The Passover Meal – Precourse

This is the second in a three-part series on the Passover. If you have not done so already, please read part 1 before continuing.

God instructed the Israelites to “sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun [went] down” (Dt 16:6). Sometime around 7:30 p.m., therefore, Jesus and his disciples were reclining on dining cushions around the table in the large upper room. Jews reclined on their left side so that they could eat with their right hand. The disciples reclined in such a way that the chest of each one was situated in front of the knees of the next (see John 13:23,25; 21:20).

Once they were all reclined, the attendant placed the first cup of wine in front of Jesus (rf. Luke 22:17). Then Jesus probably spoke the blessing for the festival day: “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who gave this Passover Feast [or this Feast of Unleavened Bread or holy days] to your people Israel for joy and remembrance! Blessed is he who sanctifies Israel and the times!” He was probably referring to the blessing he had just spoken when he continued with these words to his disciples: “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God” (Lk 22:15,16).

He then took his cup of wine and spoke the well-known blessing: “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who create the fruit of the vine!” This blessing was reserved for wine alone. “What blessings are said over fruit? Over fruit of the tree one says, Who createst the fruit of the tree, except for wine, over which one says, Who createst the fruit of the vine” (Berakoth 35^a Mishnah). (Wine was also distinguished from must, the term for unfermented grape juice. Tosefta, Nedarim 4, 3: “Whoever vows abstinence from must is forbidden all kinds of sweet juice, but is permitted to drink wine.”)

The enjoyment of wine at Passover dated back at least to 160 BC. By Jesus’ day, it would have been unthinkable to celebrate the Passover (or attend any banquet) without it. Each adult participant had no less than four cups of wine during the Passover meal, but the amount in each cup was not especially large, since it was diluted with warm water. They did this because they didn’t have the kind of control over the fermentation process that we have today, and so raw wine was too strong, too thick, and just didn’t taste as good as it did mixed with water.

All four cups together were supposed to contain only about as much raw wine as a standard wine glass holds in our day (1/8 liter). The ratio of water to wine was usually 3:1, or 2:1 if the wine was weaker or already diluted. Even though it was neither common nor ordinarily preferred, the celebrants could enjoy raw, undiluted wine if they so chose, but in that case the amount in each cup may have been less. In any case, all four cups had to have the taste, smell, and appearance of wine.

A sidenote: Sometimes it has been said that Jesus, and Jews in general, drank wine at Passover because must was not available to them. (After all, pasteurization was not developed until 1864.) It is true that Passover occurred in the spring and grapes were not harvested and pressed until the fall. Thus the drink enjoyed by Jesus and his disciples had to be at least half a year old.

But it is not true that the Jews had no access to unfermented grape juice. Both the Roman senator Cato (234-149 BC), in his popular manual on farming, and Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD), in his Natural History, instructed their readers how to keep wine from fermenting. Pliny indicates that the product was well-known; he calls it semper mustum (“always must” or “neverwine”). The Jews enjoyed wine at Passover by choice, not because it was their only option.

Once Jesus had spoken the blessing over the wine, the disciples responded, “Amen!” Then Jesus said, “Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes” (Lk 22:17,18). It appears that for this first cup, Jesus passed down his (probably larger) cup to the disciples, so that each of them could pour some wine from his cup into theirs.

The attendant then set the precourse, or appetizer, in front of them. This consisted primarily of the bitter herbs prescribed by the Lord (Ex 12:8). Among the herbs that fit this description were primarily lettuce, and also chicory, endives, horehound, and others – any herb that had acrid sap and whose surface became pale or faded. To make the herbs more palatable, they were served with, and dipped into, a fruit mash prepared from crushed or ground-up figs, dates, almonds, and other fruits, with cinnamon and other spices added, and mixed with wine or wine vinegar. According to more than one rabbi, the bitter herbs were dipped in this concoction to counteract the gas caused by the herbs.
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At some point during the precourse Jesus got up and washed his disciples’ feet (Jn 13:1-17). John 13:18-26, Matthew 26:21ff, and Mark 14:18ff also seem to indicate that it was during the precourse that Jesus was troubled and said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me” (Mk 14:18). (Luke, as elsewhere in his Gospel, seems not to be too concerned about the chronological location of this particular event; cf. Luke 22:21-23.)

“They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, ‘Surely not I?’

“‘It is one of the Twelve,’ he replied, ‘one who dips into the bowl with me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born’” (Mk 14:19-21).

Regarding this incident, it should be noted that while the NIV of Mark has Jesus identifying Judas as the “one who dips bread into the bowl with me” (Mk 14:20), the word “bread” is not in the original Greek. Also in the NIV of John 13:26,27,30, the translators render the Greek word ψωμίον (psōmíon) as “piece of bread” or “bread,” but its most basic meaning is simply little morsel (of any food), which could also apply to a piece of lettuce or other herb.

“As soon as Judas took the morsel, Satan entered into him.

“‘What you are about to do, do quickly,’ Jesus told him, but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the Feast, or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had taken the morsel, he went out. And it was night” (Jn 13:27-30).

In the third and final installment of this series, we will look at the details of the main course of the Passover meal, and see Jesus institute a new meal for his disciples.

For further reading: Matthew 26:17-25; Luke 22:7-18; John 13:1-30; The Passover Meal

HT Photos: freebibleimages.org