Mat 26:23-29 | PNT | STEP | He that dippeth [his] hand with me in the dish . In Oriental meals, instead of plates being used, each one helps himself with his fingers from the dish as he needs. From we learn that these words were spoken to the disciple that leaned on the Savior's bosom and were unheard by Judas and the rest.

Matthew 26:23-29

He that dippeth [his] hand with me in the dish. In Oriental meals, instead of plates being used, each one helps himself with his fingers from the dish as he needs. From Joh 13:23-26 we learn that these words were spoken to the disciple that leaned on the Savior's bosom and were unheard by Judas and the rest. As it is written of him. "As it was determined" (Lu 22:22), in prophecy.

It had been good for that man. A declaration of the awful judgment that would befall the traitor. Thou hast said. In other words, "Thou art the traitor". John says that Jesus then said to Judas, "What thou doest, do quickly" and that he "immediately went out, and it was night" (Joh 13:27,30). Judas, therefore, left before the Lord's Supper was instituted. 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. He took the cup, and gave thanks. The cup was provided for the celebration of the paschal feast, and was at hand as well as the bread.

Drink ye all of it. Observe that he simply said of the bread, "Take, eat" (Mt 26:26); but of the wine, "Drink ye all", as if he intended to uproot the Catholic innovation of denying the cup to the laity. This is my blood. A sign or emblem of my blood.

New testament. Covenant is the preferable sense here, as in most passages where the word occurs in the New Testament; the new covenant is contrasted with "the covenant which God made with our fathers" (Ac 3:25).

Shed for many. Shed, in one sense, for all, for the benefits of the blood are offered to all; but "many" accept it and are saved. I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine. He is done with earthly rites, and at this sad moment points them to a future reunion at the marriage supper of the Lamb. "Do this in remembrance of me" (Lu 22:19) points to a permanent institution, to be observed until the Lord comes the second time. The command is therefore binding on all who believe in Christ; and disobedience to it is sin, for the unbelief that keeps men away is one of the worst of sins. The subsequent practice of the apostles (Ac 2:42,46 20:7), and still more the fact that directions for the Lord's Supper were made a matter of special revelation to Paul (1Co 11:23), seem to make it clear that Christ intended the ordinance for a perpetual one, and that his apostles so understood it.