The Lord's Supper: Exegesis of Mark 14:22-26
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Studia Antiqua Volume 7 Number 1 Article 5 April 2009 The Lord's Supper: Exegesis of Mark 14:22-26 Michael Biggerstaff Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/studiaantiqua Part of the Biblical Studies Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Biggerstaff, Michael. "The Lord's Supper: Exegesis of Mark 14:22-26." Studia Antiqua 7, no. 1 (2009). https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/studiaantiqua/vol7/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Studia Antiqua by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. THE LORD’S SUPPER: EXEGESIS OF MARK 14:22–26 Michael Biggerstaff While they were eating, he, after taking bread [and] blessing [it], he broke [it] and gave [it] to them and said, “Take, this is my body.” And after taking a cup [and] giving thanks [over it] he gave [it] to them, and they all drank from it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out in behalf of many. Amen, I say to you that I will no more drink from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink [it] new in the kingdom of God.” And, after singing a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives. Mark 14:22–26, author’s translation hile this pericope is a part of Mark’s biographical narrative on Jesus; Wthe words Mark records as being uttered by Jesus carry the weight of a sermon. Today Christians would call this pericope the institution of “the Lord’s Supper,” “the Eucharist,” or “the Sacrament.” At face value, Mark depicts this passage as part of a Passover meal with Jesus identifying the bread and wine with himself (see Mark 14:12). Those two identifications divide the periscope into two segments. The bread segment consists of four actions: taking, bless- ing, breaking, and giving to the twelve; followed by two sayings: a command to take, and an identification of what the bread is. The wine segment consists of four actions: taking, giving thanks, giving to the twelve, and the twelve drinking; followed by two sayings: an identification of what the wine is and a promise. The pericope is then closed by the singing of a hymn and a trip to the Mount of Olives. Throughout, Mark is heavily influenced by Old Testament motifs, lacing this pericope with covenant and Messianic prophecy language.1 It is also of significance that, in this pericope, Jesus seems to know that his death is imminent and that it will have an expiatory value.2 1. John R. Donahue and Daniel J. Harrington, The Gospel of Mark (Sacra Pagina 2; Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002), 398. 2. See Donahue, The Gospel of Mark, 396, and Craig A. Evans, Mark, 8:27–16:20 (Word Biblical Commentary 34B; Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2001), 386. 36 biggerstaff: the lord’s supper Setting the Scene Mark mentions this meal as having taken place after Jesus and the twelve en- tered into the room in which two of Jesus’ disciples “prepared the Passover” (Mark 14:16). As such, despite some scholarly debate, Mark obviously considers this to be a Passover meal.3 As C. S. Mann phrases it, “attempts to find in the Last Supper an occasion other than Passover must accommodate some very awkward realities.”4 Even though Mark claims this is a Passover meal, he does not mention the presence of the requisite lamb, nor does he identify at what point during the meal this pericope occurs.5 Since the earliest recording of the Passover ritual dates to 200 c.e., approximately 170 years after Jesus’ death, it is not known exactly what would have taken place with a Passover meal in Jesus’ day.6 Assuming that the earliest account is accurate, it would have been tradi- tion for the head of house to have explained the significance of and what each part of the meal represented.7 What prompted Jesus to take this role may have been his acting as head of the little family of the twelve, and thus he would have been fulfilling the responsibility of the head of house.8 Peter may very well have been Mark’s primary source for these sayings, as he was for much of Mark’s Gospel.9 However, Donahue points out that “clear evidence for a tradition of the Lord’s Supper some twenty years prior to Mark is found in 1 Cor 11:23–26.”10 Since this Pauline material is considerably different in textual form, many scholars debate as to how much Mark may have redacted his source in light of early Christian traditions.11 As part of this debate, it has been argued whether Mark’s account could even be translated back into Aramaic.12 Thus, Mark likely edited the early Christian tradition in light of 3. The scholarly debate concerns when the meal was actually held and what kind of meal it was. “The Synoptic tradition and Paul place the meal on the eve of Passover (that is, the evening before the death of Jesus) and so present it as an actual Passover meal. But John places it on the day of preparation when the Paschal lambs were slain.” See Donahue, The Gospel of Mark, 398–99. See also Ben Witherington, The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2001), 371–72. 4. C. S. Mann, Mark (Anchor Bible 27; New York: Doubleday, 1986), 570. See With- erington, The Gospel of Mark, 372 for a brief summary of some of these awkward realities. 5. See Witherington,The Gospel of Mark, 372 and Donahue, The Gospel of Mark, 395. 6. See Pheme Perkins, “The Gospel of Mark: Introduction, Commentary, Reflections” in New Testament Articles: Matthew, Mark (New Interpreter’s Bible 8; Ed. Leander E. Keck; Nashville: Abingdon, 1995), 702. 7. See Mann, Mark, 574, and William L. Lane, The Gospel According to Mark (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1974), 505. 8. See Mann, Mark, 572. It may also be possible that Jesus was responding to questions from the twelve as to why there was no lamb. Also if this was not the official Jewish day to celebrate the Passover meal, Jesus may have been answering questions as to why they were celebrating it this night. 9. See Witherington, The Gospel of Mark, 20–24. 10. Donahue, The Gospel of Mark, 398. See also discussion on kainēs under “detailed analysis” for evidence of an antecedent Christian tradition. 11. See Witherington, The Gospel of Mark, 374–75. 12. See C. E. B. Cranfield, The Gospel According to Saint Mark (Cambridge: Cam- studia antiqua 7.1 – spring 2009 37 who he understood Jesus to be as well as what he gathered from Peter, his per- sonal source. In viewing Mark as a three-act play, this pericope falls within the third act, that of the Passion.13 As such, it should be read and identified in such a way that it points to the suffering, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. This is accomplished in that this pericope occurs during a Passover meal in which no lamb is mentioned, but the body and blood of Jesus are identified. The place- ment of this pericope, as being “sandwiched” between a prediction of betrayal and one of denial highlights the impending death of Jesus.14 Donahue adds that it “rounds off the pattern begun in 8:31 and repeated in 9:31 and 10:33–34, that Jesus will be handed over while the disciples will fail to comprehend his suffering.”15 However, this pericope should also be seen in light of the fact that appears at the center of a type of short chiasm, the betrayal and denial being in parallel to one another. The Gospel of Mark focuses on Jesus. Though, at times, there seems to be a polemic against Jesus’ disciples, this may be more a literary method of Mark to instill hope and courage within his audience.16 Since the original disciples so struggled and yet became the great men of Christian history they were known as, it is possible for all to accomplish the same. This pericope adds to the climax of that theme. One of the twelve is about to betray Jesus into the hands that will play a key role in condemning him to death, while another is about to thrice deny knowing him. In the midst of both, Jesus is sharing a Passover meal with the twelve; which commemorates God’s deliverance with Israel. The Institution In v. 22, Mark begins with a genitive absolute acting as a temporal identifier. Thus it is “while they were eating” that vv. 22–26a take place. It is interesting that the betrayal prediction in Mark 14:18 also begins with a genitive absolute and includes the same form of the verb esthiontōn (eating). Despite saying that it was “while they were eating,” Mark does not make it known at what point during the meal either of these pericopes take place. In the context of “during the meal,” Mark records Jesus’ bread action and saying. “After taking the bread and blessing it, Jesus broke it and gave it to them [the twelve].” The participles and verbs used here by Mark echo back to his account of Jesus’ miraculous feedings of the five thousand and four thou- bridge University Press, 1966), 427; Perkins, “The Gospel of Mark,” 704; and Mann, Mark, 579.