Received from the Lord: The Bread, Cup, and New Covenant

Paul passes on a tradition he says he “received of the Lord”: on the night Jesus was betrayed, he took bread, gave thanks, identified it with his body, and commanded remembrance; likewise the cup is “the new testament [covenant] in my blood.” This is one of the earliest written witnesses to Jesus’ final-meal tradition.

The new-covenant language reaches back to Jeremiah 31, while covenant blood also recalls Sinai in Exodus 24. Paul’s wording is Christ-centered and eschatological: every celebration “shew[s] the Lord’s death till he come.” The table looks backward to the cross and forward to Jesus’ return.