The Last Supper & The Eucharist

The Old Covenant Relates to the New Covenant

Jesus came to offer a New Covenant, but what does this really mean?  In order to understand what is being presented in the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke and the Gospel of John, one must look at the Old Covenant presented in the Old Testament.  It is through this exegesis that we can truly understand the New Testament and the New Covenant that Jesus has instituted.

Exegesis

Before we begin to examine these passages and how they relate to one another, it is important to understand a few different types of exegesis as defined by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger—Pope Benedict XVI.  Cardinal Ratzinger talks about three methods of exegesis in his Erasmus Lecture.  These methods are Method A (Patristic-Medieval), Method B (Historical-Critical Method) and Method C.  In brief, Method A is how the Church Fathers looked at scripture and is more spiritual in nature which allowed them to “discern the voice of Christ with it.”¹  Method B is a more modern method and as Historical-Critical suggests leans more toward an actual literal sense of what scripture is saying and toward a more historical Jesus than the faith Jesus in Method A.

Method C exegesis, however, incorporates both Method A and Method B.  It allows the exegete to look at the more historical context of scripture and apply it to the more spiritual senses.  The exegete is therefore able to ask questions of the scriptures that a Method A and Method B exegete would not.  “The Method C exegete can remain completely committed to the faith while asking questions and accepting answers never entertained by exegetes of previous ages, and he can do this because his work stands in accord with the principles of the Christian faith-not the least which is the belief that greater knowledge of the historical dimension of Scripture leads to greater knowledge of Christ.”²

The understanding of this type of exegesis is important because, as you will see, we will be looking back at the Old Testament scriptures in light of the New Testament scriptures, in both a Method A and Method B context.  Using Method C, we can look at the Literal sense, the Allegorical sense, the Moral sense and the Eschatological/Anagogical Sense of Scripture and thus we will see how the New Testament is a fulfillment of the Old Testament. Method C allows us to understand that scripture may not be a “video camera” account of Jesus’ life but that does not mean that the scriptures are in error.  As a matter of fact, the Bible is inerrant in what it intends to teach.  As stated in Dei Verbum, “Therefore, since everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit, it follows that the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully and without error the truth which God wanted put into sacred writings…”³

Scripture

“Indeed, the economy of the Old Testament was deliberately so oriented that is should prepare for and declare in prophecy the coming for Christ…”⁴  It is in these prophecies where we can see what is to come in the New Covenant.  In understanding the Old Testament, you can see where and how Jesus keeps with, but also fulfills the Old Covenant and institutes the New Covenant.  While there are many important aspects to the prophecies of the Old Testament, this paper will focus on the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist.  

God told the Israelites, through Jeremiah, that a New Covenant, one that was going to be different from the one He previously made with them, was coming, long before it was to arrive.  “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, and I showed myself their Master, says the Lord.”⁵  

The Old Covenant that God established, required that the Israelites follow the Mosaic Law, the law that God had given to Moses.  This New Covenant was going to be radically different for the Jews.  As a matter of fact, what the New Covenant brought, the Jews were not expecting.  They did not expect the Messiah to be crucified, even though the prophecies were there in the Old Testament.  It wasn’t until after the event, that they would go back and see the relevance.⁶  Under this new law, their relationship with God was going to be based on God’s grace, which was going to be received by faith.  It was going to be God’s free gift.  “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God- “⁷  Jesus is the new Moses.  He is going to lead God’s people to a new promised land in a new and even greater exodus than the one out of Egypt.

The Passover Meal

Moses lead the Israelites out of Egypt and away from slavery by God’s miraculous intervention at the first Passover.  It was at this Passover meal that the Israelites were instructed to take an unblemished lamb without broken bones, kill it and put its blood on the doorpost. 

That night they were to eat the lamb, thus sparing their firstborn sons.⁸  The Passover is thus a sacrificial meal.  The lamb is sacrificed in order that the first born sons may be saved.  God instructs the Israelites to continue this tradition throughout their generations and that they are to observe it forever. “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as an ordinance for ever.”⁹  Indeed it has been kept, while the Jewish community still celebrates the Passover, as Catholic Christians we celebrate Easter at the same time of the year, but how does the Last Supper relate to the Passover meal?

The timing of Holy week in the Gospels does vary somewhat and there is some question as to which chronology is correct.  While we do not know the exact timing of the Last Supper, I tend to agree with Pope Benedict XVI who feels that John’s chronology is the more probable.¹⁰   The Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, suggest that the Last Supper was actually a Passover Meal, while John goes to great lengths to show that it was not, but that it still has Passover characteristics because Jesus knew that he would not be able to eat the Passover with his disciples.  

