---
title: 1 Corinthians 11:23
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-corinthians-11-23/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-corinthians-11-23.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 1 Corinthians 11:23
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 1 Corinthians 11:23

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread,

## JW Usage

JWs read 11:23 as Paul transmitting instructions for the Memorial observance to the first-century anointed congregation. The paradosis — "what I received from the Lord... I passed on to you" — is treated as delivered to the anointed class whose heirs in the modern era are the 144,000. The great crowd attends the annual Memorial but observes; the received instructions are not for them to act on at the table.

## Protestant Usage

Paul "received from the Lord" and passed it on "to you" — and "you" is the Corinthian congregation as a whole, not a subset. There is no language of class-restricted inheritance. The instructions that follow (the bread, the cup, the Lord's death proclaimed) are directed at the gathered church. At the door: "Paul says he handed this tradition to you — to the Corinthian church, not a subset of it. If the Watchtower limits the practice to the 144,000, it is dividing what Paul never divided." Pair with 1 Corinthians 10:16 (one loaf, one body) and Matthew 26:27 ("drink from it, all of you").

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Communion Denial](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/communion-denial.md) — Matthew 26:27 — 'Drink from It, All of You' [Salvation]