Here Paul moves from rhetorical questions to a direct statement, perhaps indicating that he is moving from teaching that the Corinthians already know to newer teaching.

The present tense is suggests that Paul is thinking here, as in chapter 11, not of the last supper of Jesus himself with his disciples, but of the Lord’s Supper as people practiced it in the church of Paul’s time.

Bread: Good News Bible adds “loaf” to indicate that a single loaf is broken in the communion service, not just that those taking part eat the same type of food (ao also New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible).

We who are many may be expressed as “all of us, though many” (Good News Bible) or “all of us, no matter how many we are.”

For one body, see introduction to 12.12-31a. Here Paul is saying that as Christians share the Lord’s Supper, they become in every way one with each other and with Christ.

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .