The Johannine Eucharist is influenced by the sacred meal tradition and the Dionysus cult in Greco-Roman religion, which is different from the Synoptics and Paul's writings that focus on Jewish Passover meal traditions. Using literary criticism and the history of ideas as its main methodologies, this dissertation traces why John replaces “body” with “flesh” and “cup” with “blood” in cannibalistic language. Thus, this study investigates Greco-Roman meal customs, sacrificial meals, the hero cult, the image of Dionysus and the Dionysus cult to show that sacred meals profoundly shaped the Dionysiac sacrificial ritual. Among various Dionysiac features, wine and cannibalistic rituals significantly impact the Johannine Eucharist. This study also argues that John describes Jesus as the sacrificial animal in order to emphasize the suffering and death of Jesus in the idea of sacrifice. Although Jewish sacrifice shares commonalities with Greek sacrifice, because of its universal blood taboo, it does not use blood. The historical fact that Jewish sacrifice officially ceased in 70 C.E. supports the influence of the Greek thysia sacrifice, which continued in the Roman Empire until the 4 ^th century, on the Johannine Eucharist with its emphasis on the union between the god and the worshippers. Eating the animal's body and blood represents ingesting divine power, which does not appear in the Jewish sacrifice.

John describes Jesus and his ministry by modeling Dionysus, especially in Jesus' wine miracle (2:1-11), walking on water (6:16-20), Eucharistic words (6:51-59), and the vine discourse (15:1-11). The Dionysiac ritual of eating and tearing raw flesh shows cannibalistic elements. Unlike other negative descriptions of cannibalism in ancient literature, Dionysus is described as both an eater and a giver of raw flesh. By reevaluating the negative term of cannibalism, John positively applies this Dionysiac cannibalism to the Eucharistic words in 6:51-59. Thus, Jesus' hard saying (6:60) is a consequence of this cannibalistic language and the ambiguous features of Dionysus. While in Greco-Roman religion the Dionysus cult shows the cannibalistic and manic ritual of sacred meals, in the New Testament the Johannine Eucharist presents the best model of the Dionysus cult.