Leviticus 3:16

3:16 Then the priest must offer them up in smoke on the altar as a food gift for a soothing aroma – all the fat belongs to the Lord.

Leviticus 21:6

21:6 “‘They must be holy to their God, and they must not profane ¹  the name of their God, because they are the ones who present the Lord’s gifts, ²  the food of their God. Therefore they must be holy. ³ 

Leviticus 21:8

21:8 You must sanctify him because he presents the food of your God. He must be holy to you because I, the Lord who sanctifies you all, ⁴  am holy.

Leviticus 21:17

21:17 “Tell Aaron, ‘No man from your descendants throughout their generations ⁵  who has a physical flaw ⁶  is to approach to present the food of his God.

Leviticus 21:21

21:21 No man from the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a physical flaw may step forward ⁷  to present the Lord’s gifts; he has a physical flaw, so he must not step forward to present the food of his God.

Leviticus 22:25

22:25 Even from a foreigner ⁸  you must not present the food of your God from such animals as these, for they are ruined and flawed; ⁹  they will not be acceptable for your benefit.’”

Malachi 1:7

1:7 You are offering improper sacrifices on my altar, yet you ask, ‘How have we offended you?’ By treating the table ¹⁰  of the Lord as if it is of no importance!

Malachi 1:12-14

1:12 “But you are profaning it by saying that the table of the Lord is common and its offerings ¹¹  despicable. 1:13 You also say, ‘How tiresome it is.’ You turn up your nose at it,” says the Lord who rules over all, “and instead bring what is stolen, lame, or sick. You bring these things for an offering! Should I accept this from you?” ¹²  asks the Lord. 1:14 “There will be harsh condemnation for the hypocrite who has a valuable male animal in his flock but vows and sacrifices something inferior to the Lord. For I am a great king,” ¹³  says the Lord who rules over all, “and my name is awesome among the nations.”

John 6:52-58

6:52 Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus ¹⁴  began to argue with one another, ¹⁵  “How can this man ¹⁶  give us his flesh to eat?” 6:53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, ¹⁷  unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ¹⁸  you have no life ¹⁹  in yourselves. 6:54 The one who eats ²⁰  my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ²¹  6:55 For my flesh is true ²²  food, and my blood is true ²³  drink. 6:56 The one who eats ²⁴  my flesh and drinks my blood resides in me, and I in him. ²⁵  6:57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so the one who consumes ²⁶  me will live because of me. 6:58 This ²⁷  is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the bread your ancestors ²⁸  ate, but then later died. ²⁹  The one who eats ³⁰  this bread will live forever.”

[21:6]  ¹ sn Regarding “profane,” see the note on Lev 10:10 above.

[21:6]  ² sn Regarding the Hebrew term for “gifts,” see the note on Lev 1:9 above (cf. also 3:11 and 16 in combination with the word for “food” that follows in the next phrase here).

[21:6]  ³ tc Smr and all early versions have the plural adjective “holy” rather than the MT singular noun “holiness.”

[21:8]  ⁴ tn The three previous second person references in this verse are all singular, but this reference is plural. By adding “all” this grammatical distinction is preserved in the translation.

[21:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “to their generations.”

[21:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “who in him is a flaw”; cf. KJV, ASV “any blemish”; NASB, NIV “a defect.” The rendering “physical flaw” is used to refer to any birth defect or physical injury of the kind described in the following verses (cf. the same Hebrew word also in Lev 24:19-20). The same term is used for “flawed” animals, which must not be offered to the Lord in Lev 22:20-25.

[21:21]  ⁷ tn Or “shall approach” (see HALOT 670 s.v. נגשׁ).

[22:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “And from the hand of a son of a foreigner.”

[22:25]  ⁹ tn Heb “for their being ruined [is] in them, flaw is in them”; NRSV “are mutilated, with a blemish in them”; NIV “are deformed and have defects.” The MT term מָשְׁחָתָם (moshkhatam, “their being ruined”) is a Muqtal form (= Hophal participle) from שָׁחַת (shakhat, “to ruin”). Smr has plural בהם משׁחתים (“deformities in them”; cf. the LXX translation). The Qumran Leviticus scroll (11QpaleoLev) has תימ הם[…], in which case the restored participle would appear to be the same as Smr, but there is no בְּ (bet) preposition before the pronoun, yielding “they are deformed” (see D. N. Freedman and K. A. Mathews, The Paleo-Hebrew Leviticus Scroll, 41 and the remarks in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 358).

