Endnote 20 – Dining in Heaven

There is no obvious Jesus figure in the catacomb paintings, perhaps because in Roman custom funeral meals were celebrated by the friends of the deceased; the deceased was thought to be present at these meals but invisible. Later images of the Last Supper are quite similar to the catacomb images, however, although they show 13 diners, including an obvious Jesus in the center. See, for example, the late-fifth-century Last Supper mosaic from the church of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna (see last supper mosaic).