus, and the
piece of bread, as between the block of marble and the philosopher it
represented, in the case referred to above? The truth is, there is scarcely a
more common form of speech in any language than, This IS, for, This Represents
or Signifies. And as our Lord refers, in the whole of this transaction, to the
ordinance of the passover, we may consider him as saying: “This bread is now my
body, in that sense in which the paschal lamb has been my body hitherto; and
this cup is my blood of the New Testament, in the same sense as the blood of
bulls and goats has been my blood under the Old: Exodus 24; Hebrews 9. That is,
the paschal lamb and the sprinkling of blood represented my sacrifice to the
present time this bread and this wine shall represent my body and blood through
all future ages; therefore, Do this in remembrance of me.”
St. Luke and St. Paul add a circumstance here which is not noticed either by St.
Matthew or St. Mark. After, this is my body, the former adds, which is given for
you; the latter, which is broken for you; the sense of which is: “As God has in
his bountiful providence given you bread for the sustenance of your lives, so in
his infinite grace he has given you my body to save your souls unto life
eternal. But as this bread must be broken and masticated, in order to its
becoming proper nourishment, so my body must be broken, i.e. crucified, for you,
before it can be the bread of life to your souls. As, therefore, your life
depends on the bread which God’s bounty has provided for your bodies, so your
eternal life depends on the sacrifice of my body on the cross for your souls.”
Besides, there is here an allusion to the offering of sacrifice - an innocent
creature was brought to the altar of God, and its blood (the life of the beast)
was poured out for, or in behalf of, the person who brought it. Thus Christ
says, alluding to the sacrifice of the paschal lamb, This is my body, το υπερ
υμων διδομενον, which Is Given in your stead, or in your behalf; a free Gift,
from God’s endless mercy, for the salvation of your souls. This is my body, το
υπερ υμων κλωμενον, (1Co_11:24), which is broken - sacrificed in your stead; as
without the breaking (piercing) of the body, and spilling of the blood, there
was no remission.
In this solemn transaction we must weigh every word, as there is none without
its appropriate and deeply emphatic meaning. So it is written, Eph_5:2. Christ
hath loved us, and given himself, υπερ ημων, on our account, or in our stead, an
offering and a Sacrifice (θυσια) to God for a sweet-smelling savor; that, as in
the sacrifice offered by Noah, Gen_8:21, (to which the apostle evidently
alludes), from which it is said, The Lord smelled a sweet savor, ריח הניחח riach
hanichoach, a savor of rest, so that he became appeased towards the earth, and
determined that there should no more be a flood to destroy it; in like manner,
in the offering and sacrifice of Christ for us, God is appeased towards the
human race, and has in consequence decreed that whosoever believeth in him shall
not perish, but have everlasting life.
This is my body. Not literally, as the Catholics and Luther contend, but "represents my body." We interpret it as we do his other sayings: "The seed is the word," "The field is the world," "The reapers are the angels," "The harvest is the end of the world," "I am the door," "I am the vine." So, too, at this very feast, the Jew was wont to say of the paschal lamb, "This is the body of the lamb which our fathers ate in Egypt." Not the same, but this is meant to represent and commemorate that. He could not have meant that the bread was his real body, because his body was present at the table breaking the loaf, and he was speaking and acting in person among them. The doctrine of the "Real Presence" is every way unreasonable.
Mat 26:26 - Jesus took the bread - the bread or cake, which the master of the family used to divide among them, after they had eaten the passover. The custom our Lord now transferred to a nobler use. This bread is, that is, signifies or represents my body, according to the style of the sacred writers. Thus Gen_40:12, The three branches are three days. Thus Gal_4:24, St. Paul speaking of Sarah and Hagar, says, These are the two covenants. Thus in the grand type of our Lord, Exo_12:11, God says of the paschal lamb, This is the Lord's passover. Now Christ substituting the holy communion for the passover, follows the style of the Old Testament, and uses the same expressions the Jews were wont to use in celebrating the passover.
G2076
ἐστί
esti
es-tee'
Third person singular present indicative of G1510; he (she or it) is; also (with
neuter plural) they are: - are, be (-long), call, X can [-not], come, consisteth,
X dure for awhile, + follow, X have, (that) is (to say), make, meaneth, X must
needs, + profit, + remaineth, + wrestle.
G1510
εἰμί
eimi
i-mee'
First person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and
defective verb; I exist (used only when emphatic): - am, have been, X it is I,
was. See also G1488, G1498, G1511, G1527, G2258, G2071, G2070, G2075, G2076,
G2771, G2468, G5600.