What did Jesus mean when he handed the bread and wine to his disciples, saying, according to the Authorized Version, “this is my body . . . this is my blood”? (Matt. 26:26, 28) In relating what Jesus here said, Matthew uses the Greek word es·tinʹ, commonly translated “is,” but he uses it in the sense of “signifies,” “stands for,” “imports,” “represents,” or “means.” Hence the New World Translation, in agreement with Moffatt, reads, “this means my body . . . this means my ‘blood.”’ The Charles B. Williams translation says this “represents my body . . . this represents my blood.”a

Was the loaf of bread a fitting emblem or symbol of Jesus’ literal fleshly body? Yes, for it was unleavened Passover bread. It was free of leaven or yeast, which at times pictures sin and hypocrisy. (Matt. 16:6, 11, 12; Luke 12:1; 1 Cor. 5:7-11) The unleavened loaf fittingly represented the holy and perfect one, Jesus, who was “guileless, undefiled, separated from the sinners” and free of all hypocrisy.​—Heb. 7:26; Luke 1:35; 1 Pet. 2:22.

When Jesus’ faithful apostles partook of the bread, they were deriving some nourishment from it. And nourishment is associated with life and existence. Accordingly, acceptance of what the bread represents is comparable to partaking of life-sustaining food. Hence, with reference to the benefits that the sacrifice of his fleshly body would bring, Jesus said of himself: “I am the bread of life. . . . This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread he will live forever; and, for a fact, the bread that I shall give is my flesh in behalf of the life of the world.”​—John 6:48-51; Heb. 10:10.