In Mark 14:25 Jesus states that he will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until he drinks it anew in the Kingdom of God. Since the emphasis is on drinking wine when the kingdom comes, this should be taken as an allusion to an eschatological banquet which celebrates the final victory. Craig Blomberg states that the Last Supper was a “foreshadowing of the messianic banquet” and connects the event to Isa 25:6–9. Similarly, Allison says “Jesus announces that he will feast at the messianic banquet.” But what is there in this saying which implies a connection to the eschatological feast I described earlier in chapter 3?
First, the description of the meal is laced with allusions to shared meals in the Mosaic and New Covenant passages. For example, Gundry suggests Jesus is blending Exod 24:8, Isa 53:12, and Jer 31:31. The “blood of the covenant” in Exod 24:8 is followed by a meal on Sinai in which Moses, Aaron and the seventy elders eat and drink before God. This meal at the establishment of the first covenant is the foundation on which the meal at the establishment of the new Covenant is built in Isa 25:6–8. As I have already observed, rather than a meal restricted to only the leaders of Israel at Sinai, the eschatological banquet includes all people at Zion.
Second, Jesus clearly alludes to the new covenant text (Jer 31:33). Jeremiah 31 combines both an eschatological meal and a marriage metaphor to describe the restoration of Israel’s relationship with her God at the end of the Exile. That a covenant was ratified with the blood of a sacrifice is commonplace in the Hebrew Bible, but of primary importance is the sacrifice which accompanied the first covenant in Exod 24:8. Dunn includes the Last Supper in his section on “heavenly banquet.” (Jesus Remembered, 427). Vincent Taylor sees the meal as eschatological and describes verse 25 as an allusion to the messianic banquet: Jesus’ “messianic consciousness is manifest” (Mark, 547). C. S. Mann describes the section as “thoroughly Jewish” and contains an allusion to the messianic banquet (Isa 25:6–8) (Mark, 580). Robert Gundry thinks this saying is a prediction that Jesus will return to “transform the Passover meal into the messianic banquet.” (Mark, 843).
Third, the messianic banquet text in 1QSa sheds some light on the Last Supper as an anticipation of the eschatological meal. As I argued in chapter 6, 1QSa was initially thought to describe a Eucharist–like meal, although this has been (rightly) abandoned for the most part in recent scholarship. However, there are still remarkable comparisons and contrasts between the two meals. The participants in the meal in 1QSa are seated according to their rank, with the Messiah of Israel at their head. After the Messiah blesses the food, they drink new wine and eat the first–fruits of the bread. At the last supper Jesus eats with his twelve disciples, a number invoking the twelve tribes of a reconstituted Israel. Jesus indeed blesses the bread and wine, although there is no reference to sharing these among the participants at Qumran. The meal at Qumran was to celebrate the coming of the Messiah, so also here in the Last Supper. Jesus declares to his disciples that the New Covenant in imminent and that he will not drink wine again until he drinks it “new” in the Kingdom of God. Like the Qumran community, Jesus’ celebration of Passover is an anticipation of the coming eschatological age.
In summary, the Last Supper is an anticipation of the messianic banquet. As such, it is an intertextual blending of several traditions beginning with the covenant meal in Exod 24 and the restoration of the marriage of Israel and her God in Jer 31. Because discussion of the Last Supper is usually laden with theological questions about later Christian practice, the Jewish eschatological implications can be overlooked. Jesus finally reveals himself as the one who will initiate the New Covenant and restore Israel to her rightful place.
Are there other eschatological overtones to the Last Supper (either from the Passover or the Prophets) that might illuminate the meaning of this important meal?
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
Have you had the opportunity to examine the various cups within Jewish tradition in the 1st century? I know that the Talmud records 4 cups during the Passover Seder. While I can’t recall the resource, I believe other scholars have said it was likely 2 or 3. The 4 cups were later additions. See Mishnah Pesachim 10.
C [And at] the fourth, he completes the Hallel and says after it the grace of song.
D Between these several cups of wine, if he wants to drink, he may drink wine.
E But between the third and the fourth cup of wine, he may not drink.
Jacob Neusner, The Mishnah : A New Translation (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988), 251.
Even if there weren’t four cups, it seems likely that the existence of the concept of not drinking one of the cups between meals would have been in existence. So, it makes perfect sense that Jesus says he won’t drink from the fruit of the vine until he drinks it anew in the Kingdom of God.
I have read a little bit on this, more for background to the cup Jesus blessed and shared. I think just about everyone assumes it was the third cup, and your point is a good one, even if the tradition from the Mishnah does not accurately reflect the first century practice.
Since Jesus does not drink again after the resurrection, or at least none of the Gospels indicate he went out of his way to share bread and wine with his disciples and declare the “Kingdom has Come” after the resurrection, there is an implication of a future table set after the enemies of God have been destroyed (the messianic implications of Psalm 23).