Readers Reply
Agree to Disagree
I have been a subscriber to all of your magazines for a number of years. I was one of the first to get Archaeology Odyssey (BR’s sister magazine) when it came out. I look forward eagerly to seeing the magazines and read every word in them. I keep them so that I can go back to them. I do not wish to cancel any of my subscriptions, although I do enjoy seeing the cancellation letters. I find that it is the closed minded who are canceling. They can only see their own beliefs and not what others may believe. Thinking people can disagree respectfully.
Oak Park, Michigan
Desert Sanctuary
Janet Howe Gaines gives the traditional characterization of Lilith’s haunts—the wilderness and desert—as a place of mental and physical barrenness, threatening to creativity and life (“Lilith: Seductress, Heroine or Murderer?” BR 17:05). I would like to present the “womanist” view of African-American theologian Delores Williams, from Sisters in the Wilderness (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1995). Using the African (Egyptian, Genesis 16:1) slave woman Hagar as an example, Williams notes that the wilderness is repeatedly a place of encounter with the living God (Genesis 16, 21:8–20). The wilderness is a place where God sees, hears and addresses an oppressed woman, validates her struggle and promises the multiplication of her offspring. Here Hagar is steeled for what awaits her and becomes a theologian—for she names God (Genesis 16:13). In the womanist view, the wilderness becomes a sanctuary of survival, spiritual renewal, creativity and divine encounter.
State College, Pennsylvania
And Before Lilith, There Was Diane
Viewers of TV’s “Cheers” and “Frasier” know that the character Lilith Sternin was named for Lilith.
Brevard, North Carolina
Who Cooked Dinner?
I was somewhat dismayed with the portrayal of the Last Supper as a gathering of males on the cover of the
Chesterton, Indiana
The Revel of the Earth
There is little “strange” about Veronese’s Last Supper discussed in the
Only the young innocent on Christ’s left is interested in what he is saying, representing the few at the time who took him seriously. The heavyset man in his striped robe is mildly curious. The well-upholstered cardinal couldn’t be more bored.
The only thing strange about the painting is Veronese’s temerity in putting his thoughts on canvas.
Worcester, Massachusetts
On This Night
Although I had always assumed that Jesus’ last meal was a Seder, I approached Jonathan Klawans’s article “Was Jesus’ Last Supper a Seder?” BR 17:05, ready to be persuaded otherwise. But the author’s credibility took a big tumble when he wrote that “it is also no great coincidence that during this meal [the Last Supper] the disciples reclined…[because] while such behavior may have been characteristic of the Passover meal, it is equally characteristic of practically any Jewish meal.” Someone who writes an article focusing on the Seder should certainly be aware of one of its major components, the Four Questions, in which a child asks, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” The fourth difference is that “on this night we all recline.” Granted, a modern Haggadah might phrase the difference as “on this night we dine with special ceremony” since modern Jews don’t feel a need to emulate the ancient Romans on any night of the year. But the traditional difference is to recline during the Passover meal, and only the Passover meal, and Mr. Klawans (or at least the editors of BR) should have known that.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Jonathan Klawans responds:
The question concerning reclining—the second of the Four Questions in printed editions of the Haggadah—is a medieval addition. The early manuscripts of the Haggadah and the Mishnah do not have this question. In the ancient world, people reclined at all meals. Thus the difference of which you speak—and also the question you mention—came about only when the general custom of reclining at all meals changed and the specific custom of reclining during the Passover meal emerged.
What About John and Paul?
Jonathan Klawans did not mention the earliest written record of the Last Supper, which was written about 56–57 A.D. by Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:23–29. Paul’s account would have been a relevant addition to the article because it makes no connection to the Passover. Its only reference to when the Last Supper occurred is “on the night he was betrayed.”
The article incorrectly states that John’s gospel does not record the Last Supper. Chapter 13 of John’s gospel describes the “supper” that Jesus had with his disciples on the “night” that Judas betrayed him, which was “before the feast of the Passover.”
