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From Symbol to Relic

How Jesus’ Cup Became the Grail

By Eric Wargo

Throughout the long history of Christianity, the Holy Grail has served primarily as a symbol. As Ben Witherington III notes in the preceding article, no early Christian writings indicate that the cup used at the Last Supper survived or was preserved as a relic. Jesus’ first followers regarded the cup as a symbol of salvation, and nothing else. In modern times, the vessel now known as the Holy Grail has become a metaphor for any ever-elusive ideal or never-ending quest. But in the late Middle Ages—in the late 12th and 13th centuries—and again in the 19th century, the […]

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Footnotes

1.

For more on this apocryphal text and its exoneration of Pilate, see Robin M. Jensen, “How Pilate Became a Saint,” BR, December 2003.

2.

See Jan Willem Drijvers, “The True Cross,” BR, August 2003.

3.

See “Truth in Fiction,” BR, February 2004, p. 10; and Ben Witherington III’s review of The Da Vinci Code, Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 2004.

Endnotes

1.

Richard Barber, The Holy Grail (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 2004).

2.

Quoted in Barber, Holy Grail, p. 167.

3.

See Barber, Holy Grail, pp. 116–124.

4.

See Barber, Holy Grail, pp. 135–147, esp. p. 144.

5.

See Barber, Holy Grail, pp. 167–172.

6.

For more on Glastonbury and its surrounding legends, see Ronald Hutton, “Glastonbury: Alternative Histories,” in his book Witches, Druids and King Arthur (London: Hambledon and London, 2003).

7.

Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, Holy Blood, Holy Grail (New York: Dell, 1982).

8.

Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code (New York: Doubleday, 2003).