3 - The Leave-taking

Summary

The opening scenes of the drama are set forth in Mark as follows:

1. (1) The preparation for the Supper (Mark xiv. 12–16).

2. (2) The Supper: prediction of the treachery of Judas (xiv. 18–21).

3. (3) The Supper (continued): the sacramental words and actions (xiv. 22–5).

4. (4) Departure for Olivet: prediction of the desertion of the Twelve and of Peter's denial (xiv. 26–31).

This scheme is followed by Matthew, whose language, in spite of occasional abbreviation and occasional expansion, is so close to Mark's as to leave no reasonable doubt that the one depends on the other as a source.

Not so with Luke. In his account of the preparation for the Supper he keeps even closer to Mark than does Matthew. There can be little doubt that Mark is the common source, and there is therefore nothing to suggest that the preparation figured in any other form of tradition. After that, he diverges widely. The sacramental words and actions (Mark's no. 3) follow immediately on the notice of the beginning of the Supper (xxii. 15–20). The situation is here complicated by the existence of variant texts; but whether we adopt the shorter or the longer text, the agreement with Mark is not very close. The liturgical formulae are in part similar to Mark's, in part (if the longer text be read) to those of 1 Cor. xi. 23–5; but agreement in liturgical formulae would in any case be poor evidence of literary dependence.