Communion

Ironically our earliest account of the last meal on Wednesday night comes from Paul, not from any of our gospels. In a letter to his followers in the Greek city of Corinth, written around A.D. 54, Paul passes on a tradition that says he received from Y’Shua.
What is the historical likelihood that this tradition, based on what Paul said represents what Y’Shua said at the last meal? There are some legitimate problems to consider. The closest parallels are Greco-Roman magical rites.
The symbolic eating of flesh and drinking of blood was a magical rite of union in the Greco-Roman culture. Paul grew up in this culture in the city of Tarsus in Asia Minor. He never met or talk to Y’Shua in the physical, his connection he claims is a visionary one.
When the twelve met to replace Judas, after Y’Shua was killed, they insisted that to be part of their group one had to have been with Y’Shua from the time of John the baptizer through His crucifixion (Acts 1:21-22). Seeing visions and hearing voices were not accepted as qualifications for an Apostle.
At every Jewish meal, bread is broken, wine is shared, and blessings are said over each – but the idea of eating human flesh and drinking blood, even symbolically, is completely alien to Judaism. The Torah specifically forbids the consuming of blood (Gen. 9:4 & Lev. 17:10).
James, the brother of Y’Shua, later mentions this as one of the necessary requirements of the Noachide Laws for non-Jews, they are not to eat blood (Act. 15:20). Consuming human flesh and blood is simply inconceivable! This generally sensitivity to the very idea of drinking blood precludes the likelihood that Y’Shua would have used such symbols.
The gospel of John recounts the events but there is absolutely no reference to these words of Y’Shua instituting this new ceremony of the Eucharist.
Mark’s gospel is very close in its theological ideas to those of Paul. It seems likely that Mark, writing a decade after Paul, inserts this ‘eat my body’ and ‘drink my blood’ being influenced by what Paul has claimed to have received.
Matthew and Luke both base their narratives wholly upon Mark, and Luke is an unabashed advocate of Paul as well. Everything seems to trace back to Paul.
In 1873 a library at Constantinople had a text called ‘The Didache’ that is dated to the early 2nd century A.D. It is also known as ‘The Apostolic Fathers’. The title Didache in Greek means ‘teaching’ and its full title is ‘The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles.’ It is a type of early Christian instruction manual, in it had the blessing over the wine and bread:
First with respect to the cup: “We give You thanks our Father for the holy vine of David, Your child which You made known to us through Y’Shua your child. To You be the glory forever.”
With respect to the bread: “We give You thanks our Father for the life and knowledge that You made known to us through Y’Shua Your child. To You be the glory forever.”
Notice there is no mention of the wine representing blood or the bread representing flesh. And the prayer was directed to the Father, not the son, just as Y’Shua did.
In the Dead Sea Scrolls there is a sacred Messianic meal celebration of Y’Shua as the Davidic Messiah and the life and knowledge that He brought to the community. Not mentioning the eating of flesh and blood. Evidently this community of followers knew nothing about the ceremony that Paul advocates.
In the Jewish tradition it is the cup of wine that is blessed first, then the bread. With respect to the first cup (there are four in a Passover), in the order one would expect from Jewish tradition – there is noting said about it representing blood. Rather Y’Shua says in Luke 22:18, “I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom comes.” This tradition of the first cup, found now only in Luke, is a leftover clue of what must have been the original tradition before the Pauline version was inserted and now confirmed by the Didache. Y’Shua’s hope and prayer is that the next time they sit down together to eat, giving the traditional Jewish blessing overt the wine and bread – the Kingdom of G-d will have come. This is confirmed in a lost text called ‘The Gospel of the Hebrews’ that was used by Jewish – Christians who rejected Paul’s teaching and authority. It survives only in a few quotations that were preserved by Christian writers such as Jerome. In one passage we are told that James the brother of Y’Shua, after drinking the cup Y’Shua passed around pledged that he too, would not eat or drink again until he saw the Kingdom arrive. So here we have textual evidence of a tradition that remembers James as being at the last meal.
Just how far have we come from the original text? Through all the different translations, what was inserted to fit one’s believes or doctrine or taken out? I personally like the concept of the prayer from the Didache, one can still sup with the Father in acknowledging His Son’s blood shed for us and His body beaten, taking our sins upon Himself, without the eating of flesh or drinking of blood. The important thing is the remembrance of what He had to go through for us.