1 Corinthians 10:16

The cup of blessing which we bless Resumption of the argument. First reason against taking part in an idol feast. We communicate together in the Body and Blood of Christ, and we are thereby debarred from communion with any beings alien to Him; a communion into which, by the analogy of all sacrificial rites, we enter with the beings to whom such sacrifices are offered. See 1 Corinthians 10:20. The term cup of blessingis a Hebraism for the cup over which a blessing is to be pronounced, whose characteristic it is to be blessed. It was the name given to the cup over which thanks were given at the Passover. Lightfoot.

which we bless Over which we pronounce the words of blessing and thanksgiving commanded by Christ. See St Luke 22:20 and ch. 1 Corinthians 11:25.

is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? "Comynyng," Wiclif. See ch. 1 Corinthians 5:7. "The word communion is stronger than partaking," Chrysostom. The idea is that of a meal on a sacrificed victim, which is Christ Himself, the true Paschal Lamb, by feeding on Whom all who partake of Him are made sharers of His Flesh and Blood, and thus are bound together in the closest fellowship with Him. The fact of this Eucharistic feeding upon Christ is adduced as the strongest reason why Christians cannot lawfully take part in idolatrous rites. It is as impossible to excludehere the active sense of "communication" (see note on ch. 1 Corinthians 1:9), as it is to confine the word to that signification. It must be taken in the widest possible sense, as including Christ's feeding His people with His Flesh and Blood, and their joint participation in the same.

The bread which we break Calvin here characteristically contends that the Eucharistic loaf was handed from one to the other, and that each broke off his share. But it is obvious that the words are such as could be used by any minister of the Christian Church, of the solemn breaking of the bread in obedience to Christ's command. And it may be further observed that only Christ is said to have broken the bread at the first institution of the Eucharist. The Roman Catholic commentator, Estius, here, however, agrees with Calvin. The breaking of the bread, he says, was first performed "a presbyteris et diaconis," and afterwards "a caeteris fidelibus." The language of St Paul is not precise enough to enable us absolutely to decide the point.

the communion of the body of Christ Wiclif, taking; Tyndale, partaking. See note above on the communion of the Blood.