Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 22:19-20

"And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and gave to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. And the cup in like manner after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, [even] that which is poured out for you." — Luke 22:19-20 (ASV)

He took bread, and gave thanks.—See Notes on Matthew 26:26-28; Mark 14:22–25. The other two reports give He blessed, instead of He gave thanks. There is, of course, no real difference between them. Thanksgiving and blessing both entered into what we may call the Jewish “Grace,” and were to that extent interchangeable terms. It is noticeable that St. Paul’s account, in 1 Corinthians 11:23, agrees on this point with St. Luke’s.

Which is given for you.—Literally, which is now in the act of being given. The sacrifice was already inchoate in will. St. Paul’s report omits the participle.

This do in remembrance of me.—Literally, as My memorial, or, as your memorial of Me. The words are common to St. Luke and St. Paul, but are not found in the other two reports. The word for “remembrance” occurs in the New Testament only here and in Hebrews 10:3. In the Greek version of the Old Testament it is applied to the showbread (Leviticus 24:7), to the blowing of trumpets (Numbers 10:10), in the titles of Psalm 38:1 (“to bring to remembrance,”), and Psalm 70:1.

The word had thus acquired the associations connected with a religious memorial and could be applied to a sacrifice as commemorative, though it did not in itself involve the idea of sacrificing. The fact that our Lord and His disciples had been eating a sacrifice that was also a memorial gives a special force to the words used in this way. In time to come, they were to remember Him as having given Himself, sacrificed Himself, for them, and this was to be the memorial in which memory was to express itself and by which it was to be enlivened. It may be noted that the early Liturgies, as a rule, follow St. Luke’s report, attaching the word “memorial” sometimes to the bread, sometimes to the cup, and sometimes to both.

This cup is the new testament in my blood.—Better, New Covenant. The adjective is, in the best manuscripts, peculiar to St. Luke, as is also the phrase shed for you instead of shed for many. The participle is in the present tense, which is being shed, like the being given, in Luke 22:19. St. Paul and St. Luke agree in placing the giving of the cup after they had supped. (See Note on Matthew 26:28.)