Jesus and the Last Supper

Brant Pitre has spent his professional life helping Christians to better understand their religion by better understanding Judiasm. This exhaustive analysis of the Last Supper, as seen with Jewish eyes, is masterful and compelling. I cannot wait for his next book!

This is an excellent book and I highly recommend it. The only thing I disagreed with was the discussion on the timing of the Last Supper. Brant argues that the Last Supper was a true Passover, celebrated on the same day as everyone else, and that there was a sacrificed lamb at the meal. He provides a significant body of references for his conclusions, but they embed many assumptions. The things that most cause me to disagree with his conclusions are, first, that John's Gospel says that the Last Supper occurred "on the day before" and this would suggest a different timing. Brant argues that the Passover had morphed to a week long event by the first century, but the meal was not a week long event. Second, none of the gospels mention a lamb at the meal. Brant argues that the word pasch used in the Greek could mean the lamb, not just the celebration, but this again relies on assumption and also assumes the Last Supper maintained the original purpose of the Passover meal, which makes no sense considering the earth changing significance of the events which were about to take place during the next few hours. Third, the theology of the Mass, which as a Catholic I include since the Last Supper was the first Mass, assumes there is one High Priest and one Sacrifice, and Jesus served both roles at the Last Supper, as He does today since the priest stands "in persona Christi" during the consecration of the Host and Chalice. If I accept Brant's conclusion, I have to assume that at the First Mass there were two sacrifices instead of one, which would create some confusion as to which was the effective sacrifice. Fourth, in consecrating the chalice, Jesus says, "This is the cup of My Blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sin." This sacrifice offered for the forgiveness of sin and not in commemoration of the freedom from slavery to Egypt, changes the purpose of the meal. And following this Jesus instituted the priesthood. Logically, Jesus would not have mixed two very different purposes of the Last Supper since that would just cause confusion, both then and now. It seems to me that Jesus signaled the different purpose of the Last Supper by having His new Passover meal a day off, causing His personal bodily sacrifice to occur on the same day the paschal lambs were sacrificed at the Temple, and by fulfilling the prophesy of Moses where Moses said that God would send another "like me" to lead the people, and the revelation at the Transfiguration in the Gospel of Luke where Moses and Elijah spoke with Jesus about the new Exodus He was about to begin in Jerusalem. This means, to me, the Last Supper initiated the new Passover sacrifice in which Jesus, the new Moses, would lead us on the new Exodus, through the benefit of His sacrifice, into the final, eternal, promised land of Heaven. This new Exodus is the one we are all on right now. The only way to get there is freedom from sin, and thus the words of Jesus at the Last Supper when He told the Apostles that the cup of His Blood was shed for the forgiveness of sin signaled the beginning of this new Exodus. This is why Jesus gave Peter and the Apostles, and their successors, the power to forgive sin, as seen in both Mathew and John, "whose sins you forgive shall be forgiven, and whose sins you retain shall be retained."

Learning from this book was such a blessing. I appreciate the fact that it didn't only talk about the theology behind the Last Supper (and other Gospel passages connected with it), but also (and primarily) it's historical plausibility. I would recommend this to EVERYONE, especially to those who are interested in the questions regarding the historical Jesus and how the Last Supper illuminates and helps us solve the problems that are being dealt with in the said field. Thank you, Dr. Pitre, for your scholarship. Your intellect is a gift to the Church 💯 🔥

This will be brief, as others have written in-depth reviews. Unlike the other three books by this author which I've reviewed, this book is written primarily for scholars, but it is written in so clear a style that it is easily accessible (with some concentrated focus) to non-scholars like myself, as well. I haven't finished this book yet, but I skipped ahead and first read the long chapter on the dating of the Last Supper, the chapter so many people are interested in. I expected to be disappointed, as this question has so long remained unresolved, and some authors' hypotheses have been pretty far-fetched. To my amazement, Brant Pitre convinced me with his very cogent arguments that the three Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John actually agree that the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, occurring on the First Night of Passover. For that alone, this book is well worth its price! I look forward to reading the rest of it soon.

Dr. Brant Pitre’s book, “Jesus and the Last Supper” is a brilliant work written for the academic mind. Unlike Pitre’s other books that are written in a direct and easily understood style, this book is written in a more debate style of writing. It discusses the pros and cons of a variety of beliefs that tend to cloud the minds of its readers. This book would be great for a comparative theology course but the average reader could easily become lost in its plethoric arguments. Dr. Pitre does argue in favor of one while posing the others for comparison. Unlike “A Case for Jesus”, this book must be read at a slower speed and with much more contemplation. While I rated this book at 5 stars, I would have to caution many who are expecting a book similar to “Jesus the Bridegroom” or “The Jewish Roots of the Eucharist”. This is a difficult read!

This book is an exceptionally detailed book about the Last Supper. I learned alot 💯. Definitely a must read! The clarity about the dating of when Jesus and his diciples partook of the Last Supper was fascinating. A master piece on the Last Supper.

Asks all the hard questions and goes deep into the evidence. What if taught me will always be a part of how I read the Gospels

I bought this book specifically for its chapter on the date of the Last Supper. I had read dozens of articles, even entire books, for my research, and even if I don't entirely agree with his conclusions, I found Brant Pitre's exposition to be nearly exhaustive, surely the most comprehensive and updated one until now. The structure and the argumentation is very clear, not demanding from the reader to be already familiar with the historical and linguistic debates. Anyone interested on the subject, both academics and non-academics, must begin with this book before exploring the vast bibliography and drawing their own conclusions.

I’ve been pretty much agonizing over the issue of the date of the Last Supper and consequently the Crucifixion too for awhile now only to realize this book had been released a few years ago and I did not know it. In it Dr. Pitre not only summarizes the opinions of top scholars in this regard, but goes above and beyond, achieving a synthesis whereby Maundy Thursday really is Maundy Thursday.First off, it doesn't bother me, as one other Catholic reviewer mentioned, that the lamb was also sacrificed at the same meal as Jesus instituted the sacrifices the Eucharist because frankly the lamb only ever was a symbol and a shadow of what was to come. This is exactly the implication of verses like: “…Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the feast,…” (1Cor.5:7,8) and “Therefore let no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a feast, a New Moon, or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts it belongs to Christ.” (Col.2:17)The synthesis is that the Last Supper was truly the Passover on 14th Nissan (Thursday) evening and Jesus is crucified the next day, also 14th Nissan, since its the same Jewish day. The lambs were being sacrificed earlier in the day, which was 13th Nissan at noon.This is why, for example, John begins the 13th chapter with “before the Passover (feast)” and then goes on to say “during supper” meaning the Passover supper, something Craig Bloomberg has already pointed out.The Synoptics are quite clear that the Last Supper is indeed the Passover meal so there's no problem there. It is some verses in John itself that cause the perceived discrepancy, but Brant Pitre shows how an appreciation of the flexible meaning of “Passover” can deal with these.He has an extremely detailed 120 page discussion in the middle of his book dealing with this issue, and I’m not even beginning to do it any justice here, but certainly did grab on to the Kindle book and could not put it down until I had read the "book inside the book", those 120 pages, which are alone more than worth the money, Pitre has put in some serious thought and scholarship. He also had the book proof read by some giants like Craig Keener prior to the final draft. Watch the interview on the Rob and Caleb Show #169 on Youtube (they're Messianic Jews, I think), it helped me to go through the material much quicker watching that first.

Be prepared for more work reading this because of its thoroughness and scholarly tone. It is fantastic though and definitely worth reading.

Arrived at corrected address one day after expected date. Well pleased with this purchase at a good price.