Passage

Luke 22.19

Book: Luke · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Verse

ASV:

"19. And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and gave to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me." (Luke 22:19, ASV)

WEB:

"19. He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me.”" (Luke 22:19, WEB)

KJV:

"19. And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me." (Luke 22:19, KJV)

YLT:

"19. And having taken bread, having given thanks, he brake and gave to them, saying, 'This is my body, that for you is being given, this do ye, to remembrance of me.'" (Luke 22:19, YLT)

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV:

"17. And he received a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves: 18. for I say unto you, I shall not drink from henceforth of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come. 19. And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and gave to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. 20. And the cup in like manner after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, even that which is poured out for you. 21. But behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table." (Luke 22:17-21, ASV)

WEB:

"17. He received a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, “Take this, and share it among yourselves, 18. for I tell you, I will not drink at all again from the fruit of the vine, until God’s Kingdom comes.” 19. He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me.” 20. Likewise, he took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. 21. But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table." (Luke 22:17-21, WEB)

KJV:

"17. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves: 18. For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come. 19. And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. 20. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you. 21. But, behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table." (Luke 22:17-21, KJV)

YLT:

"17. And having taken a cup, having given thanks, he said, 'Take this and divide to yourselves, 18. for I say to you that I may not drink of the produce of the vine till the reign of God may come.' 19. And having taken bread, having given thanks, he brake and gave to them, saying, 'This is my body, that for you is being given, this do ye, to remembrance of me.' 20. In like manner, also, the cup after the supping, saying, 'This cup [is] the new covenant in my blood, that for you is being poured forth. 21. 'But, lo, the hand of him delivering me up [is] with me on the table," (Luke 22:17-21, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Jesus at the Last Supper, the night of His betrayal
Audience: the Twelve disciples (Judas Iscariot still present at the table per v. 21)
Location: the upper room in Jerusalem (Luke 22:10-13, a furnished upper room arranged for the Passover)
Time period: Thursday evening, Nisan 14 / 15 (depending on chronology), AD 30 or 33; composed c. AD 60-80
Narrative context: the institution of the Lord's Supper / Eucharist at the Last Supper, which is also the Passover meal (per Luke 22:7-16). Luke's narrative differs slightly from Matthew/Mark in including a first cup (vv. 17-18) before the bread, then the bread (v. 19), then the cup after supper (v. 20). The supper takes place in the context of Passover, the OT commemorative-meal of the Exodus, when YHWH delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage through the blood of the Passover lamb. Jesus redefines the Passover meal as His own memorial-meal: His body the broken bread, His blood the poured-out cup. The Christological hermeneutic is striking, He IS the new-Passover-lamb whose death will accomplish a greater exodus from sin's bondage.

Theological reading

Luke 22:19 is the principal institution-text of the Christian Eucharist / Lord's Supper / Communion / Holy Mass, the rite that has been central to Christian worship from the earliest church (cf. Acts 2:42, 46, "breaking of bread") through every century since. The verse contains three theologically loaded claims: (a) "This is my body", the identification of the bread with Christ's body; (b) "which is given for you", the substitutionary-atonement framing of the body-giving; (c) "this do in remembrance of me", the institution of an ongoing ritual remembrance.

"This is my body", the four-tradition dispute

The interpretation of "This is my body" (touto estin to sōma mou) is one of the most contested theological questions in Christian history. Four major positions:

1. Transubstantiation (Roman Catholic). The bread and wine are substantially transformed into the body and blood of Christ at the moment of consecration, while the accidents (taste, appearance, chemical composition) remain those of bread and wine. The Mass is a re-presentation of Christ's sacrifice (not a re-sacrificing) and the believer who receives the consecrated elements receives the actual body and blood of Christ. Anchored in Aquinas's Aristotelian-substance metaphysics; defined dogmatically at the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) and the Council of Trent (1551).

2. Consubstantiation / sacramental union (Lutheran). The body and blood of Christ are truly present with, in, and under the bread and wine, but the bread and wine remain truly bread and wine. The Lutheran formula: "in, with, and under" the elements. Luther rejected transubstantiation but maintained the real-presence claim.

3. Spiritual presence (Reformed / Calvinist). Christ is spiritually but really present in the Supper to those who receive in faith. The believer is lifted up by the Spirit to commune with the ascended Christ; the elements are signs and seals of Christ's body and blood, not the substance itself. Calvin's distinctive contribution, between Lutheran realism and Zwinglian symbolism.

4. Memorialism / symbolism (Zwinglian / Baptist / much-of-evangelical). The bread and wine are symbols / memorials of Christ's body and blood; no real-presence claim is made. The Supper is primarily a remembrance of Christ's death, a faith-strengthening reminder, but not a means-of-grace in itself.

The Christian Eucharistic-traditions intersect with broader theological commitments: sacramentology (what is a sacrament?), Christology (how does the ascended Christ relate to the elements?), and ecclesiology (who can administer / receive?). The four positions correspond to different broader theological frameworks.

The "given for you", substitutionary atonement

The phrase to hyper hymōn didomenon, "the [body] for-you being-given", uses the substitutionary hyper preposition + the present-passive participle. The Lukan-specific reading: the body is being given (continuous/present-tense participial), implying that the giving-of-the-body is currently happening in the Last Supper context (anticipating the cross within hours).

The atonement framing: Christ's body is given substitutionarily, in the place of, for the benefit of, the disciples. The Last Supper anticipates Calvary; Calvary fulfills what the Last Supper announces. See Penal Substitutionary Atonement and Atonement Theory Spread.

