1 Corinthians 11:23-24

Amongst the things the Ap. had “delivered” to his readers, that they professed to be “holding fast” (1 Corinthians 11:2), was the story of the Last Supper of the Lord Jesus, which the Church perpetuates in its communion-feast. ἐγώ antithetical to ὑμῖν : I the imparter, you the receivers, of these solemn facts. ἀπὸ neither excludes, nor suggests (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:30; 1 Corinthians 14:36, etc.) as παρὰ might have done (Galatians 1:12; 1 Thessalonians 2:13), independent impartation to P.; “it marks the whence of the communication, in a wide and general sense” (El [1741]); the Ap. vouches for it that what he related came authentically from the Lord. Παραλαμβάνω denotes “receiving a deposit or trust” (Ed [1742]). “The Lord Jesus,” see 1 Corinthians 1:8. The allusion to “the night in which He was betrayed” (graphic impf [1743], “while the betrayal went on”), is no mere note of time; it throws into relief the fidelity of Jesus in the covenant (1 Corinthians 11:25) thus made with His people, and enhances the holy pathos of the recollection; behind the Saviour lurks the Traitor. Incidentally, it shows how detailed and matter-of-fact was the account of the Passion given to Paul's converts. For the irreg. impf [1744], παρεδίδετο, see Wr [1745], p. 95, note 3. ἔλαβεν ἄρτον, “took a loaf” (ein Brod: cf. the εἶς ἄρτος of 1 Corinthians 10:17) one of the flat and brittle unleavened cakes of the Passover Table. καὶ εὐχαριστήσας ἔκλασεν κ. τ. λ., “and after pronouncing the blessing, broke it and said, etc.” This εὐχαριστία was apparently the blessing inaugurating the meal, which was followed by the symbolic bread-breaking, whereas “the cup” was administered μετὰ τὸ δειπνῆσαι (1 Corinthians 11:25); cf. Luke 22:17 ff. (see notes ad loc [1746] in vol. i.), whose account is nearly the same as Paul's, differing in some important particulars from that of Matt. and Mark. Luke, however, introduces a preparatory cup of renunciation on the part of Jesus, “prolusio cœnæ” (Bg [1747]). The fractio panis, the sign of the commencement of a household or social meal (Luke 24:30; Acts 2:42), is prominent in each narrative; this act supplied another name for the Sacrament. Regarding the words pronounced over the broken loaf, we bear in mind (1) that Jesus said of the bread “This is my body,” Himself sitting there in His visible person, when the identification of substance could not occur to any one; (2) that the parl [1748] saying concerning “the cup” expounds by the word “covenant” (covenant in my blood, in Luke and P.; my blood of the covenant in Matt, and Mark) the connexion of symbol and thing symbolised, linking the cup and blood, and by analogy the loaf and body, as one not by confusion of substance but by correspondence of relation: what the blood effects, the cup sets forth and seals. The bread, standing for the body, “is the body” representatively; broken for Christ's disciples, it serves materially in the Supper the part which His slain body is about to serve spiritually “for the life of the world”. Our Lord thus puts into an acted parable the doctrine taught by figurative speech in John 6:48 ff. “ ἐστὶν is here the copula of symbolic being; otherwise the identity of subject and predicate would form a conception equally impossible to Speaker and hearers” (Mr [1749]). τὸ ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν (κλώμενον an early gloss), “that is for you ” in all its relations subsisting for men; for our advantage He wore the σῶμα σαρκός (2 Corinthians 8:9; Philippians 2:7; Hebrews 2:14 ff., etc.). The τοῦτο ποιεῖτε clause is peculiar to Luke and Paul: their witness is good evidence that the words are ἀπὸ τοῦ Κυρίου (1 Corinthians 11:23). The sacrificial sense put on ποιεῖτε by many “Catholic” exegetes (as though syn [1750] with the Homeric ῥέζειν, and ‘ asah of Exodus 29:39, etc.) is without lexical warrant, and “plane præter mentem Scripturæ” as the R.C [1751] Estius honestly says; see also El [1752] ad loc [1753] εἰς τὴν ἐμὴν (cf. ὑμετέραν, 1 Corinthians 15:31) ἀνάμνησιν, in mei memoriam (Cv [1754]); Ed [1755] reads it “ My commemoration” in contrast to that of Moses (1 Corinthians 10:2), making τ. ἐμὴν correspond to καινὴν of 1 Corinthians 11:25.

[1741] C. J. Ellicott's St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians.

[1742] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2

[1743] mpf. imperfect tense.

[1744]mpf. imperfect tense.

[1745] Winer-Moulton's Grammar of N.T. Greek (8th ed., 1877).

[1746] ad locum, on this passage.

[1747] Bengel's Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[1748] parallel.

[1749] Meyer's Critical and Exegetical Commentary (Eng. Trans.).

[1750] synonym, synonymous.

[1751].C. Roman Catholic.

[1752] C. J. Ellicott's St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians.

[1753] ad locum, on this passage.

[1754] Calvin's In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii.

[1755] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2