BiAS 7 – The Bible and Politics in Africa
over, the narrator does not forget to mention Judas so that the reader can
understand that those who do not accept the Eucharistic relecture of the
bread of life discourse are no better than Judas. Like him, they betray
Jesus. Linking those who do not accept eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking
his blood in the Eucharist to the Jews who never believed in Christ and
to Judas who betrayed him provides a strong incentive to accept the
Eucharist. Believing in Christ without taking part in the Eucharistic meal
is tantamount to not believing in Christ at all. Those who think that they
can consume the bread of life just through faith without actually eating
it^28 (6:55) are told that this is not possible.
In this maner, the text makes quite clear that its background is a prob-
lem with the Eucharist in Johannine Christianity. Apparently, there were
some (or many?) who did not want to take part in the Eucharistic meet-
ings. But why was it necessary to put such a great amount of theological
pressure on certain members of the community? Are we supposed to
imagine that the Johannine community had a major problem with peo-
ple who have been baptized but do not share in the life of the Christian
community? We know this problem from secular western Christianities;
but did this problem of tepid Christians (or even baptized non-believers)
already exist in New Testament times, when a person did not become a
Christian by being baptized as an infant, but by a conscious decision to
convert as an adult? Being Christian did not involve any societal benefit
but quite on the contrary aroused suspicions and was sometimes even
dangerous. Why then would someone become a member of the church
without sharing in the life of the community?
The text does not give a clear answer to these difficult questions, but it
gives some hints that allow for conclusions that are not too speculative.
If the problems with the Eucharist have to do with the theological tradi-
tion that believes Jesus is the bread of life which is consumed through
faith, then perhaps those who did not take part in the Eucharist were
mostly upper class Christians. At least, this theology with its realized
eschatology is very much linked to Jewish Hellenistic upper class theol-
ogy documented in the writings of Philo Alexandrinus. Of course, even
lowest class people like slaves can develop escapist realized eschatology,
but the links to Philo and the wealthy Judaism he belongs to are just too
(^28) The Johannine redaction lays specific stress on the realism of eating. That’s why they
use several times the word τρώγω = gnaw/crunch (6:54.56.57.58), which is quite un-
usual in the Eucharistic context.