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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 September 2022
For the Christian tradition, the historical connection and continuity of the Eucharist with the Last Supper is essential. As Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) wrote: ‘If Jesus did not give his disciples bread and wine as his body and blood, then the church’s eucharistic celebration is empty – a pious fiction and not a reality at the foundation of communion with God and among men.’1 As theologian and pope, Ratzinger made this bold statement fully aware of the strong tendency in recent scholarship to emphasise the diversity of primitive Christianity and to question received positions on the origins of the Eucharist. In this chapter, I propose to approach this vast and challenging field of research by selecting key contributions from New Testament scholars that will help us to reassess the central importance of the Last Supper tradition. This will include a consideration of the date and character of the event itself and of the words of institution and their possible earliest liturgical use.
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