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The Origins of the Eucharist1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Abstract

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Type
Short Studies
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1955

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References

page 200 note 2 Taylor, V., The Gospel according to St Mark, 1952, pp. 664–7,Google Scholar and The Life and Ministry of Jesus, 1954, pp. 190f., defends the Johannine representation of the Supper as having taken place before the Passover meal. T. W. Manson, as is well known, holds this view.Google Scholar

page 200 note 3 The Lord's Supper in the New Testament, 1952.Google Scholar

page 200 note 4 It will be clear that this is quite a different procedure from the attempts at harmonization already mentioned and to be discussed later.Google Scholar

page 201 note 1 Box, G. H., ‘The Jewish Antecedents of the Eucharist’ in Journal of Theological Studies, III, 1902, pp. 357–69,CrossRefGoogle Scholar and The Jewish Background of the Institution of the Eucharist’ in The Jewish Guardian, 7 Dec. 1923;Google Scholar cf. also Spitta, F., Zur Geschichte und Litteratur des Urchristentums, I, 1893, p. 247.Google Scholar

page 201 note 2 Oesterley, W. O. E., The Jewish Background of the Christian Liturgy, 1925, pp. 167ff.;Google ScholarMacgregor, G. H. C., Eucharistic Origins, 1928, pp. 44ff.;Google ScholarGavin, F., The Jewish Antecedents of the Christian Sacraments, 1928, pp. 64ff.;Google ScholarHicks, F. C. N., The Fullness of Sacrifice, 1938, Pp. 215ff.;Google ScholarHoward, W. F., The Gospel according to St John in The Interpreter's Bible, VIII, 1952, pp. 752–4.Google Scholar

page 201 note 3 Lietzmann, H., Messe und Herrenmahl, 1926, pp. 202ff., 228;Google ScholarCirlot, F. L., The Early Eucharist, 1939, pp. 15f., 44, 156;Google ScholarOtto, R., The Kingdom of God and the Son of Man, Eng. tr., 1943, p. 278;Google ScholarDix, G., The Shape of the Liturgy, 2nd ed., 1945, pp. 50ff.;Google ScholarOulton, J. E. L., Holy Communion and Holy Spirit, 1951, pp. 9ff.Google Scholar

page 201 note 4 Cf. Taylor, V., The Gospel according to St Mark, p. 665.Google Scholar

page 201 note 5 Kilpatrick, G. D. has suggested (Erpository Times, LXIV, 1952, pp. 48) that the romance known as the Prayer of Aseneth or Joseph and Aseneth, a piece of Hellenistic Jewish propaganda from Egypt, provides evidence of a Jewish religious meal, not mentioned elsewhere, which has points of similarity with the Last Supper.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 201 note 6 Das lette Passamahl Christi und der Tag seines Todes, 2nd ed:, 1908.Google Scholar

page 201 note 7 Cf. Jeremias, J., Die Abendmahlsworte Jesu, 2nd ed., 1949, pp. 14f.Google Scholar

page 202 note 1 Strack-Billerbeck, , Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, II, 1924, pp. 847–53.Google Scholar

page 202 note 2 Cf. Jeremias, J., op. cit. p. 15.Google Scholar

page 202 note 3 Mgr. I'Evêque Cassian, however, assured me in conversation that the connexion between the Eastern use of leavened bread and the non-paschal view of the Last Supper is not to be over-stressed. Similarly, the Latin practice depends on other considerations than the paschal theory of the Supper. The earliest certain evidence for the use of unleavened bread in the Latin Church seems to be in Rabanus Maurus (ninth century), De institutione clericorum, I, 31 (Migne, P.L., vol. CVII, 318D). ‘Die steigende Sorgfalt für das heilige Sakrament, das Verlangen, möglichst schönes, weiβes Brot zu verwenden, dazu biblische Erwägungen [Lev. ii. II] müssen hier schon lange, bevor man im ungesäuerten Brot die allein zuläβige Materie erblickte, zu seiner Bevorzugung geführt haben’, Jungmann, J. A., Missarum Sollemnia, 3rd ed., 1952, vol. II, pp. 43f. The usage did not become universal in the Latin Church until the middle of the eleventh century, when it became a bitter subject of dispute in the final schism between East and West in 1054. I owe much in this note to the kindness of Dom Virgil Fiala, O.S.B., of the Erzabtei Beuron.Google Scholar

page 202 note 4 In Annuaire de l'Académie de Théologie ‘St Clément d'Ochrida’, Sofia, tome II (XXVIII), 19511952, pp. 145–86.Google Scholar

page 202 note 5 Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Griechisch, 7th ed., 1943, p. 30.Google Scholar

page 203 note 1 Cf. Jeremias, J., πασχα in Kittel's Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament, V, 1954, p. 900, notes 43 and 44.Google Scholar

page 203 note 2 Cf. Geldenhuys, N., Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, 1950, pp. 649–70, whose excursus is rich in bibliographical material.Google Scholar

page 203 note 3 The Jewish Quarterly Review, new series, XLII, 19511952, pp. 237–50.Google Scholar

page 204 note 1 πέμπτη δέ кαι δεкατη διαδέχετæ τήν πάσχα ή των αεύμων έορτά ήμέρας ούσα Ant. III, 10, 5; cf. IX, 13, 3.Google Scholar

