Behold! the disciples, said: "O Jesus the son of Mary! can thy Lord send down to us a table set (with viands) from heaven?" Said Jesus: "Fear Allah, if ye have faith."
They said: "We only wish to eat thereof and satisfy our hearts, and to know that thou hast indeed told us the truth; and that we ourselves may be witnesses to the miracle."
Said Jesus the son of Mary: "O Allah our Lord! Send us from heaven a table set (with viands), that there may be for us - for the first and the last of us - a solemn festival and a sign from thee; and provide for our sustenance, for thou art the best Sustainer (of our needs)."
[Quran 5:112-114]
Sometimes the above-described event is identified as a kind of feeding of the multitudes but when I get to the part where the disciples of Jesus (as) describe it as a solemn festival "for the first and the last of us" I can't help but wonder if it is a reference to some sort of Eucharist. The Didache, one of the most ancient Christian texts, contains a Eucharistic prayer which includes the words: "You gavest food and drink to men for enjoyment, that they might give thanks to Thee; but to us You didst freely give spiritual food and drink and life eternal through Thy Servant." but without any kind of association to the the Last Supper or the crucifixion. Perhaps this is the spiritual meal being referred to in the Quran.
2 comments:
well, since the Last Supper was just a sabbath meal, with bread and wine like all Jews do it, I don't see what's unusual about the Quran mentioning it. The Quran doesn't mention any of the flesh and blood heresies (sorry) that the Christians tack on to it, so what's the issue if the Quran is relating an event that took place at a sabbath? Is it simply that the Quranic event is not commonly interpreted as being a sabbath meal but it may well have been? If so, yeah, I see your point. It does kind of sound like a sabbath to me too.
Well there are two events in the Bible which seem similar to the event described in the Quranic passage in different ways.
1) Jesus takes a small amount of food and multiplies it to feed a large number of people.
2) The last supper.
I've never seen/read another Muslim make the connection in 2) I've only seen 1) usually elaborated as a table full of food magically descending from heaven to feed the disciples.
I agree with you and think it probably was a sabbath meal but in the Quran it was also miraculous.
But yes, the point of the post was seeing how the Quran (and the Didache) don't mention the "flesh and blood heresies"
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