The Lord's Supper

Thomas R. Schreiner, Matthew R Crawford, Thomas R. Schreiner, Matthew R Crawford

• Publisher: B&H Academic
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781433673382
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

"As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, 'Take and eat it; this is My body.'" -Matthew 26: 26 (HCSB)

A follow-up to Believer's Baptism in the New American Commentary Studies in Bible & Theology series, The Lord's Supper explores the current Baptist view of the communion sacrament. Contributors include Andreas Köstenberger ("The Lord's Supper as a Passover Meal"), Jonathan Pennington ("The Last Supper in the Gospels"), Jim Hamilton ("The Lord's Supper in Paul"), and Michael Haykin ("Communion in the Early Church"). Adding a helpful perspective, chapters are also provided on the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, and Zwinglian views of communion.

WAS THE LAST SUPPER A PASSOVER MEAL?

Andreas J. Köstenberger*

Introduction

For close to 2,000 years, Christians have celebrated the Lord’s Supper, an ordinance instituted by Jesus in the Upper Room the night before His crucifixion. That Jesus ate this meal with His disciples is widely acknowledged. What is not as commonly agreed upon, however, is the nature of the meal. Was Jesus’ Last Supper the annual Passover meal observed by the Jews, or was it some other kind of meal that sustained no direct demonstrable connection with Israel’s Passover? On the surface, this question may seem inconsequential. At a closer look, however, numerous historical, biblical, and theological factors emerge that significantly affect our understanding of the Lord’s Supper. This essay examines the biblical data in order to determine what kind of meal Jesus ate with His disciples the night before He died. Was it, or was it not, a Passover meal?

In an effort to address this matter, the following topics will need to be explored. First, in order to gauge the significance of the question, we will investigate the issues at stake in identifying the type of meal Jesus ate with His disciples. Second, we will take a look at the OT background of the Passover in order to acquire the proper historical lens for assessing the NT data. Third, we will address specific arguments by those who suggest that Jesus’ Last Supper was not a Passover meal and provide responses that argue for its paschal nature. Finally, we will consider Gospel evidence that favors a paschal interpretation of the Last Supper. The overall picture that will emerge from this investigation will suggest that Jesus did indeed eat a Passover meal with His disciples.

The Issues at Stake

Jesus’ Last Supper with His disciples is recorded in all three of the Synoptic Gospels (Matt 26:17–30; Mark 14:12–26; Luke 22:7–38), where it is clearly portrayed as a Passover meal (Mark 14:12: “On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrifice the Passover lamb, His disciples asked Him, ‘Where do You want us to go and prepare the Passover so You may eat it?’”; Luke 22:7–8: “Then the Day of Unleavened Bread came when the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, ‘Go and prepare the Passover meal for us, so we can eat it’”; cf. Josephus, Ant. 16.6.2 §§163–64),¹ a meal that took place on the Thursday night before Jesus was crucified the next day (Friday). When one turns the page from Luke’s to John’s Gospel, however, some contend that the picture appears to change.

According to John’s timeline (13:1), Jesus and His disciples celebrated the Last Supper the day before Jesus stood trial before Pilate (18:28–19:16). For John, this trial seems to have taken place prior to the Jewish Passover meal: “It was early morning. They did not enter the headquarters themselves; otherwise they would be defiled and unable to eat the Passover” (18:28b). If the Jews had not yet eaten the Passover when they tried Jesus, it is argued, Jesus could not have eaten the Passover with His disciples the night before. In apparent further confirmation of this, John states that Jesus’ Last Supper took place “before the Passover Festival” (13:1) and that Jesus’ crucifixion took place on “the preparation day for the Passover” (19:14), that is, on the day before Passover (i.e., Thursday). Thus, for John, it is argued, Jesus ate His Last Supper with His disciples on the Wednesday night of Passion Week (Nisan 14), twenty-four hours before the official celebration of the Passover meal, and Jesus was crucified on Thursday (Nisan 15).

