They do that with only a handful of verses. For instance, the Church interprets "This is my body" and "This is my blood" as being literal.
The disciples in John 6 were tempted to do the same thing. But nobody bites Christ in John 6 or at the last supper.
Notice that in John 6 Christ did not say 'some day in the future' you will have to drink my blood.
In Matt 16 Jesus scolds the disciples for taking the symbol of bread too literally -
Matt 16
11 How is it that you do not understand that
I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the
leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees
in John 6 Jesus says that literal flesh is worthless but it is His Words that have Spirit and Life.
Such an interpretation is unknown in the Church until some time after the reformation.
1. Those are Bible quotes not "interpretations"
2. They show what was "known in the church in the first century"
3. The only way we could possibly know what was "known in the church" after the first century is to "Read what they wrote" just as in the example given above for the first century.
True in the case of some - but the faithFUL disciples did not take the symbolism for body and blood too literally - they stayed.
Yep - the 12 stayed... and did not bite Christ. They had no inclination to think that Christ wanted him to eat his flesh given what he had just said.
61 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? 62
What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? 63
It is the Spirit who gives life; the
flesh profits nothing;
the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.”
not very unlike
Matt 16
11 How is it that you do not understand that
I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the
leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees
And it says that they never came back to Him. Now, if they misunderstood Jesus, why did He not yell back to them and they "Hey, come back! You totally misunderstood Me. I was not talking literally! So come back!".
That is truly an interesting detail to speculate about - I admit it.
Notice that in John 6 Christ did not say some day future today you must drink my blood.
John 6 - "51
I am the living bread that
came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread,"
Not "I will some day be the living bread" when "some day in the future I will come down out of heaven as bread."