What Does 1 Corinthians 11:24 Mean?
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.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.THE KEY
The verse makes remembrance something you eat: bread is broken, received, and shared as the body given for you.
THE MEANING
The body is named in the bread broken and eaten for you. Remembrance takes shape in a physical act of receiving, not only in a thought held privately. What is broken becomes food that reaches the reader and can be shared.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that remembrance is only private thought: here, remembering is a repeated act of taking and eating.
THE ROOT
ἔκλασεν
eklasen
GROWS FROM
κλάω (klaō), stem κλα-
Break, including breaking bread into pieces.
“broke” in this verse is eklasen. This word family names both the act of breaking and the fragments it produces. The breaking of the loaf makes it available in portions to be received and shared.
ALSO GROWS
klasis: breaking; breaking of bread
κλάσις
The same noun names the shared practice of “breaking of bread” in Acts 2:42.
klasma: fragment; broken piece
κλάσμα
A broken loaf becomes portions that can be distributed and eaten.
ἀνάμνησιν
anamnēsin
GROWS FROM
μιμνῄσκω (mimnēskō), remembering stem μνη-/μνα-
Remember, keep in mind, or call to mind; the noun here means remembrance.
This word family also includes words for reminding or calling something to mind. With “do this” attached, remembrance takes form in a repeated, bodily act of taking and eating, not only as private recollection.
ALSO GROWS
anamimnēskō: remind; call to mind
ἀναμιμνῄσκω
This related verb makes remembering an active bringing to mind, fitting a remembrance enacted through the meal.
hypomnēsis: reminder; recollection
ὑπόμνησις
The shared stem links remembrance with a reminder that brings what is remembered into present attention.
εὐχαριστήσας
eucharistēsas
GROWS FROM
χάρις (charis) within εὐχαριστέω (eucharisteō)
Favor; the related verb εὐχαριστέω means to give thanks.
“given thanks” in this verse is eucharistēsas. The thanksgiving verb carries the word-family of favor. Here, thanks comes before the breaking and eating, so the meal is received as a gift before it is shared.
ALSO GROWS
charis: favor
χάρις
The related word names favor, placing the act of thanks beside what is freely received.
eucharistia: thanksgiving; gratitude
εὐχαριστία
This noun names thanksgiving in the same word family as the action that begins the meal.
THE PATTERN
Remembrance takes bodily form in a meal that is repeated, received, and shared.
And this day will be for you a remembrance. You will keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations, a statute for the ages.And it happened, as he lay down at table with them, that he took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and handed it to them.And they held fast in the teaching of the sent ones, and in sharing in common, and in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.THE THREAD
Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a sharing in common of the blood of the Anointed One? Is not the bread that we break a sharing in common of the body of the Anointed One?This verse uses the same Greek verb κλάω (klaō, “break”) as “brake” here, then names the bread as κοινωνία (koinōnia, “sharing in common”) in the body of Christ. It opens the taking and eating as participation in a shared body, so remembrance reaches beyond private memory.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us