The primary point of tension between the Synoptics and John, then, is readily apparent. The Synoptic writers seem to say that Jesus’ Last Supper constituted a Passover meal, which would have fallen on Thursday night of Passion Week, with the crucifixion having occurred the next day (Friday). John, however, appears to suggest that Jesus ate His Last Supper the day before the Passover meal, which would have fallen on Wednesday night of Passion Week, with the crucifixion having occurred on the next day (Thursday). For those who adhere to a high view of Scripture, these apparent contradictions are certainly significant and raise important questions that need to be addressed: Do the accounts of Jesus’ Last Supper in the Synoptics and John contradict one another? If so, did John alter the Synoptic tradition for theological reasons? Or was Jesus’ Last Supper with His disciples but a normal meal which the Synoptics and/or John invested with Passover symbolism in order to validate their particular theology of the cross?

The issues at stake, then, are weighty indeed. First, discerning the type of meal Jesus ate with the disciples the night before His crucifixion has a bearing on the issue of biblical inerrancy. If John and the Synoptics are found to contradict one another with regard to the dating of the Last Supper and the type of meal Jesus observed with His disciples, it would follow that John, the Synoptics, or both are in error. Second, there is the related question concerning the historical reliability of the Gospel traditions. If John, the Synoptics, or both are in error, then one or both are historically unreliable, that is, their record of events does not correspond to what actually happened. Third, if the Last Supper was not a Passover meal, it would be necessary to reassess the theological significance of the Passover for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper as it has been conceived throughout church history.² The first step, then, in addressing this issue involves an investigation of the OT origin of the Passover.

The Old Testament Origins of the Passover

The Passover was a seminal and constitutive event in the formation of Israel’s identity as a nation (Exodus 12, esp. vv. 1–13; cf. Deut 16:1–8).³ While Moses and the Israelites were chafing under Egyptian bondage, God inflicted a series of plagues on the Egyptians in order to compel Pharaoh to release the Israelites. The tenth and final plague brought a death angel over Egypt to kill every firstborn male, except in houses whose doorframes were smeared with lamb’s blood. When the angel saw the blood, he “passed over” that particular dwelling, leaving the firstborn male unharmed.⁴

This plague marked a turning point in Jewish history, not only as a historical event that triggered Israel’s exodus from Egypt, but also in the tradition that it began. This tradition became known as “Passover” and has been celebrated yearly by Jews on the fourteenth day of the lunar month Nisan, which marked the beginning of the festal calendar and specifically the onset of the Festival of Unleavened Bread. It was no different in Jesus’ day. Passover represented an annual celebration in Jerusalem that all men were expected to attend (cf. Deut 16:5–6). As a result, “Large numbers of worshippers from the outlying provinces of Palestine (Luke 2:41–42) and the Diaspora (Acts 2:5) filled the capital city” (cf. Josephus, J.W. 2.1.3 §10).⁵ This week of festivities, then, provided the setting for Jesus’ Last Supper. The question at hand, therefore, is on what particular day of these festivities Jesus ate the Last Supper.

Arguments that the Last Supper Was Not a Passover Meal

In light of the issues at stake and against the above-sketched OT background, we now turn our attention to common arguments that Jesus’ Last Supper was not a Passover meal. These arguments are presented in canonical order as they relate to the Synoptics, John, Acts, and Paul. Subsequent to the presentation of a given argument, a response is provided that typically underscores the likelihood that Jesus’ Last Supper was in fact a Passover meal.⁶

The Synoptics

Although, as mentioned, the Synoptics clearly call the Last Supper a Passover meal (Matt 26:17–30; Mark 14:12–26; Luke 22:7–38), some scholars still contend that it was not.⁷ This argument is based on the premise that Matthew, Mark, and Luke label the Supper a Passover meal, although the actual historical meal did not occur on the night of Passover. The evangelists, some maintain, portrayed the Supper as a Passover because they were either mistaken or took theo...