{"id":465,"date":"2014-04-11T11:12:48","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T17:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/?p=465"},"modified":"2025-01-15T00:07:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T00:07:17","slug":"last-supper-or-lords-supper-or-passover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/2014\/04\/11\/last-supper-or-lords-supper-or-passover\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Supper Or Lord&#8217;s Supper Or Passover? (with audio)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pf-content\"><p><span class=\"verse\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article:<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"sc_fancy_player_container\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-465-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/audio\/Last_Supper_Or_Lord\u2019s_Supper_Or_Passover.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/audio\/Last_Supper_Or_Lord\u2019s_Supper_Or_Passover.mp3\">https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/audio\/Last_Supper_Or_Lord\u2019s_Supper_Or_Passover.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><br \/>\n<a title=\"Last Supper Or Lord's Supper Or Passover?\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/audio\/Last_Supper_Or_Lord\u2019s_Supper_Or_Passover.mp3\">\u201cLast Supper Or Lord&#8217;s Supper Or Passover?\u201d MP3 File<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 right click and select \u201csave as,\u201d \u201csave link as,\u201d or \u201csave target as\u201d to save it to your computer.<\/p>\n<div class=\"underline\"><\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<p>There are a lot of modern names for what in the Greek is simply called <em>\u201cpascha\u201d<\/em>, or in Hebrew is <em>\u201cpesach\u201d<\/em>. It is translated as Easter by some, called the \u201cLast Supper\u201d in common usage, called \u201cthe Lord&#8217;s Supper\u201d by almost everyone, \u201cCommunion\u201d by many, and the \u201cPassover\u201d by others. What is the RIGHT term?<\/p>\n<h3>A. Easter<\/h3>\n<p>Every commentary agrees that Easter is an absolutely wrong translation in <strong><span id=\"00Acts124\" class=\"verse\">Acts 12:4<\/span><\/strong>. The word has no business being in the Bible at all, and is there only because of the preconceived ideas of the translators.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Barnes New Testament Notes<\/strong> says<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"nonverse\">\n<p>\u201c<strong><em>There never was a more absurd or unhappy translation than this.<\/em><\/strong> <em>The original is simply after the Passover,<\/em> meta to pasca<em>. The word Easter now denotes the festival observed by many Christian churches in honour of the resurrection of the Saviour.<\/em> <strong><em>But the original has no reference to that<\/em><\/strong><em>; nor is there the<\/em> <strong><em>slightest evidence that any such festival was observed<\/em><\/strong> <em>at the time when this book was written. &#8230;The word Easter is of Saxon origin, and is supposed to be derived from Eostre, the goddess of love, or the Venus of the North, in honour of whom a festival was celebrated by our pagan ancestors in the month of April. (Webster.)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"nonverse\">\n<p><em>\u201cintending after Easter\u2014rather, &#8220;after the Passover&#8221;; &#8230; (The word in our King James Version is an ecclesiastical term of later date, and ought not to have been employed here).<\/em> <strong>(Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Ultimately, the word Easter comes from Astarte and Ishtar, ancient middle eastern love goddesses who held a festival in spring, which was the ancestor of modern Easter sunrise service which God heartily condemned&#8230; but that&#8217;s another article. For now, all that matters is that Passover IS NOT to be called \u201cEaster.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>B. Last Supper<\/h3>\n<p>This term isn&#8217;t in the Bible at all; however, the term \u201csupper\u201d is used to refer to that meal in <strong><span id=\"00Luke2220\" class=\"verse\">Luke 22:20<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 and <strong><span id=\"00John2120\" class=\"verse\">John 21:20<\/span><\/strong>, and since this was the last supper which Jesus ate, it is rational enough to call it the last supper\u00a0\u2013 just as long as we remember that it is not the Biblical name for the event.<\/p>\n<h3>C. Communion<\/h3>\n<p>This is a common protestant term for a service inspired by passover, also called the Eucharist, where the body and\/or blood of Christ is symbolically eaten\u00a0\u2013 but few people who eat anything close to the real passover would use either term, so it is something of a moot point for the purposes of this paper.<\/p>\n<p>The English word \u201ccommunion\u201d traces its roots to the Latin <em>communis<\/em> with <em>com<\/em> meaning \u201cwith\u201d and <em>unis<\/em> meaning \u201coneness.\u201d The original Greek word is quite similar, being <em>koinonia<\/em>, where you can see the similar words <em>koin<\/em> and <em>onia<\/em> are the Greek counterparts to the Latin <em>com<\/em> and <em>unis<\/em>. So \u201ccommunion\u201d literally means nothing but \u201cwith oneness.\u201d It is used in context with the passover in only one verse:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"verse-highlight\"><strong><span id=\"001nbspCorinthians1016\">1\u00a0Corinthians 10:16<\/span><\/strong> <em>The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the<\/em> <strong><em>communion<\/em><\/strong> <em>of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the<\/em> <strong><em>communion<\/em><\/strong> <em>of the body of Christ?