Why doesn't John's Gospel have a eucharistic scene at the Last Supper

[johnbres2]

Most of the scriptural support for the Real Presence doctrine comes from John’s Bread of Life discourses in chapter 6. Yet John is the only Gospel writer who omits a description of this Last Supper events in which Jesus actually serves the apostles the bread and wine. If John was an eyewitness to all of this (as we believe) why would he have omitted the Last Supper scene from the synoptics?

 

[TimothyH]

Most of the scriptural support for the Real Presence doctrine comes from John’s Bread of Life discourses in chapter 6. Yet John is the only Gospel writer who omits a description of this Last Supper events in which Jesus actually serves the apostles the bread and wine. If John was an eyewitness to all of this (as we believe) why would he have omitted the Last Supper scene from the synoptics?

John’s Gospel was written much later than the other three and the last supper narrative had been covered already. Belief that bread became Jesus’ flesh and the need to eat that flesh was firmly established by the time John wrote the fourth Gospel. There simply wasn’t a need to cover these things again.

How the first Christians were able to recognize Jesus crucifixtion as a Passover sacrifice and not just another brutal Roman execution and how they were able to almost immediately understand the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a fascinating subject, covered in “Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist” by Dr. Brant Pitre. It is an easy read and every Catholic should read it at least once.

-Tim-

 

[johnbres2]

Great answer. Thanks, I should have thought of that. Peace.

 

[TimothyH]

Great answer. Thanks, I should have thought of that. Peace.

I should have added that John’s focus was very “Pastoral”, if it can be put that way.

While Matthew, Mark and Luke were interested in showing Jesus as the New Moses, a King from the Davidic line, the fulfillment of the promises given to Abraham, and their focus was “Jewish” things such as the passover, the Exodus, and temple sacrifice, John was writing for a different purpose. He was edifying his Church, teaching them to become followers of God, and teaching them how to get to heaven.

John wrote to the Church. The Church was his audience. He is a true pastor. That’s why it is so beautiful.

-Tim-

 

[pablope]

Most of the scriptural support for the Real Presence doctrine comes from John’s Bread of Life discourses in chapter 6. Yet John is the only Gospel writer who omits a description of this Last Supper events in which Jesus actually serves the apostles the bread and wine. If John was an eyewitness to all of this (as we believe) why would he have omitted the Last Supper scene from the synoptics?

John’s gospel was written much later than the first three…there was already a belief in the RP…he wrote his gospel to supplement the other three…and he confirmed the info in them.

 

[Lion_of_Narnia]

If I’m permitted, let me quote myself from this thread: forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=697712
“Modernist New Testament scholarship commonly claims the Bread of Life discourse is not about the Eucharist because John doesn’t describe the Eucharist in his Last Supper account. This claim in turn rests on the unsupported assertion that the author of the gospel was at least unfamiliar, if not totally unaware, of any of the synoptic gospels. If the gospel’s author didn’t describe the Eucharist, then it wasn’t important to him, hence the 6th chapter cannot be about the Eucharist. This supposition is further based on several other assertions with no evidence, including the gospels were “community creations” of isolated churches, rather than the work of individuals close to the events described, and that these “believing communities” had little or no interest in actual historical events regarding their Savior’s life. Not only do these assertions upon assertions ignore what we actually know about the 1st Century Roman Empire (travel was common and the mail delivery secure) they also actively contradict the testimony of the Early Church Fathers regarding to authorship and dating of the gospels and epistles. From Clement of Alexandria, we learn that John was quite aware of the synoptics, and composed his gospel (assisted by another apostle, Andrew) to produce a more “spiritual” gospel—meaning one with Jesus’ strait forward sermons and theological declarations about the things of spirit; John recounting these, in large part, to refute the Gnostics. The fact John consistently did not cover the same ground as the synoptic gospels is strong evidence he was intimately familiar with them, which would not have been the case if he (or for the utterly suppositional “Johanine Community”) had been composing it only from a common stream of oral testimony.”