Mark 7:19: should read "cleansing all food" rather than "Thus he declared all foods clean"

shnarkle: Jesus states, in the first clause of Mk. 7:15, "There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him..." which is referring to the digestive process. He further drives this fact home in vss. 18, 19 by saying, "...'whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; because it entereth not into his heart, but into his belly, and goeth out into the draught,' purging all meats." The draught is the sewer. The Syriac version actually reads, "digestive process". If whatever you encounter ends up going into your belly and then into the sewer, it could be quite a few things, but a Metaphor isn't one of them. You don't eat metaphors or digest them and flush them into sewers. As I stated before, there is no metaphor in this passage of scripture. No one is able to produce one, but even so the only other way I can prove this would be by way of defining the figure and showing an example from scripture. Some of the best, and most controversial examples would be "This is my body" (touto esti to soma mou). This is no more literal than to say "The good seed are the children of the kingdom." or The field is the world". He is speaking figuratively. He is using the figure Metaphor; or Representation. Which is a declaration that one thing is (or represents) another; or, Comparison by Representation. From the Greek-metaphora, a transference, or carrying over or across. From (meta), beyond or over, and (Pherein), to carry. The Metaphor declares that one thing IS the other. The Metaphor is not so true to fact as the Simile, but is much truer to feeling. The two nouns themselves must both be mentioned, and are always to be taken in their absolutely literal sense, or else no one can tell what they mean. The figure lies wholly in the verb, and not in either of the two nouns: and it is a remarkable fact that, when a pronoun is used instead of one of the nouns (as it is here), and the two nouns are of different genders, the pronoun is always made to agree in gender with that noun to which the meaning is carried across, and not with the noun from which it is carried, and to which it properly belongs. This at once shows us that a figure is being employed; when a pronoun, which ought, according to the laws of language, to agree in gender with its own noun, is changed, and made to agree with the noun which, by Metaphor, represents it. In our example, the pronoun, "this" (touto), is neuter, and is thus made to agree with "body" (swma), which is neuter, and not with bread (aptos, artos), which is masculine. This is always the case in Metaphors. Here are a few other examples to illustrate. In Zech. 5:8, "This is wickedness." Here, "this" (fem.) does not agree with "ephah" (to which it refers), which is neuter, but with "wickedness, " which is feminine. In Zech. 5:3, "This is the curse." "This" (fem.) agrees with "curse", which is feminine, and not with "flying roll", which is neuter, (to which it refers). In Matt.13:38, "The good seed are the children of the kingdom." Here, "these" (masc.) agrees with "children of the kingdom" (masc.), and not with seed, which is neuter. What this is showing is that in a Metaphor, the two nouns (or pronoun and noun) are always literal, and that the figure lies only in the verb. "This is (i.e., represents) my body," is an undoubted Metaphor. "He took the cup...saying...this is my blood." Here we have a pair of metaphors. In the former one, "this" refers to "bread", and it is claimed that "is" means changed into the "body" of Christ. In the latter, "this" refers to "the cup", but it is not claimed that the cup is changed into "blood". At least, I've never heard that claim. The difference of treatment which the same figure meets with in these two verses is proof that the former is wrong. In 1Cor. 11:25 we read "this cup is the new covenant." How does this "cup" become transubstantiated into a "covenant"? Since the passage in question does not exhibit any of the defining characteristics of the figure Metaphor, we are not dealing with a Metaphor.