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

there were any warrant for the textual reading on which is based the
interpretation: "This broken bread is my broken body," it would imply that
the body is metaphorically broken, and that because the predicate body is
identical in the metaphor with the bread, we can say that the bread is
broken. But it is granted by all that the breaking of the bread is literal. It is
said to be broken, because, and only because, it is broken. Hence the a
priori presumption is entirely in accord with the external evidence that the
true reading of 1 Cor. xi. 24, does not embrace the word "broken." If the
word there were genuine, there can be no metaphorical relation between
the breaking of the bread and the breaking of the body; but if there were, it
would produce an idea exactly the reverse of that which the advocates of
the metaphor desire. They wish the breaking of the bread to figure the
breaking of the body, but, in fact, the breaking of the body would figure the
breaking of the bread. If I say: "Hope is a broken reed," it is the "broken"
of the predicate which we refer to the subject, not the reverse. It is not that
hope is broken, and, therefore, we make it the image of a broken reed; but
it is the reed that is broken, and we, therefore, make it the image of the
broken hope. The words are not: My body is this broken bread, but
(following the reading): This (bread) is my broken body.
14. A verbal SYMBOL is simply a metaphorical predicate, which is
fixed in one determinate sense by general agreement and understanding. It
must conform to all the laws of metaphor. When the symbolic idea of the
verbal symbol is embodied in a representation, or associated with a natural
object, apparent to the senses, a SYMBOL PROPER is the result. Thus,
when, for the first time, it was said: "The brave man is a lion," there was
but a metaphor. When the authority derived from a general use and
agreement made the lion, by preeminence, and exclusively, the
metaphorical representative of courage, the lion became the symbol of
courage; and the carved or painted lion becomes the symbol proper of
courage. Before a symbol can be assumed in language, there must be
presupposed a metaphorical predicate, and a fixing of it by general
agreement in one only sense. When there can be no metaphor,