"This do in remembrance of me", anamnēsis

The Greek eis tēn emēn anamnēsin, "unto my remembrance", uses the noun anamnēsis (ἀνάμνησις), a deliberate / active remembering. The word appears in the OT (LXX Lev 24:7; Num 10:10) for the cultic-memorial sacrifices that recalled God's covenant-acts.

Christian Eucharistic theology has debated whether anamnēsis is:

Mere mental recall (the Zwinglian / memorialist reading)
A re-presenting of the historical event so that its efficacy is communicated to the present (the Catholic / some Anglican reading)
A covenant-renewing communion in the faith-presence of the risen Christ (the Reformed reading)

The Greek vocabulary is consistent with all three readings; the broader theological framework disambiguates.

Three NT institution accounts + Pauline

The institution of the Lord's Supper appears in four NT texts:

Matthew 26:26-29
Mark 14:22-25
Luke 22:14-20
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (Paul's earliest written reference, c. AD 53-54, predating the gospels in writing)

The Pauline 1 Cor 11:23-26 explicitly traces the institution-tradition back to Jesus Himself: "For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread..." The four-text convergence + the early-Pauline attestation establishes that the Lord's-Supper institution is among the most historically-secure dominical traditions in the NT.

The Passover background

The Last Supper is a Passover meal (per Luke 22:7-16). The Christological implication: Jesus is the new-Passover-lamb. The OT Passover (Exodus 12) involved:

A spotless lamb selected, examined, and killed
The blood placed on the doorposts so the angel-of-death would pass over
The body of the lamb eaten in covenant-fellowship

Jesus's institution of the Lord's Supper deliberately maps onto this:

The spotless lamb (1 Pet 1:19, "a lamb without blemish and without spot")
The blood poured out (cf. v. 20, "the new covenant in my blood")
The body eaten (v. 19, "this is my body... do this in remembrance")

The cross becomes the new-exodus from sin's bondage; the Lord's Supper becomes the ongoing covenant-meal commemorating it.

The "do this", ongoing institution

The imperative touto poieite, "this do [keep doing]", is present-tense, indicating ongoing repetition. The Lord's Supper is not a one-time event but a repeated ordinance / sacrament of the church. This institutes Christian-corporate practice that continues to the parousia (cf. 1 Cor 11:26, "as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come").

Patristic and Reformed reading

Ignatius of Antioch (To the Smyrnaeans 7, c. AD 110): the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ. Early-patristic real-presence language is high.

Justin Martyr (First Apology 65-67, c. AD 155): describes the Sunday Eucharist of the early church, with explicit real-presence affirmations.

Augustine (various sermons and On Christian Doctrine 3.16): the Eucharist is a sign that effects what it signifies, the sacramental-realist position that influences both Lutheran and Reformed traditions.

Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologiae III, qq. 73-83, c. AD 1265-1274): systematic Aristotelian-substance theology of transubstantiation.

Martin Luther (The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, 1520; That These Words of Christ "This Is My Body" Still Stand Firm, 1527): defense of real-presence against Zwingli's symbolic-only reading; insists on the literal force of "This IS my body."

John Calvin (Institutes 4.17): articulation of the Reformed spiritual-presence position, distinct from both transubstantiation and bare-symbolism.

Ulrich Zwingli (Friendly Exegesis, 1527; the Marburg Colloquy with Luther, 1529): defense of the symbolic-only reading; "this is" read as "this represents" parallel to other figurative-language uses.

Apologetic and pastoral deployment

The verse is foundational for:

The historical-evidential anchor for Jesus's pre-passion atonement-consciousness. Jesus's institution of the Lord's Supper before the cross establishes that He understood His coming death as substitutionary atonement for many. The institution-language is incompatible with reading Jesus as merely-victim-of-Roman-politics; He clearly anticipated and gave atonement-significance to His death.
Defense against the pagan-mystery-religion-borrowing claim. Skeptics sometimes claim the Eucharist was borrowed from pagan mystery religions (Mithras, Dionysus, Attis). Counter: the Lord's Supper has clear Jewish-Passover background, not Greco-Roman mystery-cult background. The institution-narrative is rooted in Jewish covenant-meal practice, not pagan ritual. (See for the apologetic case.)
The unity-of-the-church anchor. Despite massive denominational diversity, virtually every Christian tradition continues to practice some form of the Lord's Supper as instituted by Jesus. The Eucharist is one of the most enduring unities across the broader Christian church.
Pastoral ground for grace. The Lord's Supper is one of the principal means by which Christians experientially appropriate the gospel, the broken-body-given-for-you and the new-covenant-poured-out-for-you are tangibly received in the church's central rite.

Trinitarian / Oneness reading

Both traditions affirm the Lord's Supper as instituted by Christ. The theological elaboration may vary on real-presence questions, but the centrality of the rite is shared. See Trinity vs Oneness vs Modalism vs Arianism.

Canonical-theological connections

Matthew 26:26-29 / Mark 14:22-25, Synoptic parallels
1 Corinthians 11:23-26, Pauline institution-tradition + theological exposition
John 6:48-58, the Bread-of-Life discourse (Johannine Eucharistic echo)
Exodus 12, Passover institution (OT background)
Jeremiah 31:31-34, new covenant promise (the "new covenant in my blood" of v. 20)
Isaiah 53:12, Suffering Servant poured-out-soul (rich hub)
Hebrews 9-10, extended Christological-atonement reflection
Acts 2:42, 46, early-church "breaking of bread"
1 Corinthians 10:16-17, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?"
Revelation 19:9, the marriage supper of the Lamb (eschatological Eucharist fulfillment)

Key words

G4983 - soma, soma (Strong's G4983). Also appears in: Matthew 6.25-26, Matthew 10.28, Matthew 27.59-60.