John 6:51-54, Literal or Symbolic?
51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
Whoever eats ( φάγῃ ) this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh, for the life of the world.”
52 Then the Jews started to argue among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat ( φαγεῖν )?” 53 Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat ( φάγητε ) the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. 54 Whoever feeds ( τρώγων ) upon my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
The original Greek words used in verses 51-53 are φάγῃ / φάγητε / φαγεῖν, they are forms of the Greek verb phago, meaning “eating.”
However, after the Jews begin to express incredulity at the idea of eating Christ’s flesh, the language begins to intensify. In verse 54, John begins to use τρώγων, trogo instead of phago. Trogo is a decidedly more graphic term, meaning “to chew on” or to “gnaw on”—as when an animal is ripping apart its prey.
Why does John use such strong and deliberate language if he isn’t attempting to emphasize the literal nature of Christ’s words? Especially as Jesus is clearly responding emphatically to the wonder and doubt of the Jews.
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The way Ivan’s pupils dilate when he sees Till in the den will never not be special to me. It immediately clicked in his brain, “Oh, you’re different. You’re different.” He recognized the visible pain Till carried with him and the fighting spirit that remained strong in spite of it, and Ivan, who was so opposite, who knew next to nothing at the time about how to connect with others, just knew right then that he wanted anything Till would give him, if only a glance, even if it hurt. He didn’t fall for Till because Till is pure or untouched by suffering, but because he is.
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I have a DP x DC AU brainworm about Danny and Tim being long lost siblings (twins or otherwise).
Because both of them have faced evil future versions of themselves who've almost ended the world in some way through altering time. If Clockwork had been watching Danny's world-ending timelines, then who's to say he wouldn't keep tabs on Tim's as well?
Imagine that the brothers had to be temporarily separated at a young age to ensure a peaceful future. Danny had to be in Amity Park to gain his ghost powers and become the new Ghost King. Meanwhile, Tim had to stay in Gothem to become the new Robin, something he'd have been less likely to do if Danny stayed in his life.
However, their separation was only supposed to be temporary. What if both Dan and Future Tim were from futures where they never reunited as teens? Heck, what if both of them were from the SAME future?
The Nasty Burger explosion happened, Danny killed Vlad and absorbed his soul, and became Dan. Dan grew too powerful for the GIW to handle anymore, so the government tried reaching out to the Justice League. But oops! Future Tim already killed off and tore down that whole organization, meaning the world no longer had it's protectors to stop this new foe.
Though they were strangers, the future brothers unwittingly collaborated in sealing the world's fate.
Back to the present, the Observants wanted Clockwork to get rid of Danny and also Tim before that timeline came to pass. What they didn't understand was Clockwork's plan.
See, the Infinite Realms needed a new monarch to replace Pariah Dark, but not just anyone would do. In timelines outside of Dan's future, the U.S government would've started a war with the Infinite Realms anyway. One that would guarantee Earth's destruction and offset the balance of other realms near it.
The war is set to start in Amity Park, but the information blackout is preventing it's citizens from getting outside help. Mid-to-late teen Danny can't bring down the Anti Ecto Acts alone. He'd be struggling to keep the Realms beings from invading his home as it is. And the government's iron grip on the city makes it nearly impossible for news to get out to the masses.
Danny being the brother of a vigilante detective across the country is another story.
Batman's mentorship would give Tim the training needed to eventually track down his lost sibling. And through Red Robin's connections to the Justice League, Danny could get help overturning the Anti Ecto Acts while he keeps declarations of war at bay on his end. Danny and Tim's combined efforts could be what's keeping the world at peace instead of ending it.
Long story short: Clockwork kills two birds with one stone by uniting a pair of long lost brothers through the prevention of an interdimensional war.
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soukoku's brand of trust where it's so not obvious yet painfully clear to everyone at the same time.
like at first everyone in the cast might see them and actually buy how much they hate each other but one mission later they're convinced skk can read each other's minds and are so intuned with one another they can find each other deaf, dumb and blind.
chuuya will let himself be swept up in a flood and be played at the side of a madman, knowing dazai has a plan, that he'll make sure they both oull through. dazai will sit and keep an unwavering stare down the barrel of a gun and let his partner fire it into his skull, with all the confidence that chuuya will not let him die.
and everyone thinks there's no blind faith because there's only deeply familiar trust; they know every part of each other, they understand each other, they can pinpoint the ins and outs of their partner's thoughts and feelings, they know how to read each other, know what makes them tick. and so everyone else in their lives thinks their trust is the trust between two halves of a single soul that is familiar with the other enough to place their lives in a rival's hands.
what they don't see is what goes even further, where they wordlessly bare to each other the parts that aren't known. chuuya will surrender his soul to unleash a being of calamity with only the belief that dazai will bring him back, save his life, stop him from razing the world to the ground.
dazai will reach out his hand to a boy he barely knows with solid faith that they will beat this enemy together, he will openly laugh until he's teary-eyed, express his worries, and his blatant shock, share his musings out loud without a facade of an all-knowing genius who doesn't struggle to understand his foes.
i don't even know where i was going with this but they make me INSANE
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that scene in Mark of Athena where Percy and Jason start being passive-aggressive Manly about who gets to sit at the head of the table. And the tension is rising and everybody is starting to get nervous and people are about to start pulling weapons and then-
annabeth starts clapping slowly
and percy immediately groans and goes "wise girl, come on, you dont have to-"
and nobody knows what the hell is going on but the tension has gone away from pure confusion
then annabeth starts singing: "oh, golly. the road's gettin bumpy 'cause I got me some friends who just cant get along-"
and now percy's snorting and clapping to the beat because he forgot he had forgotten Grover's stupid consensus song that helped them through their first quest when they were just twelve and then everybody calms down and annabeth and percy explain the joke to everyone and from then on every single argument is solved by people singing the consensus song and getting too into it to continue the argument
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