Now as they were eating is almost word-for-word the same as “and as they were eating” of verse 21.

In the Greek text Jesus is specified as the subject of the verb took, since both he and Judas participated in the dialogue of verse 25.

Took … blessed … broke … gave translate the same series of four verbs used in 14.19 (see comment there) and 15.36.

Bread (so also New English Bible, New American Bible, New International Version) is translated “a loaf” by several major English translations (Moffatt, An American Translation, Phillips, Barclay); Good News Translation has “a piece of bread,” and “some bread” is the reading of Jerusalem Bible. See comment at 14.17. If Good News Bible‘s “a piece of bread” implies that the bread was already broken, then Good News Bible should not be used as a model.

The sentence Take, eat does not have an explicit direct object, but translators often say “Take this (bread) and eat it.”

The equational formula of the Greek text (this is my body) is followed by most translations. Moffatt (“it means my body”) and Barclay (“This means my body”) are the exception. Because of the ways that different churches have interpreted this clause, however, these solutions are not advisable. It is better to retain the formula of the text, that is, to say “is” here and leave it to the readers to interpret.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .