Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Matthew 26:27
(27) He took the cup, and gave thanks.—The better MSS. omit the article; thus making it, “a cup.” In the later ritual of the Passover, the cup of wine (or rather, of wine mingled with water) was passed round three times in the course of the supper. One such cup had been passed round early in the evening (Luke 22:17); now another becomes, under a solemn consecration, the symbol of a diviner truth than had yet been revealed to the listening and wondering disciples. read more
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Matthew 26:26
(26) As they were eating.—Again we must represent to ourselves an interval of silence, broken by the act or words that followed. The usual “grace” or blessing had been spoken at the beginning of the feast. Now, taking one of the cakes of unleavened bread, He again utters a solemn formula of blessing, and gives it to them with the words, “Take, eat, this is my body;” or, as in St. Luke’s fuller report (Luke 22:19; comp. also 1 Corinthians 11:24), “This is My body that is given for you”... read more