Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 1 Corinthians 11:23

"For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread;" — 1 Corinthians 11:23 (ASV)

The chief reason why Paul cannot commend their actions is that they do not agree with the spirit of the Lord’s Supper as he had received it. Using technical words, Paul writes that he “received” (GK 4161) from the Lord and “passed on” (GK 4140) to them the Christian tradition of the Lord’s Supper. That most likely means that he received the Lord’s words of the institution of the Supper through its being passed on by others, just as he then passed them on to the Corinthians—i.e., through a process of repetition (cf. 15:3–4). Observe the similarity of Paul’s words about the Supper with Mt 26:26–29; Mark 14:22–25; Lk 22:14-20.

Since the Supper was celebrated in connection with the Passover (cf. Matthew 26:17–29), we assume that the bread that was available was unleavened. Jesus gave thanks, as was the Jewish practice at a meal. The breaking of the bread was symbolic of Christ’s bruised body (Isaiah 53:5), “given for you” . The word “this” most naturally means in the context “this bread” that Christ was holding in his hand as a symbol to represent his body; the bread was not Christ’s body itself (cf. somewhat similar figures in John 10:7; 1 Corinthians 10:4).