Matthew 26:26

Matthew 26:26. Jesus took bread, and blessed it, -

Or, as the marginal reading says, "gave thanks for it," -

Matthew 26:26. And brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

That is to say, "This represents my body." Our Lord could not possibly have meant that the bread was his body, for there was his body sitting whole and entire at the table; and they would have been astonished beyond measure if they had understood him literally. But they did not do so, for they were well used too the Oriental custom of leaving out the word for "like", and just saying, "It is so-and-so." Besides, Christ had also said, "I am the door," "I am the way," "I am the good Shepherd;" and there is also that striking sentence, "I am the rose of Sharon." No idiot ever understood these passages literally; and those are more foolish than idiots who render literally these words: "This is my body." They are wickedly, and wantonly, and willfully foolish, in thus misrepresenting our Saviour’s meaning.