The Last Supper

When Jesus has not given his disciples bread and wine as his flesh and blood, the meaning of the celebration of the Eucharist in the Church would be emptied – it would only be a pious fiction, not a reality that establishes communion with God and among men to one another. Here again, the question arises as to what way of historical verification is possible and appropriate. We must clarify that historical research can only increase the likelihood, but never to absolute certainty, about all the facts. When the certainty of faith should lie only on purely historical verification methods, it would always remain questionable.
I will mention an example from the recent history of exegetical research. The great German exegete Joachim Jeremiah amid a growing confusion of exegetical hypotheses tried with the strictest professional historical and philological approach and the greatest methodological thoroughness to exclude from the amount of preserved material the so-called ipsissima verbalise – Jesus’ own words. He wants to find in them a solid rock that can be believed lean reliably: What Jesus himself really said, on we can build that. Although results of Jeremiah’s work r work results remain significant and from a scientific point of view, they have great weight; there are substantiated critical objections that point at least to the fact that the certainty thus achieved has its limits.
So what can we expect? And what should we expect not to? From a theological point of view, it must be said that if with the history of the most important words and events really scientifically proven impossible, faith would lose its basis. Conversely, as we have said, absolutely unquestionable evidence of every single fact is from the very essence of historical knowledge and cannot be expected. Therefore, it is important for us whether the basic beliefs with today’s exegetical’s full seriousness knowledge full seriousness remain historically possible and credible.
Lots of details can remain open. No factum est from John’s prologue (cf. John 1:14) is valid as a basic Christian category not only in the question itself incarnation, but must also be applied to the Last Supper, cross, and resurrection. The incarnation of Jesus is directed to his sacrifice for men, and this sacrifice again heading for the resurrection. Otherwise,  Christianity was not true. As far as has been said, we must not look at this fact as possible for absolute historical certainty. Still, with the correct reading of the Scriptures, we can recognize my fundamental reliability. Finally, the certainty on which we base our whole existence gives us faith – faith that humbly we attach to the Church’s faith, guided for centuries by the Spirit Saints. From this opinion, we can, by the way, feel free to follow the exegetic hypotheses that you often have. They are indeed pathetically convincing, taking them the very fact refutes persuasiveness conflicting opinions are commonly presented as equally guaranteed.
Based on these methodological principles, I will try to select those questions essential for faith from the discussed problems. Let’s look at them in four pitches. First, let’s think about the date of the celebration of Jesus’ Last Supper, focusing on whether it could be an Easter dinner or not. Second, we will dedicate the texts that inform us about Jesus’ Last Supper. In doing so, we focus on the question of the historical credibility of these reports. Thirdly, I want to try to explain the basic theological content of the Last Supper traditions. Finally, in the fourth subchapter, we will expand our view beyond the New Testament submission. We will focus on the Eucharist’s birth in the Church – that is, on a process that Augustine called the transition from the Last dinner to the “morning sacrifice” (cf. En. in Psalm. 140,5).
As for writing the words Pass ah, Pasha, etc., Joachim Jeremiah, with expertise, showed that this holiday should be called Pass ah. Based on recent research, for example, Ulrich Wilcken writes Pesach. Since this book is written in dialogue with the New Testament, I decided to return to writing, which is found in the New Testament, and therefore I will write Passover.