As I discussed in previous post, τρωγω in John 6: Proof of Transubstantiation?, I discussed how Catholic apologists are incorrect when they claim that the verb τρωγω, as used in John 6:54, 56-58, there is no meaningful basis to argue that Jesus is speaking of a literal gnawing of His flesh, per Transubstantiation, as the verb has been used in metaphorical contexts (the argument is that it was never used to denote anything but literal gnawing/munching).
In another lexical source, Moulton-Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament, we read the following (emphasis added):
4362 τρώγω [pg 644]
τρώγω,
orig. of animals, “munnch,” “crunch,” “eat audibly,” then of men, “eat vegetables, fruit, etc,” as in Herod, ii. 37, and then “eat” generally. The word, outside the Fourth Gospel (654 al.), is found in the NT only in Mt 2433 (the Lukan parallel 1727 here substitutes ἐσθίω): cf. Syll 805 (= 3 1171)10 ἔδωκεν εὔζωμον νήστῃ τρώγειν. Other exx. are P Lond 12177 (iii/A.D.) (= I. p. 89) ψυχρὰ τρώγοντα κατακαίεσθαι, and Preisigke 57305 (= P Bouriant 1160) a school-exercise of iv/v A.D. containing a saying of Diogenes who, when he saw a certain man eating (ἔσθοντα), remarked—ἡ νὺξ τὴν ἡμέραν τρώγει. There seems no good reason for assuming the survival of any difference in meaning between the two verbs that supplied a present stem for φαγεῖν: but see Haussleiter in Archiv fiir lat. Lexicographie ix. (1896), p. 300 ff. In MGr τρώ(γ)ω is the usual word for “eat.”
In one of the Klepht ballads edited by Abbott Songs p. 22, the verb is used to denote security. The famous Andritsos, besieged in the great Monastery,11 ἔτρωγε κ᾽ ἔπινε, while his enemies stormed at the gate. For the compd. ἐπιτρώγω cf. P Oxy IX. 118511 (c. A.D. 200) παῖδα τὸν μεικρὸν δεῖ ἄρτον ἐσθίειν, ἅλας ἐπιτρώγειν, ὀψαρίου μὴ θινγάνειν, “a little boy must eat bread, nibble besides some salt, and not touch the sauce” (Ed.). For τραγήματα = “the dessert” or δευτέρα τράπεζα (secunda mensa, bellaria), see Cagnat IV. 10006 (ii/B.C.).
Again, we see that Roman Catholic apologists are guilty of abusing Greek when they attempt to support their dogmas (cf. the Roman Catholic appeal to κεχαριτωμενη in Luke 1:28 to support the Immaculate Conception).
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