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With his disciples gathered around him, Jesus partakes of his Last Supper. The meal, in this late-15th-century painting (now in a private collection) by the Spanish artist known only as the Master of Perea, consists of lamb, unleavened bread and wine—all elements of the Seder feast celebrated on the first night of the Jewish Passover festival. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke appear to present Jesus’ Last Supper as a Seder. In John, however, the seven-day Passover festival does not begin until after Jesus is crucified; thus, the Last Supper, which John never mentions, could not have been a Seder.

In the accompanying article, Jonathan Klawans suggests that the Passover Seder as we know it developed only after the time of Jesus, and after the Romans destroyed the Jerusalem Temple.