True Christianity #707
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)
John 6:50-58
50
This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, that anyone may eat of it and not die.
51
I am the living bread which came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. Yes, the bread which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
52
The Jews therefore contended with one another, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
53
Jesus therefore said to them, "Most certainly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you don't have life in yourselves.
54
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
55
For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
56
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him.
57
As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he who feeds on me, he will also live because of me.
58
This is the bread which came down out of heaven--not as our fathers ate the manna, and died. He who eats this bread will live forever."
