Mat 26:26 | PNT | STEP | As they were eating . Before they had arisen from the paschal feast. Jesus took bread . That is, one of the unleavened cakes that had been placed before him as the celebrant or proclaimer of the feast. And blessed . As was the custom. Luke and Paul say, "gave thanks" ( ), which is the same thing. This is my body . Not literally, as the Catholics and Luther contend, but "represents my body". We interpret it as we do his other sayings: "The seed is the word" ( ); "The field is the world" ( ); "The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels" ( ); "I am the door" ( ); "I am the vine" ( ). So, too, at this very feast, the Jews was wont to say of the paschal lamb, "This 'is' the body of the lamb which our fathers ate in Egypt". Not the "same", but this is meant to represent and commemorate that. He could not have meant that the bread was his real body, because his body was present at the table breaking the loaf, and he was speaking and acting in person among them. The doctrine of the "Real Presence" is every way unreasonable.

Matthew 26:26

As they were eating. Before they had arisen from the paschal feast.

Jesus took bread. That is, one of the unleavened cakes that had been placed before him as the celebrant or proclaimer of the feast.

And blessed. As was the custom. Luke and Paul say, "gave thanks" (Lu 22:19 1Co 11:24), which is the same thing.

This is my body. Not literally, as the Catholics and Luther contend, but "represents my body". We interpret it as we do his other sayings: "The seed is the word" (Lu 8:11); "The field is the world" (Mt 13:38); "The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels" (Mt 13:39); "I am the door" (Joh 10:9); "I am the vine" (Joh 15:5). So, too, at this very feast, the Jews was wont to say of the paschal lamb, "This 'is' the body of the lamb which our fathers ate in Egypt". Not the "same", but this is meant to represent and commemorate that. He could not have meant that the bread was his real body, because his body was present at the table breaking the loaf, and he was speaking and acting in person among them. The doctrine of the "Real Presence" is every way unreasonable.