The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

“this" mean here? Not the idol-sacrifice, for that would make an identical
proposition: This idol-sacrifice is idol-sacrifice. But there is no noun
whatever in the context to which touto can refer; the force of "this" is,
therefore: This which you are about to eat is idol-sacrifice. If a translator,
on the ground that he knew that flesh was used for sacrifice, should insist
on rendering, or on building on the rendering: This flesh is idol-sacrifice, it
would be decisive against him that touto is neuter, and sarx (flesh) is
feminine. We need not multiply examples. Our principle is so simple and
easy of application, that even the English reader can run it out for himself
in these and other passages. The testimony is unvarying, complete, and
overwhelming, that in every case really parallel with the present the view
we take is correct, which is, that when Jesus says, "Take, eat, this is My
body," He means, This which I tell you to Take, eat, is My body.
The correct view in regard to touto, to wit, that it cannot qualify or
refer grammatically to artos, has been maintained by a large majority of
the best scholars in all parts of the religious world.
Lutheran Theologians.
The accepted view of the Lutheran theologians is that touto cannot
refer grammatically to artos. This is especially illustrated among those we
have examined by Gerhard, Quenstedt, Calovius, Carpzov, Oliarius,
Scherzer, Bengel, and the best both of our earlier and later commentators.
Gerhard, for example, says, in his Harmonia: "The whole argument for
transubstantiation from the words of the institution rests upon the
hypothesis that by the pronoun 'this' is denoted the bread. But the 'this,'
used deictically, has not reference to the bread alone, but to the whole
complex. If the bread alone were meant, what sort of a grammatical
construction would result?--'Touto artos.' When Paul, 1 Cor. x. 16, makes
bread the subject, then the predicate is not 'body of Christ,' but
'communion of the body of Christ;' when Luke places the 'cup' as the
subject, the predicate is not 'blood of Christ,' but the 'New Testament' in
His blood. The pronoun 'this' is therefore used, not adjectively, but
substantively, so that there is an exhibitive proposition."
Roman Catholic Expositors.
The true view is accepted even by some of the ripest Roman