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Protestant Apologetics

1 Corinthians 11:23

NT Letters
1 Corinthians 11:23
23For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread,
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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 (one loaf, one body) and ("drink from it, all of you").