Luke 22:20

Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(20) This cup is the new testament in my blood.—Better, New Covenant. The adjective is, in the best MSS., peculiar to St. Luke, as also is the “shed for you” instead of “shed for many.” The participle is in the present tense, which is being shed, like the being given, in Luke 22:19. St. Paul and St. Luke agree in placing the giving of the cup “after they had supped.” (See Note on Matthew 26:28.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

22:19,20 The Lord's supper is a sign or memorial of Christ already come, who by dying delivered us; his death is in special manner set before us in that ordinance, by which we are reminded of it. The breaking of Christ's body as a sacrifice for us, is therein brought to our remembrance by the breaking of bread. Nothing can be more nourishing and satisfying to the soul, than the doctrine of Christ's making atonement for sin, and the assurance of an interest in that atonement. Therefore we do this in rememberance of what He did for us, when he died for us; and for a memorial of what we do, in joining ourselves to him in an everlasting covenant. The shedding of Christ's blood, by which the atonement was made, is represented by the wine in the cup.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the notes at Matthew 26:26-28.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

17. took the cup—the first of several partaken of in this service.

divide it among, &c.—that is, It is to be your last as well as Mine, "until the Kingdom of God come," or as it is beautifully given in Mt 26:29, "until that day when I shall drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." It was the point of transition between two economies and their two great festivals, the one about to close for ever, the other immediately to open and run its majestic career until from earth it be transferred to heaven.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 22:15"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Likewise also the cup after supper,.... Both after the passover, and the Lord's supper; that is, he took the cup after they had eaten the bread, and gave thanks over it, and gave it to his disciples, bidding them drink of it, as in Matthew 26:27, See Gill on Matthew 26:27,

saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you. The Ethiopic version reads, "for many"; as in Matthew 26:28 where it is added, "for the remission of sins"; See Gill on Matthew 26:28.

Geneva Study Bible

Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This {g} cup is {h} the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.

(g) Here is a double use of metonymy: for first, the vessel is taken for that which is contained in the vessel, as the cup is spoken of for the wine which is within the cup. Second, the wine is called the covenant or testament, whereas in reality it is but the sign of the testament, or rather of the blood of Christ by which the testament was made: neither is it a vain sign, although it is not the same as the thing that it represents.

(h) This word the shows the excellency of the testament, and corresponds to Jer 31:31 where the new testament is promised.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

20. the new testament] Hence the name of the New Testament. The word Diatheke (Heb. Berith) means both a will, and an agreement or covenant, see Jeremiah 31:31. “It contains all the absolute elements of the one, with the conditional elements of the other. Hence the New Testament (kaine Diatheke) is the revelation of a new relation on God’s part with the conditions necessary to its realisation on man’s part.” Fairbairn.

in my blood] i.e. ratified by my blood shed for you. The best comment is Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 9:18-22; 1 Corinthians 11:25. The other Synoptists have “my blood of the New Testament.”

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 22:20. Ὡσαύτως, in like manner) Therefore we ought not either to separate or to confound the two parts of the Holy Supper; as if the bread were sufficient without the cup, or as if the blood were already received with [that is, in the receiving of] the body.[233] The ancients esteemed it unmannerly to eat bread as if one were drinking it (“panem bibere,” to swallow it, as a thirsty person would, a drink): and it is not our part either, to eat the drink of the Lord (the cup of the Lord given us to drink).—τὸ ποτήριον, the cup) viz. He took and gave. The τὸ has the force of a relative referring back to Luke 22:17, where the cup is mentioned along with the wine (“the fruit of the vine,” Luke 22:18). For a noun, when employed twice, very often on its first introduction has no article [ΔΕΞΆΜΕΝΟς ΠΟΤΉΡΙΟΝ, Luke 22:17]; whereas, when next it occurs, it has the article. Matthew 2:1; Matthew 2:7 [ΜΆΓΟΙ—ΤΟῪς ΜΆΓΟΥς]; 1 Corinthians 8:1; Hebrews 2:8.—ΜΕΤᾺ ΤῸ ΔΕΙΠΝῆΣΑΙ) after the supper, not the Sacramental Supper: thus making a transition to greater subjects, and those about to be the last events.—ἡ καινὴ διαθήκη ἐν τῷ αἵματί μου, the New Testament in My blood) This is equivalent to that phrase, My blood, which is of the New Testament. [Matthew 26:28] Comp. note on 1 Corinthians 10:16.[234] So we find the expression, the promise of the Spirit, i.e. the Spirit that was promised, Galatians 3:14.—τὸ ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν ἐκχυνόμενον, which is being poured out [shed] for you. This forms part of the Predicate (for the full cup is not “poured out,” but is drunk off), and is joined with the clause, ἐν τῷ αἵματί μου, in My blood, by apposition; cases similar to this occur, 2 Corinthians 8:23 [Apposition of the Genitive and Nominative, εἴτε ὑπὲρ Τίτου, κοινωνὸς ἐμός, etc.], Luke 11:28, where see the note; Revelation 1:5; LXX. Leviticus 6:8, Al. 15; Genesis 21:33 [ΤῸ ὌΝΟΜΑ ΚΥΡΊΟΥ, ΘΕῸς ΑἸΏΝΙΟς]; Deuteronomy 33:16.

[233] i.e. In receiving the bread; which, according to the Romish doctrine of ‘concomitance,’ not only contains the very body, but also the blood.—E. and T.

[234] He who partakes of this cup partakes of the New Testament sealed with the blood of Christ, and is a spiritual partaker of the body and blood of Christ Himself.—E. and T.

Luke 22:20

Vincent's Word Studies

The cup

See on Mark 14:23.

Testament (διαθήκη) - shed

See on Matthew 26:28.