Many argue that John adjusted his timeline because he starts his Gospel with John the Baptist and shows Jesus as the Lamb of God, and thus ends his gospel with the same concept and shows Jesus being killed on the day of preparation at the time when the lambs were being slaughtered.¹¹ Pope Benedict says that John’s timeline is most likely to be accurate, mainly because it doesn’t seem likely that the trial and crucifixion on the Passover would have happened on the same day. It is important to point out that John has Passover on Saturday and not on Friday which is where the Synoptics place it. To a point, Pope Benedict agrees with John P. Meier, who proposes, in his book A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, that Jesus knew that he would not be able to eat the Passover because Jesus died at the hour when the Passover Lambs were being slaughtered. This I believe is supported in Luke: “And when the hour came, he sat at table, and the apostles with him.  And he said to them, “I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you I shall not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.¹²

Jesus therefore invited his disciples to eat a different kind of Passover meal, one in which He gave Himself as the Passover Lamb.  Whether the timing was actually that of the Synoptics or lines up with John’s chronology really is not that problematic because it still lines up with the New Covenant in light of the Old Covenant; Jesus did not abolish the old tradition, but he would have fulfilled it.   What really matters here, more than anything else, because it is the source and summit of our Faith, is the institution of the Eucharist. 

The Eucharist

“And he took the bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them saying, “This is my body which is given for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.  And likewise the chalice after supper, saying, “This chalice which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”¹³  This is the heart of the Last Supper tradition, and just as the Last Supper has roots in the Old Covenant, so does the institution of the Eucharist.  

There are two elements to the Eucharist reflected in the Old Covenant, that of the bread and of the wine.  The foreshadowing of the bread in the Old Testament happens, most explicitly for myself, in the manna during the Exodus. “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.”¹⁴ God sent this manna down to them after they had “murmured against him, but it was this manna that kept the Israelites from starving in the wilderness. Jesus tells us that this bread is actually Himself in John 6; “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.  I am the bread of life.  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.  This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die.  I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.”¹⁵  It isn’t a coincidence that the Jews were “murmuring” about Jesus when this happened.¹⁶ Jesus’ declaration right there makes it pretty clear what he means when he breaks the bread at the last supper and says, “This is my body which is given for you.”

This same foreshadowing can be seen even earlier in the Old Testament when Abram has an encounter with Melchizedek, a priest of the most high God.  “And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was a priest of God Most High.”¹⁷  Just as Melchizedek was a high priest, so was Jesus, as can be seen in the book of Hebrews 5:5-10, 6:20 and all of Chapter 7 where it refers to the order of Melchizedek.  Thus, when Melchizedek offers the consecrated bread and wine to Abram it is a type of Eucharist.  St. Clement of Alexandria says in Book IV, Chapter 25 of the Stromata: “…Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who gave bread and wine, furnishing consecrated food for a type of the Eucharist.”¹⁸

Thus far, I have touched on the Last Supper being a new form of a Passover meal and the foreshadowing of the Eucharist in the Old Testament.  However, I want to end this paper with a final word on the sacrificial aspect of the Last Supper and the Eucharist.  The fact that the Eucharist is a sacrifice is infallible in the Church.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church says in 1365: “Because it is the memorial of Christ’s Passover, the Eucharist is a sacrifice.”¹⁹  Blessed Pope Paul VI in Mysterium Fidei, says that “our Savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of His Body and Blood” at the Last Supper, thus making the Last Supper a sacrifice.²⁰ 

Karlo Broussard offers 5 clues that the Last Supper was a sacrifice in a blog posted on the Catholic Answers website.  The first clue he says is the language Jesus uses with his blood being poured out.  This harkens back to the Old Testament sacrifices where the blood of the sacrificed animal was poured onto the base of the alter.  Show in Leviticus 4:7: “…and the rest of the blood of the bull he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering…”²¹ Broussard states that we can understand “When Jesus speaks of pouring out his blood, we can reasonably conclude he understood the Eucharist to be an atoning sacrifice—especially when we consider how Jesus speaks of his blood being poured out for the forgiveness of sins.”²² 

