You make some excellent points, and brought up things I did not consider when I made my rather rash response. As to you point in about John 51-58 and 1 Cor 11 Paul made the distinction of people that partake in an unworthy manner they were to examine themselves that they weren't drinking in an unworthy manner and bringing damnation onto themselves.fatherfisher wrote:"To me the answer of understanding of communion comes from the right understanding of John 6:53-58. I believe the apostles had the unrecorded question when will we partake and I believe Jesus response which is also unrecorded was soon. At the Last Supper Jesus used the same words "this is my flesh and my blood" take eat."
As anyone reading the passage in John 6 should be able to recognize, Jesus was not speaking just to the apostles, but to a group of Jews in the synagogue. They would not have had any such question in mind like "when will we partake", especially since Jesus had already explained what partaking involved: coming to him and believing in him (v.35).
What Jesus says in John 6.51 and 58 is an outright lie if he was talking about communion; Paul makes it clear in 1 Corinthians 11 that NOT all who eat the bread and drink the cup have eternal life. In fact, Paul demands that people examine themselves BEFORE partaking of communion -- why would he restrict anyone from having eternal life if he knew that's what Jesus said about communion?
Of course, if I prefer to build my doctrine on "unrecorded questions" and "unrecorded responses" the result will be pretty much whatever I want it to be, even when it's in obvious conflict with what IS recorded.
I used my illustration of the unrecorded questions and answers to say those that were closest to Jesus understood there was more to this than just the surface much like most parables Jesus spoke. Verse 60 affirms the Apostles discussed this after the fact.