I Corinthians 11:24 says, “And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” Was his (Christ’s) body broken? Or is this referring to the bread?<\/p>\n
When leading the prayer for the Lord’s Supper I often quote this verse. I was told by a member of the church that my prayer is incorrect and that Christ’s body wasn’t broken. He said the verse is referring to the bread. I disagree with him. Which is correct?<\/p>\n
If I Corinthians 11:24 does refer to Christ’s body as broken, should I alter my prayer because this member feels that it is wrong?<\/p>\n\t
One of the fulfilled prophecies concerning Jesus was that none of his bones would be broken. “Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, “Not one of His bones shall be broken” <\/em>” (John 19:31-36). This has been misread by a few as a statement that Christ’s body was not broken. However, he was scourged and a spear was thrust through his side. While his bones were not broken, his body was broken.<\/p>\n Grammatically, the “which is broken” refers back to the body (not the bread). This is true in Greek and it is reflected in English.<\/p>\n Where there have been disagreements is that some of the older manuscripts are missing the word klomenon<\/em> (“being broken”). Because the word does not appear in the Gospel accounts, many modern scholars assume that the word was inserted in I Corinthians 11:24. However, as seen from the various English translations, this argument is not considered to be a strong one because there are old manuscripts that do have\u00a0klomenon<\/em>\u00a0in the text.<\/p>\n Regardless of the scholarly debate, the fact remains that the statement is true. Jesus’ body was broken, though his bones remained whole. The broken bread aptly represents his broken body.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I Corinthians 11:24 says, “And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” Was his (Christ’s) body broken? Or is this referring to the bread? When leading the prayer for the Lord’s Supper I often…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[228,73,146],"class_list":["post-45396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-crucifixion","tag-jesus","tag-lords-supper"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":54642,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/must-the-bread-be-broken-by-the-one-presiding-at-the-lords-supper\/","url_meta":{"origin":45396,"position":0},"title":"Must the bread be broken by the one presiding at the Lord’s Supper?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I looked at your Q&A about the Lord's supper, but could not find an answer to my question.\u00a0 Is there any Bible teaching that the man who is \"presiding\" at the serving of the Lord's Supper needs to break the bread in two before serving it to the congregation?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24066,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/must-we-confess-our-sins-before-eating-the-lords-supper\/","url_meta":{"origin":45396,"position":1},"title":"Must we confess our sins before eating the Lord’s Supper?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Must we confess sin before eating the body and blood of Christ? What does \"examine yourself\" mean in I Corinthians 11:28? Answer: The Lord's Supper is a memorial of Jesus' death. \"For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65447,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-the-lords-supper-taken-only-once-a-year\/","url_meta":{"origin":45396,"position":2},"title":"Was the Lord’s Supper taken only once a year?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day. A friend of mine told me that the breaking of bread in Acts 20:7 is not the Lord's Supper or Passover because it is only a breaking of bread without the grape juice as stated in the context. The breaking of bread is a celebration of Jesus'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51913,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-isnt-the-lords-supper-taken-as-the-last-meal-of-the-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":45396,"position":3},"title":"Why isn’t the Lord’s Supper taken as the last meal of the day?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why is the Lord's Supper taken early in the day on Sunday and not in the evening? After all, supper is something that is taken in the evening. Answer: In English, \"supper\" refers to the last mean of the day. The memorial in which we remember Christ's death is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9641,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-you-give-a-sample-prayer-for-the-lords-supper\/","url_meta":{"origin":45396,"position":4},"title":"Could you give a sample prayer for the Lord’s Supper?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Could you give a sample prayer giving thanks for the communion or Lords' supper? Answer: I'm not a poetic person, so I dislike giving one of my own prayers as an example. Instead, let's focus on what a prayer before partaking of the Lord's Supper should include: The Lord's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42682,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-one-prayer-or-two-be-given-at-the-lords-supper\/","url_meta":{"origin":45396,"position":5},"title":"Should one prayer or two be given at the Lord’s Supper?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it proper to give thanks for the bread and the cup in one prayer instead of two separate prayers? I have been searching for scriptural examples that support one position or the other or both. Answer: \"And as they were eating, Jesus took bread,\u00a0blessed\u00a0and broke it, and gave\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45396\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}