In the next three clues, Broussard refers to the Greek text as evidence of the sacrificial nature of the Last Supper.  Broussard points to when Jesus says “Do this”.  Here he cites the Greek from the Septuagint, poieo,  which he says would be translated as “offer”.  Which, he states, would be the language used with offering sacrifices.  He cites three Old Testament verses, Exodus 29:28, Leviticus  9:7, and Psalm 66:15 where the same Greek word is used.  Thus, if he is commanding the apostles to “offer” the Eucharist, then he intends for it to be a Sacrifice.²³

The next clue he offers is in the words that come immediately following “Do this”, thus the “in remembrance of me”.  Once again, the Greek is used and the word for remembrance is anamnesis.  Broussard goes on to say that anamnesis has sacrificial overtones in both the New and Old Testaments.  He gives two examples on in Numbers 10:10 and then again in Hebrews 10:3, so if you take these in light of Luke’s use of Anamnesis in Luke 22:19 and combined with the sacrificial use of “Do this”, then there is again good evidence of the Last Supper as a sacrifice.²⁴

The final phrase where the Greek is referred to is “given for you”.  The Greek here is didomi.  Once again, this Greek word is used in a sacrificial nature elsewhere in the New Testament.  For example in Luke 2:24 when Mary and Joseph take Jesus to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord and to “offer” a sacrifice.  Then in Mark 10:45 “…and to give his life as a ransom for many.”²⁵

The last piece of evidence is the “blood of the covenant” in Matthew’s Gospel.  Here Jesus is drawing a parallel between the Last Supper and the Covenant Moses is speaking about in Exodus 24:8.  If we consider Jesus the new Moses, as I mentioned above, then this really is not a hard comparison to make.  Thus again, more evidence of the Last Supper as a sacrifice.

If the Last Supper didn’t happen, then the Eucharist would never have been established.  The Eucharist is the source and summit of our Faith, it is what makes us Catholic and part of the one Church that God, Himself, established.  It is as St. Thomas Aquinas says, the greatest of all the Sacraments: “I answer that, Absolutely speaking, the sacrament of the Eucharist is the greatest of all the sacraments…”²⁶

1. Matthew Ramage, Jesus, Interpreted (Washington D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2017), 60

2. Ibid., 71.

3. Pope Paul VI, Dei Verbum (18 November 1965), Chapter III, 4.

4.  Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), 122.

5. Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version 2nd Catholic Edition, Jeremiah 31:31-32, (Pennsylvania: Ascension, 2018).

6. Matthew Ramage, “The Trial(s), Crucifixion, and Burial Of Jesus” (lecture, SAS 652: Synoptic Gospels, Holy Apostles College & Seminary, Cromwell, CT, Week 9 Spring Semester 2020).

7. Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version 2nd Catholic Edition, Ephesians 2:8, (Pennsylvania: Ascension, 2018)

8. Scott Hahn, The Lamb’s Supper, 18.

9. Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version 2nd Catholic Edition, Exodus 12:14, (Pennsylvania: Ascension, 2018).

10. Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2011), 109.

11. Ibid, 112.

12. Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version 2nd Catholic Edition, Luke 22:14-16, (Pennsylvania: Ascension, 2018).

13. Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version 2nd Catholic Edition, Luke 22:19-20, (Pennsylvania: Ascension, 2018).

14. Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version 2nd Catholic Edition, Exodus 16:3, (Pennsylvania: Ascension, 2018).

15. Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version 2nd Catholic Edition, John 6:47-51, (Pennsylvania: Ascension, 2018)

16. Pizzalato, Brian, Eucharist Foreshadowed in Old Testament Writings, https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/resources/sacraments/eucharist/eucharist-foreshadowed-in-old-testament-writings

17. Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version 2nd Catholic Edition, Genesis 14:18, (Pennsylvania: Ascension, 2018).

18. St. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, Book IV Chapter 25, https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.iv.iv.xxi.html

19. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), 1365.

20. Pope Paul VI, Magisterium Fidei, (3 September 1965), §4.

21. Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version 2nd Catholic Edition, Leviticus 4:7, (Pennsylvania: Ascension, 2018).

22. Broussard, Karlo, https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/evidence-christ-offered-the-last-supper-as-a-sacrifice, 10 October 2016

23.  Broussard, Karlo, https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/evidence-christ-offered-the-last-supper-as-a-sacrifice, 10 October 2016

24.  Broussard, Karlo, https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/evidence-christ-offered-the-last-supper-as-a-sacrifice, 10 October 2016

25.  Broussard, Karlo, https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/evidence-christ-offered-the-last-supper-as-a-sacrifice, 10 October 2016

26. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, III, q. 65, at New Advent, www.newadvent.org.