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Which, though a correct and literal translation, fails to convey the meaning of the verse as well as other translations do:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"verse-highlight\"><strong><span id=\"011nbspCorinthians1016\">1\u00a0Corinthians 10:16<\/span> (BBE)<\/strong> <em>The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a<\/em> <strong><em>very sharing<\/em><\/strong> <em>in the blood of Christ? When we break the bread do we not<\/em> <strong><em>actually share<\/em><\/strong> <em>in the body of Christ?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This renders it in modern English much better. The word \u201ccommunion\u201d is not a special word; it just refers to doing something as a group that takes part of something that unites that group. It is not the Biblical name for the passover, it is just an archaic word used to describe one effect of the passover.<\/p>\n<h3>D. Lord&#8217;s Supper<\/h3>\n<p>Here we have the big one though; practically EVERYONE calls the passover the Lord&#8217;s Supper. Now this term is used only ONCE in the Bible. And there, it tells us we do NOT eat the Lord&#8217;s Supper!<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"verse-highlight\"><strong><span id=\"201nbspCorinthians1120\">1\u00a0Corinthians 11:20<\/span><\/strong> <em>When ye come together therefore into one place,<\/em> <strong><em>this is NOT to eat the Lord\u2019s supper.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And as if that weren&#8217;t strong enough, the margin renders the last part of that verse <em>\u201cye CANNOT eat the Lord\u2019s supper!\u201d<\/em> And yet everyone today who believes in keeping the passover at all, calls it at least occasionally \u201cthe Lord&#8217;s Supper.\u201d And yet the only time it is used in the Bible, it is Paul telling us NOT to eat \u201cthe Lord&#8217;s Supper!\u201d!<\/p>\n<p>Paul said this because he was speaking to a gentile church in Corinth, one which had grown up serving the gods, including Aphrodite, the Greek counterpart to the Phoenician Astarte and Babylonian Ishtar. Nearly all the gods in the Greco-Roman Pantheon were honored by feasting on a certain day each year, in which people would all gather in a certain place, and engage in feasting, drinking, and debauchery. These gentile converts to Christianity were always bringing in the pagan traditions they had grown up with into the Church, and the epistles of Paul are frequently about keeping the heathen customs out of the Church. And this is no exception.<\/p>\n<p>See, the reasoning was logical enough; one day a year the church would keep passover; in this passover they would have bread and wine, the passover symbols. So, in the absence of Paul to keep them in line, that gradually grew into a wild party, where people were coming to the passover and getting drunk!<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"verse-highlight\"><strong><span id=\"301nbspCorinthians112122\">1\u00a0Corinthians 11:21-22<\/span><\/strong> <em>For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, AND ANOTHER IS DRUNKEN. What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in?<\/em> <strong><em>or despise ye the church of God,<\/em><\/strong> <em>and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this?<\/em> <strong><em>I praise you not.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Paul is just telling these converts that we do NOT have the passover as a supper to OUR God, that the passover is not to be observed in the way that they used to eat a <em>kopis<\/em> (special banquet) to honor Apollo! The passover is DIFFERENT, and it IS NOT THE LORD&#8217;S SUPPER! It is a solemn occasion, as Paul proceeds to explain. So to use the term \u201cLord&#8217;s Supper\u201d is to compare God&#8217;s passover to Aphrodite&#8217;s drunken riotous feasts! Paul said WE CANNOT EAT THE LORD&#8217;S SUPPER!<\/p>\n<h3>E. Passover<\/h3>\n<p>This is the only God-sanctioned term for the day. He defined it for us in&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"verse-highlight\"><strong><span id=\"00Exodus122627\">Exodus 12:26-27<\/span><\/strong> <em>And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? That ye shall say,<\/em> <strong><em>It is the sacrifice of the LORD\u2019S passover<\/em><\/strong><em>, who PASSED OVER the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, &#8230;.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Passover is a literal translation of the Hebrew <em>\u201cpesach\u201d<\/em>, or the Greek <em>\u201cpascha\u201d<\/em>, which both mean simply \u201cto pass over.\u201d God called it that because it was on this day that He passed over our sins which were covered by the blood of Christ, a fact which we commemorate each year and \u201cas often as we keep it\u201d we do remember with sadness the Lord&#8217;s death until He returns <strong><span class=\"make_blue\">(<\/span><span id=\"401nbspCorinthians112526\" class=\"verse\">1\u00a0Corinthians 11:25-26<\/span><span class=\"make_blue\">)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So&#8230; we can call it the Passover, or occasionally the Last Supper, but not Easter, and NEVER call it the Lord&#8217;s Supper, for it IS NOT!<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are a lot of modern names for what in the Greek is simply called \u201cpascha\u201d, or in Hebrew is \u201cpesach\u201d. It is translated as Easter by some, called the \u201cLast Supper\u201d in common usage,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,11],"tags":[19,23,38],"class_list":["post-465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-start-here","category-with-audio","tag-deception","tag-history","tag-holy-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2671,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions\/2671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesimpleanswers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}