Is Mark’s account of the Last Supper dependent on Paul’s account in 1 Corinthians? And is Paul’s account of the Last Supper derived from a revelatory experience?
If the answer to both questions is ‘Yes”, don’t we have good reason to doubt that Jesus ever said words like the famous ones about the cup being the new covenant in his blood and so on?
What evidence makes you think either or both of those could be true? I would think it far more likely that Paul would have learned about the Last Supper from Peter and Paul or other Christians than from a revelatory experience. I’d lean towards a revelatory experience only after ruling out his receiving the information from other Christians.
Hank_Z said
What evidence makes you think either or both of those could be true? I would think it far more likely that Paul would have learned about the Last Supper from Peter and Paul or other Christians than from a revelatory experience. I’d lean towards a revelatory experience only after ruling out his receiving the information from other Christians.
Good question.
When it comes to Paul’s account of the Last Supper, he explicitly claims he got it “from the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11); that sounds like a claim to having received it from revelation.
Paul and/or Mark connecting bread with betrayal might stem from psalm 41:9.
The general theme of eating a blessed sacrifice as a guest might come from 1 Samuel 9 (Samuel hosting Saul (!) then anointing him). Paul or his source may have drawn inspiration here and adapted the tradition of a meal of the meat sacrificed to God into a meal of the sacrificial God.
And, of course:
God preferred Abel’s lamb sacrifice to Cain’s fruit. Abel’s blood then betrayed Cain
After the apocalyptic flood Noah “made a sacrifice, and God made a covenant with Noah that man would be allowed to eat every living thing but not its blood“. Noah was the first to eat meat and drink wine.
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