11:27 Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 11:28 A person should examine himself first, and in this way let him eat the bread and drink of the cup. 11:29 For the one who eats and drinks without careful regard for the body eats and drinks judgment against himself.

What is meant by eating and drinking ‘without careful regard for the body’?

AV – ‘not discerning the Lord’s body’
NASB – ‘if he does not judge the body rightly.’
NIV (1984) – ‘without recognizing the body of the Lord’
NIV – ‘without discerning the body of Christ’
ESV – ‘without discerning the body’
RSV, NRSV – ‘without discerning the body’
NLT – ‘without honoring the body of Christ’
GNB – ‘do not recognize the meaning of the Lord’s body’

(a) The body of Christ?

(i) For some, this would mean that Christ is mystically present in the eucharistic elements, and might even lead to a doctrine of transubstantiation.  So Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and Peter Lombard.  But this is to import an alien thought into the passage:

‘“Discerning the body” here cannot mean “perceiving the real presence of Christ in the sacramental bread”; this would be a complete non sequitur in the argument.’ (Hays)

(ii) Some older commentators think that Paul is drawing a distinction between the Lord’s Supper and other meals.  Matthew Henry:

‘The Corinthians came to the Lord’s table as to a common feast, not discerning the Lord’s body—not making a difference or distinction between that and common food, but setting both on a level: nay, they used much more indecency at this sacred feast than they would have done at a civil one’

So also Matthew Poole.

For Barnes, similarly, the fault of the Corinthians was

‘Not discriminating (μὴ διακρίνων) between the bread which is used on this occasion, and common and ordinary food. Not making the proper difference and distinction between this and common meals.’

Barrett comments that this interpretation introduces a distinction that is not present in the context.

(iii) For others, the focus is on the saving significance of Christ’s (broken) body.  Johnson:

‘The primary emphasis is on the Lord’s own physical body, not as mystically present in the bread but in the saving significance of his death and the consequent social behavior required of all who are identified with him (v. 24). Recognition of the grace of Christ and his death for all leads to social transformation: all social rankings and separations among believers are relativized when they gather for the Lord’s meal.’

In other words (as Thiselton puts it):

‘What the participants do not recognize is what it means to share in the death of Jesus “for you.”’

Barrett appears to favour this interpretation, taking ‘the body [and blood] of the Lord’ (not just ‘the body’) as read.

Gundry:

‘The immediate context of the Words of Institution favors a reference to Jesus’ physical body alone. To differentiate the Lord’s body, then, is to eat the bread symbolizing it with recognition that it differs from all other physical bodies by its having been sacrificed for the eternal salvation of others (“for you [plural]”). A recognition of its uniqueness in this all-important respect will preclude self-centered eating and drinking.’

(b) The church as the body of Christ?  So Bruce, Fee, Witherington, Hays, Blomberg, Baker and others.  Paul’s argument in this case would be that the believers were gathering for the Lord’s Supper

‘without any consideration for the most elementary implications of their fellowship in Christ’ (Bruce).

Chrysostom comments that ‘the Corinthians were disgracing themselves by turning the Lord’s Supper into a private meal’:

‘and thus depriving it of its greatest prerogative. The Lord’s Supper ought to be common to all, because it is the Master’s, whose property does not belong to one servant or to another but ought to be shared by all together.’

Counting against this interpretation is the fact that Paul has just referred to the ‘body’ (sōma) as the body of Christ himself (vv23-26).

But Fee says:

‘Most likely the term “body”, even though it comes by way of the words of institution in v. 24, deliberately recalls Paul’s interpretation of the bread in 10:17, thus indicating that the concern is with the problem in Corinth itself, of the rich abusing the poor.’

Baker (CBC):

‘Paul wanted each individual to consider honestly the way he or she was treating others in the church as a spiritual precursor to sharing in the Lord’s Supper.’

Verbrugge (EBC):

‘The Corinthians are making distinctions in the body of Christ between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots. The fact that Paul refers both to eating and drinking (twice) in this verse but mentions only the “body” of Christ (not his blood) suggests that he is now thinking primarily about the horizontal relationship of Christ’s body rather than the vertical relationship with our Savior.’

Hays:

‘For Paul, “discerning the body” means recognizing the community of believers for what it really is: the one body of Christ. Paul has already used this image for the church in 10:16–17, and he will develop it at greater length in 12:12–31a. Those who are failing to “discern the body” are those who act selfishly, focusing on their own spirituality and exercising their own social privileges while remaining heedless of those who share with them in the new covenant inaugurated by the Lord’s death.’

To summarise this interpretation:

‘To fail to recognize the church as the body of Christ by dividing it is to participate in the Lord’s Supper unworthily and thereby to incur divine judgment’ (1 Cor 11:27-33) (EDBT).

(c) Both?

According to Barclay, this phrase ‘can equally well mean two things; and each is so real and so important that it is quite likely that both are intended’:

‘(i) It may mean that the man who eats and drinks unworthily does not realize what the sacred symbols mean. It may mean that he eats and drinks with no reverence and no sense of the love that these symbols stand for or the obligation that is laid upon him.

(ii) It may also mean this. The phrase the body of Christ again and again stands for the Church; it does so, as we shall see, in 1 Cor 12. Paul has just been rebuking those who with their divisions and their class distinctions divide the Church; so this may mean that he eats and drinks unworthily who has never realized that the whole Church is the body of Christ but is at variance with his brother. Every man in whose heart there is hatred, bitterness, contempt against his brother man, as he comes to the Table of our Lord, eats and drinks unworthily. So then to eat and drink unworthily is to do so with no sense of the greatness of the thing we do, and to do so while we are at variance with the brother for whom also Christ died.’ (DSB)

Conclusion

I give my tentative support to option (b) above.