TO GNAW, MUNCH — a coarser, more physically concrete verb for eating than the ordinary phagein/esthiō, used elsewhere of animals feeding. ⚠ John 6 uses the ordinary verb for eating through v53, then switches to trōgō six times running (vv54, 56, 57, 58) and does not switch back — exactly at the point where 'eat my flesh' stops sounding like it could be a metaphor and the audience starts fighting over what it could possibly mean (v52). The same harder verb resurfaces at 13:18, of the one 'who eats my bread' who will lift his heel against Jesus — quoting Psalm 41:9, and naming the betrayer without naming him. Most English and Spanish versions flatten both Greek verbs to the same 'eat'/'comer,' losing the escalation the Greek marks on purpose. → first discussed at John 6:54