What does Scripture say about the Eucharist?

²⁶ As they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks for it, and broke it. He gave to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” ²⁷ He took the cup, gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, “All of you drink it, ²⁸ for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins.

²² As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had blessed it, he broke it and gave to them, and said, “Take, eat. This is my body.” ²³ He took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave to them. They all drank of it. ²⁴ He said to them, “This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many.

¹⁹ He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me.” ²⁰ Likewise, he took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

²³ For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread. ²⁴ When he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me.” ²⁵ In the same way he also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of me.” ²⁶ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

³² Jesus therefore said to them, “Most certainly, I tell you, it wasn’t Moses who gave you the bread out of heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread out of heaven. ³³ For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.” ³⁴ They said therefore to him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” ³⁵ Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will not be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, that anyone may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread which came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. Yes, the bread which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” ⁵² The Jews therefore contended with one another, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” ⁵³ Jesus therefore said to them, “Most certainly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you don’t have life in yourselves. ⁵⁴ He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. ⁵⁶ He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will also live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread which came down out of heaven—not as our fathers ate the manna and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.”

⁶⁰ Therefore many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying! Who can listen to it?” ⁶¹ But Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? ⁶² Then what if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? ⁶³ It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life. ⁶⁴ But there are some of you who don’t believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who didn’t believe, and who it was who would betray him. ⁶⁵ He said, “For this cause I have said to you that no one can come to me, unless it is given to him by my Father.” ⁶⁶ At this, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. ⁶⁷ Jesus said therefore to the twelve, “You don’t also want to go away, do you?” ⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

¹⁶ The cup of blessing which we bless, isn’t it a sharing of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, isn’t it a sharing of the body of Christ? ¹⁷ Because there is one loaf of bread, we, who are many, are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf of bread.

²⁷ Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in a way unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. ²⁸ But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹ For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgment to himself if he doesn’t discern the Lord’s body. ³⁰ For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.

⁴² They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer.

³⁰ When he had sat down at the table with them, he took the bread and gave thanks. Breaking it, he gave it to them. ³¹ Their eyes were opened and they recognized him; then he vanished out of their sight. ³² They said to one another, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?” ³³ They rose up that very hour, returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and those who were with them, ³⁴ saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” ³⁵ They related the things that happened along the way, and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.

¹ And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, ² This month [shall be] to you the beginning of months: it is the first to you among the months of the year. ³ Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, On the tenth of this month let them take each man a lamb according to the houses of their families, every man a lamb for his household. ⁴ And if they be few in a household, so that there are not enough for the lamb, he shall take with himself his neighbour that lives near to him,—as to the number of souls, every one according to that which suffices him shall make a reckoning for the lamb. ⁵ It shall be to you a lamb unblemished, a male of a year old: ye shall take it of the lambs and the kids. ⁶ And it shall be kept by you till the fourteenth of this month, and all the multitude of the congregation of the children of Israel shall kill it toward evening. ⁷ And they shall take of the blood, and shall put it on the two door-posts, and on the lintel, in the houses in which soever they shall eat them. ⁸ And they shall eat the flesh in this night roast with fire, and they shall eat unleavened [bread] with bitter herbs. ⁹ Ye shall not eat of it raw nor sodden in water, but only roast with fire, the head with the feet and the appurtenances. ¹⁰ Nothing shall be left of it till the morning, and a bone of it ye shall not break; but that which is left of it till the morning ye shall burn with fire. ¹¹ And thus shall ye eat it: your loins girded, and your sandals on your feet, and your staves in your hands, and ye shall eat it in haste. It is a passover to the Lord. ¹² And I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will smite every first-born in the land of Egypt both man and beast, and on all the gods of Egypt will I execute vengeance: I [am] the Lord. ¹³ And the blood shall be for a sign to you on the houses in which ye are, and I will see the blood, and will protect you, and there shall not be on you the plague of destruction, when I smite in the land of Egypt. ¹⁴ And this day shall be to you a memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord through all your generations; ye shall keep it a feast for a perpetual ordinance.

⁷ Purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place. ⁸ Therefore let’s keep the feast, not with old yeast, neither with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

¹¹ For from the rising of the sun even to the going down [thereof] my name has been glorified among the Gentiles; and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord Almighty.

¹⁸ And Melchisedec king of Salem brought forth loaves and wine, and he was the priest of the most high God.

¹⁰ We have an altar from which those who serve the holy tabernacle have no right to eat.

²⁷ who doesn’t need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself.

²⁴ For Christ hasn’t entered into holy places made with hands, which are representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; ²⁵ nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place year by year with blood not his own, ²⁶ or else he must have suffered often since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the ages, he has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷ Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment, ²⁸ so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

¹⁰ by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ¹¹ Every priest indeed stands day by day serving and offering often the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins, ¹² but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, ¹³ from that time waiting until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet. ¹⁴ For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.