According to 1 Co 1123-26 the ruling idea of the Supper is the symbolical display of redemption through the death of our Lord, and the same con- ception, under the figtire of the Christian Passover, is involved in 1 Co. 5". Another truth also under- lying 1123-26^ ijut especially taught in lO'^—^ jg that all those who partake of the spiritual food and drink in this Sacrament are brought into fellow- ship with Christ Himself, and are thus united into one body (vv.3- •*■ is- 1^).
(iv.) TJie Fourth Gospel. — Though the institution of the Supper is not found in Jn., the final dis- courses of Jesus (13-17) are coloured with the thought of it and of the love-feast, like brilliant clouds irradiated by the sun which they hide. It is in a measure true to .«ay that, while the Synop- ti.sts are concerned with the Supper, St. John lingers upon the memory of the love-feast, for the conversations have the one great theme fittingly introduced by the deed of htimility on the part of Him who having loved His own, loved them unto the end. He had exhibited the new law of love of which His death would be the crowning expression, and He becomes at once their example and their Sanctifier (see esp. ch. 17). The Evangelist, as we have seen, seems to correct the Synoptists as to the
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day of Christ's death, but he relates the discourse of ch. 6 to the Passover, and in the theme he agrees substantially with them, for the words ' this is my body . . . this is my blood,' with their symbolic accompaniments, find an excellent niterpretation in Jn 6-"-"'^, which can hardly be dissociated from the later institution of the Supper (see Westcott, St. John, 113; Holtzmann, NT Theol. ii. 601-503; Loisy, Quatrieme Evangile, 702-722, 760, 811).
Besults. — (a) The Lord's Supper was instituted by Jesus as a perpetual memorial of His death. It is true that the words ' Do this in remembrance of me ' do not occur in the oldest tradition, and may, perhaps, in their present form be traceable to St. Paul ; but it is incredible that he should have originated this sacrament, and that it should have been adopted from him by the Jewish Christians. The ordinance was in existence among the Jeru- salem Churches before his conversion, and the sym- bolism and narrative which he received must have been invested with a peculiar sacredness, for, as preserved in the written Petrine source (Mark) at least twenty years later, while different and dis- tinctly more original, they are essentially the same. It is difficult to see how the early Chris- tians would have turned every meal into a com- memoration of their Lord's death without His command, for even after the death they failed for a while to understand its full significance. After Pentecost they might have found their meals to be symbols of His perpetual presence to nourish them, but that they should have combined with this the necessity of His death, which remained a solemn mystery, would be inexplicable except under the example and instruction of their Lord.
{h) The Kvangelical records relate the Supper to the Passover either directly or indirectly, but no such transformation of the original feast as we find in the Supper would have been made by the primi- tive Church, which remained thoroughly Jewish, except under the guidance of Jesus.
(c) Like all other teacliing of Jesus, this does not prescribe new ritual dependent for its validity upon a set of fixed terms. Possibly freedom was allowed even with regard to the order of the action (see shorter text of Luke, 1 Co lOi** and Didnche): cer- tainly the spirit was not to be enslaved by an inerrant repetition of sacred words. Complete verbal accord is not to be found in the records, nor even in St. Paul is there a fixed liturgical formula such as might be repeated by a presiding officer ; but the import of the Supper was preserved and conveyed mainly by a generally uniform Christian practice.
{d) The Lord's Supper was a ' visible word ' con- veying the truth of the awful mystery of Redemp- tion. Until He came, however long or short might be the interval. His followers, Jew and Gentile, would in this acted parable read their Master's mind in regard to His death, the culmination of His service of love on their behalf. ' The Passion of Christ was itself a sacrament or mystery of an eternal truth : it was the supreme sacrament of human history : the outward and visible sign of a great supra-temporal fact' (W. R. Inge, Contcntio Veritatis, p. 298 ; see also art. FELLOWSHIP, § ii.).
5. The Apostolic Church. — (a) The Jewish Christian Community. — 'To break (or ' the break- ing of) bread' {kXSlv — i) K\d<ris rod &pTov) is almost a formula in the NT (Mk 8^ ||, Mt 26'^8, Lk2435, Ac 242.46 207- 11, 1 Co lOie 11^4). The term does not seem to have been employed for the ordinary meals of the Jews or their sects in any formal way (see Jer 16'- », La #) . Undoubtedly sacri- ficial feasts shared in by fellow-worshippers were common not only in heathen circles but among the Jews ; they were consecrated by thanksgiv- ings and other religious ritital (Schlirer, ThLZ,