The Blood of the New Covenant

Matthew 26 ²⁷Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. ²⁸This is my blood of the[new] covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. ²⁹I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom."New International Version)         Yeshua, after declaring the cup to hold "my blood of the new covenant," said in vs. 29, "I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on ...." Obviously, He would not contradict His words of only seconds before. He simply referred to the cup as the actual contents it held, rather than the "blood of the new covenant as He had just stated." So, in what sense did He mean, "This is my blood ..."?         He said "this" twice, once referring to it as His blood, and once as "fruit of the vine." Simplistic logic would suggest that He believed His blood was, in fact, wine. His thinking, however, only seems simplistic to those who cannot grasp His eternal perspective through His Holy Spirit's influence.         More likely, Yeshua referred to the cup's contents as His blood because he was about to pass it around to His apostles, indicating that each would share in the New Covenant of His blood. Seems obvious when explained that way.         The Catholic church has long taught that the Communion Cup contains the actual, transubstantiated blood of Yeshua, a teaching that I accepted whole-heartedly as a child. His word, however, does not substantiate(excuse the play on words) this belief.        Without harping on some Catholic conspiracy theory, I must clearly state that the Council of Trent, begun in 1545, officially adopted the doctrine of Transubstantiation as Church dogma. That doctrine, taught informally for about 500 years, was the elaborate rationale of Latin theologians attempting to harmonize the "three Eucharistic controversies," and its name was first coined by Hildebert of Tours around 1079*.        While a "leap of faith" must precede repentance and rebirth in the life of every believer, we must not blindly accept all such abandonment of natural reason, which is the stuff of heresy. Unquestioned acceptance of orthodoxy, on the other hand, can lead to the opposite error of formalism. All believers in Yeshua must weigh every teaching, regardless is source, with a diligent study of His word. * http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05573a.htm#section3