Lansing, Michigan
Jonathan Klawans responds:
Thank you for these references, both of which should have been noted. I don’t think the Paul passage changes things very much either way. As for the John passage, what I should have said is that John’s gospel does not have a eucharistic tradition of the Last Supper.
Gospel Harmony
Please note that some of us do not believe that John’s gospel is at all out of sync with the Synoptic Gospels and that his reference to Jesus’ death on the day of “preparation for Passover” is a reference not to the 14th of Nisan, but to the 21st of Nisan. As you know, Passover is a weeklong festival that can include two Sabbaths, on the first and seventh days, and there thus could be two preparations for Passover.
Monrovia, California
Jonathan Klawans responds:
A creative solution! You are right that Passover lasts long enough for there to be two Sabbaths. But the Passover sacrifice discussed in Exodus 12 is only offered at the beginning of the festival, and any major preparations would take place at the beginning, not in the middle, of the festival. Your solution is possible, but in my view not fully satisfactory.
Absence of Evidence
Jonathan Klawans states that “practically everything preserved in the early rabbinic traditions concerning the Passover Seder brings us back to the time immediately following the Roman destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E.” Klawans offers this as proof that the Last Supper was not a Seder. However, this tells us nothing about practices prior to the Temple’s destruction, that is, in Jesus’ time.
Just because Rabban Gamaliel is quoted in the Haggadah as referring to the obligation of mentioning the sacrifice, the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs on Passover does not mean that Gamaliel invented this practice; it seems more likely that he was commenting on the significance of an established custom. As Klawans himself says, “It’s that rabbinic literature—in the case of the Seder—does not even claim to be telling us how the Seder was performed before the destruction of the Temple.” Elsewhere, in discounting the parallels between the Seder and the Last Supper, Klawans states, “This last parallel between the Last Supper and Passover Seder assumes that the Seder ritual we know today was celebrated in Jesus’ day. But this is hardly the case.” Exactly. We don’t know what the practices were, and thus we certainly cannot affirm that they didn’t include the three items mentioned by Gamaliel. There is no reason to suppose that this practice was not followed long before Gamaliel’s time, perhaps even as early as the Exodus to which it refers.
Elsewhere, Professor Klawans contradicts himself. He mentions that “the only foods we are told the disciples ate [at the Last Supper] are bread and wine,” which he says were the “basic elements of any formal Jewish meal.” The fact that the lamb, the bitter herbs and the four cups of wine are not mentioned is seen by Klawans as an indication that the Last Supper was an ordinary meal, rather than a Seder. But if Klawans believes that Gamaliel, speaking after the time of Jesus, invented the three obligations, then there is no reason for a Seder performed during Jesus’ lifetime to contain these elements.
We can’t have it both ways; either the practice begins with Gamaliel, in which case the Last Supper would not need to follow it, or it was already an ancient tradition in Gamaliel’s time. If the latter is true, the nonmention of the lamb and the bitter herbs might be attributed to a variety of causes including the possibility that the gospel authors felt that these items had no bearing on their central message.
Klawans puts some fascinating possibilities before us but does not conclusively prove his theory. He seems to recognize this himself when he ends his article with the tenuous “Was the Last Supper a Passover Seder? Most likely, it was not.” But even that “most likely” is too strong.
Fredonia, New York
Jonathan Klawans responds:
My point about Rabban Gamaliel is not that he invented the requirement of consuming the items you mention. The items are of course mentioned in Exodus and were certainly consumed during Passover celebrations during Jesus’ lifetime. The point I am trying to make is that Rabban Gamaliel invented the requirement of explaining the meaning of the items you mention. You may want to take another look at the text quoted in the article and, if you are ambitious, the articles cited in footnote 14.
These articles discuss the theory that Rabban Gamaliel’s requirement of explaining these items is a response to the ways in which Christians interpreted those symbols after Jesus’ Last Supper and death.