707. The Lord's words make it very clear that bread means the same thing as flesh: "Jesus took the bread, broke it and gave it [to the disciples] and said, 'This is my body'" (Matthew 26:[26]; Mark 14:[22]; Luke 22:[19]). Also, "the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I am giving for the life of the world" (John 6:51). The Lord also says that he is "the bread of life. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever" (John 6:48, 51, 58).

The same "bread" is also what is meant by the sacrificial animals, which are called bread in the following passages:

The priest will burn them on the altar as the bread of an offering made by fire to Jehovah. (Leviticus 3:11, 16)

The sons of Aaron will be holy before their God. They are not to profane the name of their God, because they make offerings by fire to Jehovah as the bread of their God. You will consecrate him, because he offers the bread of your God. A man of the seed of Aaron in whom there is any defect is not to come forward and offer the bread of his God. (Leviticus 21:6, 8, 17, 21)

Command the children of Israel and say to them, "You are to observe my offering, my bread for the offerings made by fire that exude an aroma of rest. You are to offer them to me at the appointed time. " (Numbers 28:2)

One who has touched something unclean is not to eat of the consecrated offerings; he is to wash his flesh in water. Afterward he may eat of the consecrated offerings, because that is his bread. (Leviticus 22:6-7)

The food to eat from the consecrated offerings was the flesh of the sacrificial animals, which is here also called bread. See also Malachi 1:7.

[2] The food offerings that were part of certain sacrifices were likewise made of grain, and were therefore a kind of bread; they, too, have the same meaning (Leviticus 2:1-11; 6:14-21; 7:9-13; and elsewhere). So does the bread that was on a table inside the tabernacle; it was called the showbread or the bread set before Jehovah (see Exodus 25:30; 40:23; Leviticus 24:5-9).

As the following quotations make clear, bread in the Word means heavenly bread, not physical bread.

Humankind does not live by bread alone; humankind lives by everything that comes from the mouth of Jehovah. (Deuteronomy 8:3)

I will strike the earth with hunger - not hunger for bread or thirst for water but for hearing the words of Jehovah. (Amos 8:11)

Furthermore the term "bread" is used to mean food of every kind (see Leviticus 24:5-9; Exodus 25:30; 40:23; Numbers 4:7; 1 Kings 7:48). And in fact the word "food" itself means spiritual food, as the Lord's words make clear in the following passage:

Work for food - not for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts to eternal life, which the Son of Humankind will give you. (John 6:27)

667. Chapter 12: Baptism

Without Knowing That the Word Has a Spiritual Meaning, No One Can Know What the Two Sacraments (Baptism and the Holy Supper) Entail and What They Do for Us

The chapter on Sacred Scripture showed that there is a spiritual meaning throughout the Word and in every part of it [189-192], and that this meaning has been unknown until now [193-209]. It also showed that this meaning is now disclosed for the sake of the new church that is being established by the Lord [207, 271]. The nature of the spiritual meaning can be seen not only in that chapter but also in the chapter on the Ten Commandments [291-328]; the spiritual meaning of the commandments is explained there.

If the spiritual meaning of the Word had not been disclosed, would people be able to think beyond the earthly meaning or literal sense of the two sacraments, baptism and the Holy Supper? They might mutter and say to themselves, "What is baptism but pouring water on a baby's head? What does that do for the baby's salvation? What is the Holy Supper but taking bread and wine? What does that do for our salvation? For that matter, what is holy about these rituals, other than the fact that the ecclesiastical hierarchy has traditionally accepted them as sacred and divine and has commanded us to observe them? Although the churches claim that when the Word of God is brought near the elements they become sacred, these rituals are essentially just ceremonial. "

[2] I call on you, lay people and even clergy, to examine whether the sense you have in your heart or spirit concerning these two sacraments is any different from this. Have you practiced them as divine rituals for different reasons and with different thoughts in mind than these?

Yet from the point of view of their spiritual meaning, these two sacraments are the holiest acts of worship. The following pages, where the true functions of these sacraments are described, will make this clear.

None of us could ever understand the true functions of the sacraments unless the spiritual meaning uncovered and unfolded them for us. Therefore if we do not know their spiritual meaning, we are not in a position to realize that they are more than mere ceremonies established as holy only by the fact that we have been commanded to do them.