Last Supper as a Passover meal disputed?

[SalesianSDB]

I attended a synogogue service with a friend since she had to attend one for a class and wanted company. We are both Catholics. After the service we talked to a woman from the congregation who some people said knew “as much as any rabbi.” My friend asked her about the Shabbat dinner and then made a comment of that being like communion at a Catholic Mass. I corrected my friend saying that communion is the Last Supper which was a Passover meal, not a Shabbot dinner.

When I said that the woman we were talking to said that the Last Supper was a Passover meal is uncertain.

I never heard anyone say otherwise. So I was wondering if anyone’s ever heard of this and whether it’s disputed that the Last Supper was a Passover meal.

God bless.

 

[jmjconder]

**I have attended Seder meals in past years. That is Catholic parishes enacting the Passover. I began to read a lot of Catholic and Jewish responses to this practice. I can only respond to this practice and not attending a Seder at a Jewish Synagogue. This is IMHO now.

The Last Supper was not a reenactment of the Passover…it was and is new celebration. How would faithful active Catholics react if the Jewish community reenact the Holy Eucharist/Mass.

Are the two similar…yes however not the same. If we as Catholics wish to attend the Jewish Seder than honor the Jewish history and attend one at a Synagogue.

I know may by under fire of this. Ask this? If Jesus came back would he celebrate the Passover or the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Is not Holy Week about HIM?

**

 

[midori]

Interesting. I’d never really thought about it, since I’m not as “up” on my Jewish celebrations as I could be, but looking around, there seems to be a decent argument to be made that the first Eucharist took place, in fact, at the Chagigah-- the feast the night before the Passover feast.

I don’t know about the site in general, but this article seemed pretty straightforward and made quite the compelling argument.

The part that always stuck in my head was in Luke 22:

14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”

I always sort of assumed it meant, “eat this Passover that we’re eating right now”, and “I will not eat it again” is referring to future Passovers. But the article brings up the fact that the Greek term-- epithumia epethumesa – can mean a forbidden desire, or an unfulfilled desire, etc, and consequently can be understood to mean, “I yearn to be able to eat Passover with you tomorrow, but I will be unable to eat it with you again until…”

Of course, the whole argument doesn’t hinge on that— it’s quite a small part of the larger argument about reconciling John, where the Last Supper clearly takes place before Passover, with the synoptic gospels, and using various details to p(name removed by moderator)oint the timeline-- but like I said, that was the phrase that always stuck in my head.

 

[sllhouette]

Catechism 1340

By celebrating the Last Supper with his apostles in the course of the Passover meal, Jesus gave the Jewish Passover its definitive meaning. Jesus’ passing over to his father by his death and Resurrection, the new Passover, is anticipated in the Supper and celebrated in the Eucharist, which fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the Church in the glory of the kingdom.

 

[Mark1124]

I attended a synogogue service with a friend since she had to attend one for a class and wanted company. We are both Catholics. After the service we talked to a woman from the congregation who some people said knew “as much as any rabbi.” My friend asked her about the Shabbat dinner and then made a comment of that being like communion at a Catholic Mass. I corrected my friend saying that communion is the Last Supper which was a Passover meal, not a Shabbot dinner.

When I said that the woman we were talking to said that the Last Supper was a Passover meal is uncertain.

I never heard anyone say otherwise. So I was wondering if anyone’s ever heard of this and whether it’s disputed that the Last Supper was a Passover meal.

God bless.

Yes, it is disputed. Pope Benedict discusses the issue in the second volume of Jesus of Nazareth (at the beginning of chapter 5). I highly recommend reading it-I would quote part of it for you, but I don’t own the book.

 

[JonathonofOhio]

All that I have read, indicates it was a Seder meal that Jesus had with the disciples. However, the modern day Seder meal dates back to after 70AD (after the destruction of the temple), so today’s Seder meal more than likely has differences with the one that Jesus ate with the disciples. The Gospels do not give us details, but do indicate that the breaking of the bread and the drinking of wine took place while they were eating.

Some people dispute that it was even a Seder meal at all, and that it was just a regular Jewish meal that would have consisted of unleavened bread. I highly doubt it was just a regular meal, because Christianity comes from the Law, and Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law. His entire ministry built up to that moment, and he references the Law and the prophets numerous times. Since there is such importance placed on the Passover, bread, and wine, it makes sense that it was a Seder meal Jesus ate with his disciples. It would be presumed then that they drank 4 cups of wine signifying what God promised in Exodus 6:6-7. Jesus drank the 3rd cup of the Seder meal (after which a hymn is sung), and then announced he would not drink again (the 4th cup) until he comes into his kingdom.

When he is about to die on the cross, he drinks this forth ‘cup’ (the cup of restoration), thus fulfilling his promise that he would drink it new in his Father’s Kingdom (The Hallel begins with Psalm 113), and after he does he announces that ‘it is finished’, signifying that through Him the law was fulfilled, that he is the Lamb of God, and that the Kingdom of God has come.

 

[nordskoven]

And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover? 14:13 And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him. 14:14 And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?

Mark says it is the Passover.

Even if this were not the Passover proper, would not the consecration of Christ’s Body and Blood and His ultimate crucifixion constitute the perfecting of the New and Eternal Covenant consummated in His crucifixion as the Passover Lamb? Passover is given as an eternal ordinance in the Old Testament. Forever. Not only Jews, but we, as adopted and ingrafted into the Chosen People, celebrate the New and Eternal Covenant/Passover. This is, I suggest, why the Easter duty, Mass and Confession at least annually during Easter, is a Church law.

 

[steve53]

As I understand it (Josephus), the Paschal meal was on the 14th of Nisan, and the feast of the unleavened bread began the next day and ran for seven days.

The entire festival was referred to as the Passover, and I suppose if you ate a meal during the Passover, it could be called a Passover meal. But the Paschal meal was special and singular occurrence, and this was not associated with Last Supper as described by the NT.

 

[Dave_P]

I believe that the synoptics imply that Christ is His own Passover meal.

Luke- “Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.”

Christ IS the Passover lamb. And St John states that Christ is the Lamb crucified at the same time that the lambs are slaughtered on the day before Passover to signify that He is the new Passover!

Isaiah 53: “Like a lamb led to the slaughter”

So it is a new Passover meal in it’s own right, but not necessarily a ‘Jewish’ Passover meal!

 

[Fidelis]

Jesus himself refers to the setting of the meal as Passover in Luke 22:15:

And he said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover (Greek *pascha *πάσχα]) with you before I suffer.

The phrase “Passover meal” is not in the original text (though it appears that way in some translations). As noted above, he could be referring to either the meal or the Passover season.

Dr. Brant Pitre has a very interesting podcast on this topic on his blog, The Sacred Page. It can be found here.