In 2 Sam 23:17, we read the following:
And he [King David] said, Be it far from me, O LORD, that I should do this: is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men.
The LXX, when speaking of the relationship between the water and the blood of the soldiers slain to acquire such, reads:
τοῦτο εἰ αἷμα τῶν ἀνδρῶν τῶν πορευθέντων
While David is speaking of water from Bethlehem, the Greek shows that he intimately associated this water with literal blood; the demonstrative τοῦτο is a neuter singular and, grammatically, refers to αἷμα, also a neuter singular.
I raise this as an issue of theological and exegetical consistency. Latter-day Saints and many others who reject Transubstantiation and other related views (the Eastern Orthodox view; Consubstantiation, etc) are consistent in interpreting both this and similar passages figuratively and the words of Jesus in the institutional narratives of the Lord’s Supper, such as the phrase “This is my Body.” However, if a Catholic and proponents of a more "corporeal" understanding of “Real Presence” than that held by Latter-day Saints and others are inconsistent in taking an all-too-literal reading of “this is my body” but (correctly) exegete 2 Sam 23:17 figuratively.
