---
title: Matthew 26:28
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-26-28/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-26-28.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Matthew 26:28
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Matthew 26:28

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "for this means my 'blood of the covenant,' which is to be poured out in behalf of many for forgiveness of sins."

## JW Usage

Matthew 26:28 grounds the Watchtower's restriction of the new covenant to the 144,000 anointed. The cup signifies "the blood of the covenant," and the new covenant is taught to be exclusively between Jehovah and "spiritual Israel." The "great crowd" benefits from the covenant indirectly without being parties to it — a distinction the Watchtower has maintained from the 1979 Watchtower through to the 2010 publication "God's Word For Us Through Jeremiah" (p. 173). The phrase "in behalf of many" is read as describing those who benefit, not those who participate.

## Protestant Usage

Pair Matthew 26:28 with Jeremiah 31:33-34 ("they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest") and Hebrews 8:10-12 (which quotes Jeremiah 31 in full). The new covenant's stated purpose here is "forgiveness of sins" — and every human needs forgiveness. If you are excluded from the covenant, you are excluded from the forgiveness it provides. Hebrews 8:6 says Jesus mediates a "better" covenant — more inclusive than Moses's, not more exclusive. The Watchtower's recasting of the cup of the new covenant as a covenant for 144,000 makes the new covenant the single most restrictive covenant in salvation history — the opposite of what "better" means.

## NWT Issue

As at v. 26, the NWT renders touto estin as "this means" rather than "this is." Standard English translations preserve "is" because Jesus's verb is the verb of identification. The NWT's "means" forecloses real-presence and covenantal-realism readings before exegesis begins, and serves the JW theology in which the cup is a memorial symbol restricted to the 144,000 rather than a participation extended to all believers.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The New Covenant Includes All Believers](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/new-covenant-anointed-only.md) — Jeremiah 31:34 / Hebrews 8:11 — 'From the Least to the Greatest' [Salvation]