Luke 22:7-13

The narrative of Luke embraces: 1. The preparation for the feast (Luke 22:7-13); 2. The feast itself (Luke 22:14-23); 3. The conversations which followed the feast (Luke 22:24-38).

1. The Preparations: Luke 22:7-13. There is a marked difference between the ἦλθε, came, of Luke 22:7, and the ἤγγιζε, drew nigh, of Luke 22:1. The word drew nigh placed us one or two days before the Passover; the word came denotes the beginning of the day on which the lamb was killed, the 14th. Is this time, as is ordinarily supposed, the morning of the 14th? But after the Jewish mode of reckoning, the 14th began at even, about six o'clock. The whole night between the 13th and 14th, in our language, belonged to the 14th. How, then, could the word came apply to a time when the entire first half of the day was already past? The came of Luke 22:7 seems to us, therefore, to denote what in our language we should call the evening of the 13th (among the Jews the time of transition from the 13th to the 14th, from four to six o'clock). The expressions of Matthew and Mark, without being so precise, do not necessarily lead to a different meaning. Indeed, the expression of Mark, Luke 22:12, does not signify, “ at the time when they killed...,” but “ the day when they...” But may we place on the 13th, in the evening, the command of Jesus to His two disciples to prepare the feast for the morrow? That is not only possible, but necessary. On the morning of the 14th, it would have been too late to think of procuring an apartment for that very evening. Strauss fully acknowledges this: “In consequence of the flocking of pilgrims from a distance, it was of course difficult, and even impossible, to find on the morning of the first day of the feast (the 14th), for the very evening, a room not yet taken up.” Places were then taken at least a day in advance. Clement of Alexandria, on this account, gives the 13th the name of προετοιμασία, pro-preparation. The 14th was the preparation, because on that day the lamb was killed; the 13th, the pro-preparation, because, as Clement says, on that day they consecrated the unleavened bread, and took all the other steps necessary for the Paschal feast. Hence it follows, that the question put by Matthew and Mark into the mouth of the disciples, “ Where wilt Thou that we prepare the Passover? ” must likewise be placed on the evening of the 13th, which for the Jews was already passing into the 14th. It matters little, therefore, so far as this question is concerned, whether the initiative be ascribed to Jesus (Luke) or to the disciples (Matthew and Mark). As to the rest, on this point the narrative of Luke is evidently the most precise and exact, for he also, Luke 22:9, relates the question of the disciples, but replacing it in its true position. Luke alone mentions the names of the two apostles chosen. He must have borrowed this detail from a private source at least if he did not invent it! In any case, the fact would not agree very well with his alleged habitual animosity against St. Peter. Jesus must have had an object in specially choosing those two disciples. We shall see, in fact, that this was a confidential mission, which could be trusted to none but His surest and most intimate friends. If it was between four and six o'clock in the evening, the apostles had yet time to execute their commission before night, whether they had passed the day in the city, and Jesus left them to do it when He Himself was starting for Bethany with the purpose of returning later to Jerusalem, or whether He had passed the whole of this last day at Bethany, and sent them from the latter place.

Why does Jesus not describe to them more plainly (Luke 22:10-12) the host whom He has in view? There is but one answer: He wishes the house where He reckons on celebrating the feast to remain unknown to those who surround Him at the time when He gives this order. This is why, instead of describing it, He gives the sign indicated. Jesus knew the projects of Judas; the whole narrative of the feast which follows proves this; and He wished, by acting in this way, to escape from the hindrances which the treachery of His disciple might have put in His way in the use which He desired to make of this last evening.

The sign indicated, a man drawing water from a fountain, is not so accidental as it appears. On the evening of the 13th, before the stars appeared in the heavens, every father, according to Jewish custom, had to repair to the fountain to draw pure water with which to knead the unleavened bread. It was, in fact, a rite which was carried through to the words: “This is the water of unleavened bread.” Then a torch was lighted, and during some following part of the night the house was visited, and searched in every corner, to put away the smallest vestige of leaven. There is thus a closer relation than appears between the sign and its meaning.

Here is a new proof of the supernatural knowledge of Jesus. The fact is omitted in Matthew. As usual, this evangelist abridges the narrative of facts. Probably Jesus knew the master of the house mentioned Luke 22:11, and had already asked this service of him conditionally (Luke 22:12). ᾿Ανάγαιον (in the Attic form, ἀνώγεων), the upper room, which sometimes occupies a part of the terrace of the house. All furnished: provided with the necessary divans and tables (the triclinium, in the shape of a horse-shoe).

Matthew (Matthew 26:18) has preserved to us, in the message of Jesus to the master of the house, a saying which deserves to be weighed: “ My time is at hand; let me keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples. ” How does the first of those two propositions form a ground for the request implied in the second? Commentators have seen in the first an appeal to the owner's sensibilities: I am about to die; grant me this last service. Ewald somewhat differently: Soon I shall be in my glory, and I shall be able to requite thee for this service. These explanations are far-fetched. We can explain the thought of Jesus, if those words express the necessity under which He finds Himself laid, by the nearness of His death, to anticipate the celebration of the Passover: “My death is near; to-morrow it will be too late for me to keep the Passover; let me celebrate it at thy house [this evening] with my disciples.” Ποιῶ is not the att. fut. (Bleek), but the present (Winer): “Let me keep it immediately. ” It was a call to the owner instantly to prepare the room, and everything which was necessary for the feast. The two disciples were to make those preparations in conjunction with the host. No doubt the lamb could not be slain in the temple; but could Jesus, being excommunicated with all His adherents, and already even laid under sentence of arrest by the Sanhedrim (John 11:53-57), have had His lamb slain on the morrow in the legal form? That is far from probable. Jesus is about to substitute the new Passover for the old. How should He not have the right to free Himself from the letter of the ordinance? all the more that, according to the original institution, every father was required himself to slay the Paschal lamb in his dwelling. He freed Himself in like manner from the law as to the day. He is forced, indeed, to do so, if He wishes Himself to substitute the new feast for the old. The decision of the Sanhedrim to put Him to death before the feast (Matthew 26:5), leaves Him no choice. This entire state of things agrees with the expression which John uses: δείπνου γενομένου, a supper having taken place (Luke 13:2).