The Christadelphian, July 1906, C.C. Walker

Answers to Correspondents

Christ’s Body “Broken”

C. D. writes:—“In the words often used at the breaking of bread, quoting from 1 Cor. 11., we have this statement ascribed to Christ, ‘This is my body which is broken for you.’ Can this be correct in view of the prophetic announcement, ‘Not a bone of him shall be broken,’ and which we know was literally fulfilled at the crucifixion, as corroborated in John’s gospel? Moreover the passage first quoted is the only one amongst those treating of the memorial supper which uses the word “broken” in that connection, while the R.V. omits it from the text, and one commentator (at least) I am informed, states that the original word should be better translated ‘given’ or ‘offered.’”

Answer.—Although most modern commentators omit the word klomenon (participle of the verb klao, to break off), its presence is nevertheless a matter of grammatical and doctrinal necessity. The very bald rendering of the R.V.: “This is my body which is for you,” omits the very pith of the matter, represented by Jesus in the breaking of the bread. Christ crucified is what the broken bread represents. Weymouth’s “New Testament in Modern Speech” treats the subject far more happily thus: “This is my body which is about to be broken for you; do this in remembrance of me.” And it adds in a footnote: “About to be broken]. This word (for it is only one in the Greek) is omitted by the majority of modern commentators. But in English it seems indispensable.” Truly so, as we see above. Sacrificial death is what the bread and wine represent; and the breaking of the body of Christ in crucifixion is quite compatible with the fact noted by John, that not a bone of that body was broken. The purpose of the Father was death, but not utter destruction of the Holy One. In the passover the lamb was sacrificially slain, its blood sprinkled upon the door posts, and its flesh, when roasted with fire, was eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. But no bone of it was broken. So with the Lord Jesus as the antitype of the Passover Lamb:—he was sacrificially slain, and his blood figuratively sprinkled upon himself as “the door,” and upon the worshippers “in the house” by being “in him.” These partook of his flesh and blood (John 6:54) in partaking of “the word of Christ” in “sincerity and truth” (1 Cor. 5:8), in the hope of resurrection through him. On the third day the unmutilated though broken body was revived, and the risen Christ became the pledge of eternal life for “his body,” on which Paul discourses so eloquently in this same epistle to the Corinthians.