The Last Supper was NOT a Passover Meal?

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Although i believe otherwise, this was the response from a Reddit user the other day. What is a proper and concise rebuttal to this? Any additional reading on this would also be helpful. Thank you!

“The Last Supper was NOT a Passover meal. It was held on the evening of Nisan 14, in the Jewish calendar (where night precedes day), and our Savior was crucified the following day, still Nisan 14. The modern-day equivalent would be a group of friends getting together for drinks the night before Thanksgiving.“
 
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The Synoptics present it as a Passover meal, while John presents it as a meal that occurs the evening before. However, regardless, it was a Passover meal insofar as its intention (which the synoptics make clear by their connection) and it being the institution of a new passover meal for a new covenant.
 
To say it is not a Passover Meal is to ignore the meaning of the cups, see, e.g. The Fourth Cup by Scott Hahn.
 
This is essentially, Pope Benedict’s answer. He comes down on the side of John, that us likely was not a Jewish Passover, but that it was Jesus’s Passover.
 
One likely explanation is that not every Jew celebrated Passover on the same night, but that those from Galilee and other far places celebrated the night before. It makes sense considering there were so many Jews in Jerusalem at the same time, making the logistics very difficult.
 
Dan_Defender said:
One likely explanation is that not every Jew celebrated Passover on the same night, but that those from Galilee and other far places celebrated the night before. It makes sense considering there were so many Jews in Jerusalem at the same time, making the logistics very difficult.
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This is also what I have heard. Passover was not all celebrated on the same night in Jerusalem.
 
gregw74 said:
“The Last Supper was NOT a Passover meal. It was held on the evening of Nisan 14, in the Jewish calendar (where night precedes day), and our Savior was crucified the following day, still Nisan 14. The modern-day equivalent would be a group of friends getting together for drinks the night before Thanksgiving.“
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What point is he trying to prove? Is he Jewish & therefore saying Jesus did not fulfill the old covenant? Is he a Protestant who doesn’t appreciate the economy of the Mass? Is he an atheist who doesn’t understand the language?
 
I have not yet read his book, so I can’t say.

However, the post after your question contains a link to Pope Benedict’s commentary, and to Catholic Straight Answers, which references the Pope’s work.
 
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Mark 14: 12-16. And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, “Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; there prepare for us.” And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.

Jesus sent messengers ahead to prepare the room for the Passover meal.
Therefore the meal he shared with his disciples in that room was a Passover meal.
 
That it was a Passover Meal is clear, not only from the formal stages which are described (nothing like a farewell supper among friends, as one person has commented here) but also because St Paul calls the consecration the Cup of Blessing which was the name of one of the four cups drunk at a Passover meal.

Why Our Lord chose to celebrate the Passover a day early is another matter. One theory (as mentioned by another poster) is that the Galileans celebrated according to a different calendar. This would explain why Judas, a non-Galilean, was given the seat of guest-of-honour.

Another consideration may have been secrecy. Jesus knew he would be betrayed and used an earlier date in emergency circumstances.
 
Remember the public interest ad “This is your brain on drugs”? Yeah.
[Matthew 26:2]
“You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of man will be delivered up to be crucified.”

[Matthew 26:17]
Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the passover ?”

[Matthew 26:18]
He said, “Go into the city to such a one, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at your house with my disciples.’”

[Matthew 26:19]
And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the passover .
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I dunno, but I’m starting to notice a trend here…
 
Pope Benedict gives this theory a very good hearing in his book. But concludes it us not convincing.
 
Since Jesus is the Passover Lamb - the Lamb of God - and He was inaugurating the New Covenant, how could it not be a Passover meal?
 
What follows is a very brief outline of a chapter in a book by Joachim Jeremias. I find his argument very convincing and I can no longer see any reason for casting doubt on the Synoptics’ timing. Jeremias shows that John, too, was describing a Passover meal, despite what he says about the priests’ reasons for not entering the palace (Jn 18:28). In at least five other places John describes what can only be a Passover meal:

1. An evening meal beginning after dark.― This was something that happened only on special occasions, such as a wedding or a circumcision, and also the Passover meal, as laid down in Tractate Zebahim (Sacrifices) 5:8.
John 13:30, and it was night.
Mk 14:17, Mt 26:20, When evening came, …
1 Cor. 11:23, On the night he was betrayed, …
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2. They were reclining, not sitting.― Also only on special occasions, including the Passover meal. Tractate Berakot (Benedictions), five references.
John 13:23, One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him … Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, …
Mk 14:18, While they were reclining at the table, …
Mt 26:20, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve.
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3. All were ritually clean.
John 13:10, Jesus answered, “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet.”
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4. “What you are about to do, do quickly” (John 13:27-29).― Some of the Twelve thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the feast, or to give something to the poor. Nobody asked Jesus what Judas was going out to do. “Quickly” could mean “before the stores shut.” If it was 13 Nisan, there would be no such hurry.

5. Jesus does not return to spend the night at Bethany.― The night of Passover had to be spent within the Jerusalem city limits, which included the western slope of the Mount of Olives.
John 18:1, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley [to] an olive grove.
Mk 14:26, Mt 26:30, They went out to the Mount of Olives.
Lk 22:39, Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives and his disciples followed him.
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Source: Joachim Jeremias, The Eucharistic Words of Jesus, pp. 44-55. Jeremias lists several further arguments, all pointing in the same direction. I have picked out the five I find most convincing.
 
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I’m afraid that anyone who thinks they do not suffer from concupiscence is ultimately in for a shock.
 
Jeremias was a Lutheran and a radical successor of Tubingen School that followed the Quest For The Historical Jesus, which pretty much concluded that nothing about Jesus was historical…
 
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