page 204 note 2 This use is common in the New Testament, e.g. Matt. xxvi. 2; John ii. 13, 23; xi. 55; xii. I.Google Scholar

page 204 note 3 So Robinson, D. W. B., ‘The Date and Significance of the Last Supper’ (p. 131), in The Evangelical Quarterly, XXIII, 1951, pp. 126–33.Google Scholar

page 205 note 1 Our Translated Gospels, p. 47;Google ScholarIn the Fourth Gospel the Last Supper was the Paschal Meal’ (pp. 245–8), in The Jewish quarterly Review, new series, XLII, 19511952, pp. 237–50.Google Scholar

page 205 note 2 Cf. Heawood, P. J., ‘The Time of the Last Supper’ (p. 40), in J.Q.R., new series, XLIX, 19511952, pp. 3744;Google Scholar C. C. Torrey, ibid. p. 244; Robinson, op. cit. p. 130.Google Scholar

page 205 note 3 Jeremias, J., Die Abendmahlsworte Jesu, 2nd ed., 1949, p. 46.Google Scholar

page 205 note 4 Heawood, P. J., op. cit. p. 41.Google Scholar

page 206 note 1 Cf. Zahn, T., Introduction to the New Testament, in, Eng. tr., 1909, pp. 282f., 297f.Google Scholar

page 206 note 2 Cf. Jeremias, J., πάσχα p. 898.Google Scholar

page 206 note 3 Cf. Torrey, C. C., J.Q.R., new Series, XLII, 19511952, p. 244, n. 4;Google Scholar also Zahn, T., op. cit. p. 297.Google Scholar

page 206 note 4 C. C. Torrey, ibid. pp. 243f., and others.

page 206 note 5 The Last Supper as an Ordinary Meal in the Fourth Gospel’ (p. 256), in J.Q.R., new series, XLII, 19511952, Pp. 251–60.Google Scholar

page 206 note 6 Strack-Billerbeck, op. cit. II, pp. 837f.Google Scholar

page 206 note 7 Cf. Strack-Billerbeck, ibid. pp. 839f.

page 206 note 8 The Time of the Passover Meal’ (p. 45), in J.Q.R., new series, xui, 19511952, pp. 4550.Google Scholar

page 206 note 9 Ibid. p. 252.

page 207 note 1 Ibid. p. 255.

page 207 note 2 Die Abendmahlsworte Jesu, 2nd ed., 1949, p. 45, n. 3.Google Scholar

page 207 note 3 J.Q.R., new series, XLII, 19511952, p. 241.Google Scholar

page 207 note 4 Ibid. pp. 241 f., cf. Our Translated Gospels, pp. 23–5.

page 208 note 1 Strack-Billerbeck, op. cit. II, pp. 847f.;Google ScholarFinkeistein, L., The Pharisees, 1946, pp. 115–17 and n. 24;Google ScholarBultmann, R., Das Evangelium des Johannes, 1950=1941, p. 524, n. 5.Google Scholar

page 208 note 2 Dodd, C. H.(The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, 1953, pp. 234, 424f.)Google Scholar does not favour this view, but supposes John to be following ‘an ancient tradition’ which dated the crucifixion on Nisan 14, and which is reflected in the Quartodeciman usage of Ephesus (but see below), and in a statement in the Babylonian Talmud (Baraita in Sanhedrin 43a) that Jesus was hanged on the eve of Passover. But the reference in the Talmud may be to a Jew of the first century B.C., cf the note in Der Babylonische Talmud, ed. Goldschmidt, L., vol. VII, p. 181;Google ScholarJeremias, J., Die Abendmahlsworte Jesu, 2nd ed., 1949, p. 12, n. 7. The Gospel of Peter, which assigns the crucifixion to Nisan 14, can hardly be regarded as a valuable witness.Google Scholar

page 209 note 1 See the summary in my The Lord's Supper in the New Testament, 1952, pp. 20f.Google Scholar

page 209 note 2 Cf. Taylor, V., The Gospel according to St Mark, 1952, p. 666.Google Scholar

page 209 note 3 Ibid. pp. 666f.; cf. The Lord's Supper in the New Testament, pp. 17–20.

page 209 note 4 On this question see now J. Jeremias, πασχα, pp. 900–3; cf. A. A. McArthur, The Evolution of the Christian Year, 1953, pp. 77ff., who thinks that ‘the evidence does not seem to justify’ the assumption of Gregory Dix and Lietzmann that the Christian Pascha in Asia coincided with the night of the Jewish Passover (p. 105).Google Scholar

page 209 note 5 This consideration invalidates Grant's, F. C. suggestion (The Gospel according to St Mark in The Interpreter's Bible, VII, 1951, p. 824) that Mark as well as John is interpretative, the historical background being the death of Jesus some time in the Passover period; that Mark interprets by identifying the Supper as a Passover, John by making the crucifixion coincide with the death of the paschal lambs; and that ‘the difference between them may not be one of divergent historical traditions’.Google Scholar

page 209 note 6 Cf. The Lord's Supper in the New Testament, pp. 49ff.Google Scholar