In verses 23b-24 many translations agree with Good News Bible in having a series of main verbs—“took,” “gave thanks,” “broke,” and “said”—as in the Greek of Mark 6.41. However, Revised Standard Version‘s more literal translation shows that giving thanks to God is a preliminary act closely related to breaking the loaf. The connection between the other actions of Jesus is less close. Perhaps one can begin a new sentence with verse 24: “… took a loaf of bread. Then when he had given thanks….”

He had given thanks: “to God” (Good News Bible) is implied as in 10.16 (see the comments). The same word is used in Luke 22.19. Mark 14.22 and Matt 26.26 have “bless,” but the meaning is much the same. Jerusalem Bible makes the meaning even more explicit by translating “thanked God for it,” that is, for the loaf.

Broke it: An American Translation emphasizes this by adding “in pieces,” and this may make the meaning clearer in some languages.

For you: some manuscripts add “broken” as in King James Version, “given” as in Luke 22.19, and one manuscript even has a strong verb meaning “broken in pieces.” The weight of manuscript evidence is on the side of the shorter text for you, followed by New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New Revised Standard Version text, and Revised English Bible. However, one can fill out the meaning, as Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has done by rendering this phrase as “which is sacrificed for you.”

The pronoun This occurs twice in verse 24 and twice more in verse 25. The second time in verse 25, Good News Bible translates “so” to stress the importance of performing this ritual regularly. Do this in remembrance of me may also be rendered as “Eat this bread to make you remember me.”

In remembrance of me: the Greek word has the meaning of a memorial or reminder. As the rest of the verse shows, Paul’s thought is turned at least as much to the future as to the past. The Jews and the first Christians thought of sacred meals as events by which later generations were identified with historic events of the past, such as the exodus on the one hand, and the death and resurrection of Christ on the other. New English Bible has “as a memorial of me.” Barclay brings out the meaning using a verb: “to make you remember me.”

An alternative translation for this verse is:
• When he had thanked God, he broke the bread and said, “This is my body which is for you. Eat this bread to make you remember me.”

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 .