The Last Supper

The meal held by Christ and His disciples on the eve of His 
Passion at which He instituted the Holy Eucharist. 

TIME

The Evangelists and critics generally agree that the Last Supper 
was on a Thursday, that Christ suffered and died on Friday, and 
that He arose from the dead on Sunday. As to the day of the month 
there seems a difference between the record of the synoptic 
Gospels and that of St. John. In consequence some critics have 
rejected the authenticity of either account or of both. Since 
Christians, accepting the inspiration of the Scriptures, cannot 
admit contradictions in the sacred writers, various attempts have 
been made to reconcile the statements. Matt., xxvi 17, says, "And 
on the first day of the Azymes"; Mark, xiv, 12, "Now on the first 
day of the unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the pasch "; 
Luke, xxii, 7, " And the day of the unleavened bread came, on 
which it was necessary that the pasch should be killed". From 
these passages it seems to follow that Jesus and his disciples 
conformed to the ordinary custom, that the Last Supper took place 
on the 14th of Nisan, and that the Crucifixion was on the l5th, 
the great festival of the Jews. This opinion, held by Tolet, 
Cornelius a Lapide, Patrizi, Corluy, Hengstenberg, Ohlshausen, and 
Tholuck, is confirmed by the custom of the early Eastern Church 
which, looking to the day of the month, celebrated the 
commemoration of the Lord's Last Supper on the 14th of Nisan, 
without paying any attention to the day of the week. This was done 
in conformity with the teaching of St. John the Evangelist. But in 
his Gospel, St. John seems to indicate that Friday was the 14th of 
Nisan, for (xviii, 28) on the morning of this day the Jews "went 
not into the hall, that they might not be defiled, but that they 
might eat the pasch ". Various things were done on this Friday 
which could not be done on a feast, viz., Christ is arrested, 
tried, crucified; His body is taken down" (because it was the 
parasceve) that the bodies might not remain upon the cross on the 
sabbath day (for that was a great sabbath day)"; the shroud and 
ointments are bought, and so on. 

The defenders of this opinion claim that there is only an apparent 
contradiction and that the differing statements may be reconciled. 
For the Jews calculated their festivals and Sabbaths from sunset 
to sunset: thus the Sabbath began after sunset on Friday and ended 
at sunset on Saturday. This style is employed by the synoptic 
Gospels, while St. John, writing about twenty-six years after the 
destruction of Jerusalem, when Jewish law and customs no longer 
prevailed, may well have used the Roman method of computing time 
from midnight to midnight. The word pasch does not exclusively 
apply to the paschal lamb on the eve of the feast, but is used in 
the Scriptures and in the Talmud in a wider sense for the entire 
festivity, including the chagigah; any legal defilement could have 
been removed by the evening ablutions; trials, and even executions 
and many servile works, though forbidden on the Sabbath, were not 
forbidden on feasts (Num., xxviii, 16; Deut., xvi, 23). The word 
parasceve may denote the preparation for any Sabbath and may be 
the common designation for any Friday, and its connexion with 
pasch need not mean preparation for the Passover but Friday of the 
Passover season and hence this Sabbath was a great Sabbath. 
Moreover it seems quite certain that if St. John intended to give 
a different date from that given by the Synoptics and sanctioned 
by the custom of his own Church at Ephesus, he would have said so 
expressly. Others accept the apparent statement of St. John that 
the Last Supper was on the 13th of Nisan and try to reconcile the 
account of the Synoptics. To this class belong Paul of Burgos, 
Maldonatus, Petau, Hardouin, Tillemont, and others. Peter of 
Alexandria (P.G., XCII, 78) says: "In previous years Jesus had 
kept the Passover and eaten the paschal lamb, but on the day 
before He suffered as the true Paschal Lamb He taught His 
disciples the mystery of the type." Others say: Since the Pasch, 
falling that year on a Friday, was reckoned as a Sabbath, the 
Jews, to avoid the inconvenience of two successive Sabbaths, had 
postponed the Passover for a day, and Jesus adhered to the day 
fixed by law; others think that Jesus anticipated the celebration, 
knowing that the proper time He would be in the grave. 

PLACE

The owner of the house in which was the upper room of the Last 
Supper is not mentioned in Scripture; but he must have been one of 
the disciples, since Christ bids Peter and John say, "The Master 
says". Some say it was Nicodemus, or Joseph of Arimathea, or the 
mother of John Mark. The hall was large and furnished as a dining-
room. In it Christ showed Himself after His Resurrection; here 
took place the election of Matthias to the Apostolate and the 
sending of the Holy Ghost; here the first Christians assembled for 
the breaking of bread; hither Peter and John came when they had 
given testimony after the cure of the man born lame, and Peter 
after his liberation from prison; here perhaps was the council of 
the Apostles held. It was for awhile the only church in Jerusalem, 
the mother of all churches, known as the Church of the Apostles or 
of Sion. It was visited in 404 by St. Paula of Rome. In the 
eleventh century it was destroyed by the Saracens, later rebuilt 
and given to the care of the Augustinians. Restored after a second 
destruction, it was placed in charge of the Franciscans, who were 
driven out in 1561. At present it is a Moslem mosque. 

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

Some critics give the following harmonized order: washing of the 
feet of the Apostles, prediction of the betrayal and departure of 
Judas, institution of the Holy Eucharist. Others, believing that 
Judas made a sacrilegious communion, place the institution of the 
sacrament before the departure of Judas. 

IN ART

The Last Supper has been a favourite subject. In the catacombs we 
find representations of meals giving at least an idea of the 
Surroundings of an ancient dining hall. Of the sixth century we 
have a bas-relief in the church at Monza in Italy, a Picture in a 
Syrian codex of the Laurentian Library at Florence, and a mosaic 
in S. Apollmare Nuovo at Ravenna. One of the most popular pictures 
is that of Leonardo da Vinci in Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. 
Among the modern school of German artist, the Last Supper of 
Gebhardt is regarded as a masterpiece. 

FOUARD, The Christ, the Son of God, tr. GRIFFITH, II (London, 
1895), 386; MADAME CECILIA, Cath. Scripture Manuals; St. Matthew, 
II, 197; The Expository Times, XX (Edinburgh, 1909), 514; Theolog. 
praktische Quartalschrift (1877), 425; LANGEN, Die letzten 
Lebenstage Jesu (Freiburg, 1864), 27; KRAUS, Gesch. der chr. 
Kunst, s. v. Abendmahl; Stimmen aus Maria Laach, XLIX, 146; 
CHWOLSON in Mem. de l'Acad. imper. des Sciences de St. 
Petersbourg, 7th ser., XLI, p. 37; VIGOUROUX, Dict. de la Bible