1 Corinthians 10:16,17 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The cup of blessing In the Lord's supper, the sacramental cup; which we bless Set apart to a sacred use, solemnly invoking the blessing of God upon it. Dr. Macknight renders the original expression, ο ευλογουμεν, for which we bless God, a sense which he thinks is sanctioned by 1 Corinthians 11:24, “where this blessing is interpreted by the giving of thanks. And he considers it as denoting the whole communicants' joining together in blessing God over the cup, for his mercy in redeeming the world through the blood of Christ. Thus both Luke and Paul, in their account of the institution, express this part of the action by ευχαριστησας, having given thanks. And hence the service itself hath long borne the name of the eucharist, or thanksgiving, by way of eminence.” Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The means of our partaking of those invaluable benefits which are the purchase of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break And which was appointed in the first institution of the ordinance for this purpose; is it not the communion of the body of Christ? In the like sense? That is, the means and token of our sharing in the privileges which he procured by the offering up of his body for us, to be torn, broken, and put to death. For we, being many, are yet, as it were, one bread One loaf, as the word αρτος often signifies, and is translated, Matthew 16:9; where Jesus asks, Do ye not remember the five αρτους, loaves, of the five thousand? and Matthew 4:3, Command that these stones be made, αρτους, loaves. The sense is, It is this communion which makes us all one: by partaking of one and the same bread, we are united and formed into one mystical body. “This account of the Lord's supper, the apostle gave to show the Corinthians, that as by eating thereof, the partakers declare they have the same object of worship, the same faith, the same hope, and the same dispositions with the persons whom they join in that act of religion, and that they will follow the same course of life; so, in all reasonable construction, by eating the sacrifices of idols, the partakers declare they are of the same faith and practice with the worshippers of idols, that they have the same objects of worship with them, and that they expect to share with them in the benefits to be derived from that worship.”