[1:7]  ¹⁰ sn The word table, here a synonym for “altar,” has overtones of covenant imagery in which a feast shared by the covenant partners was an important element (see Exod 24:11). It also draws attention to the analogy of sitting down at a common meal with the governor (v. 8).

[1:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “fruit.” The following word “food” in the Hebrew text (אָכְלוֹ, ’okhlo) appears to be an explanatory gloss to clarify the meaning of the rare word נִיב (niv, “fruit”; see Isa 57:19 Qere; נוֹב, nov, “fruit,” in Kethib). Cf. ASV “the fruit thereof, even its food.” In this cultic context the reference is to the offerings on the altar.

[1:13]  ¹² tn Heb “from your hand,” a metonymy of part (the hand) for whole (the person).

[1:14]  ¹³ sn The epithet great king was used to describe the Hittite rulers on their covenant documents and so, in the covenant ideology of Malachi, is an apt description of the Lord.

[6:52]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “Then the Jews began to argue.” Here the translation restricts the phrase to those Jews who were hostile to Jesus (cf. BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e.β), since the “crowd” mentioned in 6:22-24 was almost all Jewish (as suggested by their addressing Jesus as “Rabbi” (6:25). See also the note on the phrase “the Jews who were hostile to Jesus” in v. 41.

[6:52]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “with one another, saying.”

[6:52]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “this one,” “this person.”

[6:53]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[6:53]  ¹⁸ sn Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. These words are at the heart of the discourse on the Bread of Life, and have created great misunderstanding among interpreters. Anyone who is inclined toward a sacramental viewpoint will almost certainly want to take these words as a reference to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist, because of the reference to eating and drinking. But this does not automatically follow: By anyone’s definition there must be a symbolic element to the eating which Jesus speaks of in the discourse, and once this is admitted, it is better to understand it here, as in the previous references in the passage, to a personal receiving of (or appropriation of) Christ and his work.

[6:53]  ¹⁹ tn That is, “no eternal life” (as opposed to physical life).

[6:54]  ²⁰ tn Or “who chews”; Grk ὁ τρώγων (Jo trwgwn). The alternation between ἐσθίω (esqiw, “eat,” v. 53) and τρώγω (trwgw, “eats,” vv. 54, 56, 58; “consumes,” v. 57) may simply reflect a preference for one form over the other on the author’s part, rather than an attempt to express a slightly more graphic meaning. If there is a difference, however, the word used here (τρώγω) is the more graphic and vivid of the two (“gnaw” or “chew”).

[6:54]  ²¹ sn Notice that here the result (has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day) is produced by eating (Jesus’) flesh and drinking his blood. Compare John 6:40 where the same result is produced by “looking on the Son and believing in him.” This suggests that the phrase here (eats my flesh and drinks my blood) is to be understood by the phrase in 6:40 (looks on the Son and believes in him).

[6:55]  ²² tn Or “real.”

[6:55]  ²³ tn Or “real.”

[6:56]  ²⁴ tn Or “who chews.” On the alternation between ἐσθίω (esqiw, “eat,” v. 53) and τρώγω (trwgw, “eats,” vv. 54, 56, 58; “consumes,” v. 57) see the note on “eats” in v. 54.

[6:56]  ²⁵ sn Resides in me, and I in him. Note how in John 6:54 eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood produces eternal life and the promise of resurrection at the last day. Here the same process of eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood leads to a relationship of mutual indwelling (resides in me, and I in him). This suggests strongly that for the author (and for Jesus) the concepts of ‘possessing eternal life’ and of ‘residing in Jesus’ are virtually interchangeable.

[6:57]  ²⁶ tn Or “who chews”; Grk “who eats.” Here the translation “consumes” is more appropriate than simply “eats,” because it is the internalization of Jesus by the individual that is in view. On the alternation between ἐσθίω (esqiw, “eat,” v. 53) and τρώγω (trwgw, “eats,” vv. 54, 56, 58; “consumes,” v. 57) see the note on “eats” in v. 54.

[6:58]  ²⁷ tn Or “This one.”

[6:58]  ²⁸ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[6:58]  ²⁹ tn Grk “This is the bread that came down from heaven, not just like your ancestors ate and died.” The cryptic Greek expression has been filled out in the translation for clarity.

[6:58]  ³⁰ tn Or “who chews.” On the alternation between ἐσθίω (esqiw, “eat,” v. 53) and τρώγω (trwgw, “eats,” vv. 54, 56, 58; “consumes,” v. 57) see the note on “eats” in v. 54.