Infallibly Defined–On Two Lists out of Four
In my previous post, I examined the verses that appeared on all four of Steve Ray’s lists of infallibly defined verses according to the Roman Catholic Church. In this post, I will take a quick look at two verses which appear on two of the lists, Matthew 16:16-19 and Matthew 26:26-28 et. al. with 1 Corinthians 11:23-29.
Before I look at those verses, I thought that I would point out that the Catholic interpretations of these verses neglect the priesthood of all believers (1 Pet 2:4-5).
Matthew 16:16-19
The massive debate over this verse is centered around whether the “rock” is Peter, or his confession of Christ as the messiah.
The New Testament seems to assume that all believers are a holy priesthood (1 Pet 2:4-5). Given that there is only one mediator between God and man (1 Tim 2:5), and all believers are baptized into one body (1 Cor 12:13), it is unlikely that the apostles were made special priests. Instead, all believers were made ministers of a new covenant (2 Cor 3:6).
See a longer argument here.
Matthew 26:26-28, Mark 14:22-24, Luke 22:19-20, and 1 Corinthians 11:23-29
It isn’t much of a surprise that Jesus’ exact words were recored in the gospels, given that they are biographies of His life. Paul repeats the key phrases “This is my body . . . This is my blood” in his first letter to the Corinthians.
But the larger context of 1 Corinthians 11 is rules and order for spiritual worship, not a theological treatise on the body and blood of Jesus Christ present in the Eucharist. Therefore, it is unlikely that either Paul or any of the gospel writers were attempting to validate transubstantiation.
Moreover, interpreting these verses literally then asks us to interpret John 6:53-57 literally:
Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. . . .”
But reading that passage literally fails to take verse 63 in to account: “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life” (emphasis added).
Defining the verses this way seems to be self-defeating.
