22:17-20 verses 17, 18, 19, 20 {B}
These four verses appear in the traditional order in the majority of
Greek manuscripts, including the oldest surviving copies and early translations
𝔓75 01 02 03 04 etc.). They present an unusual form of the institution
narrative, with a cup of wine and bread before the meal followed by another cup
after the meal. Although this strong external attestation for what seems to be a
more difficult reading has led to its adoption in the editorial text, this has
been questioned: some suggest that the second cup with the result of an attempt
to bring Luke into correspondence with the other accounts of the Last Supper (1
Cor. 11:23-26, Mark 14:22-25; Matt. 26:26-29), not least because Luke 22:19b-20
corresponds closely to 1 Cor. 11:24b-25 and contrasts with Lukan style. A
shorter reading is seen in Codex Bezae and some Old Latin manuscripts, which
lack the second half of Luke 22:19 and all of Luke 22:20 (το υπερ ημων . . . εκχυνομενον, ‘which is given for you . . . poured out
for you . . . in my blood’), and with it the problematic description of a
second cup: this is one of the ‘Western non-interpolations’) . . . The most
variant tradition is the Syriac: The Curetonian Syriac has the verses in the
order 19, 17, 18, resulting in the bread followed by a single cup (but with
part of 1 Cor. 11:24 added to the first verse); the Sinaitic Syriac displays
the same order with parts of verse 20 distributed in between; the Peshitta and
some Coptic manuscripts only have verses 19 and 20 (the bread followed by a cup
after the meal). Given that all the variants match the order of the other
institution narratives, they are usually considered to be later corrections
inspired by ecclesiastical practice. Nevertheless, the possibility that even
the earliest attested text of Luke had also been subject to this sort of
interference, leading to its peculiar form, cannot entirely be discounted. (H.
A. G. Houghton, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament: A Companion
to the Sixth Edition of the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament [Stuttgart:
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2025], 178-79)
