Did Our Lord Drink of the Paschal Cup?

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 9
There does not seem to be any ground for affirming that our Lord did not drink of the paschal cup, any more than that He did not eat of the paschal bread. Some have founded on His receiving the cup and saying as He gave it to the disciples, " Take this, and divide it among yourselves," that He must have passed it to them without drinking of it Himself. But they forget that two or three Passover cups had been drunk before this, and the words even in Luke, " I will not drink until "... show that He had drunk then. The expression I will not drink corresponds to "I will not any more eat " of verse 16. We might as well argue that He did not eat as that He did not drink. A considerable number of MSS. have ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν-from the present time. Matt. 26:2929But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. (Matthew 26:29) says-"ἀπ ἄρτι, from henceforth I will not at all (gewisslich nicht) drink, which plainly indicates that He drank of it then, "until that day when"... He had intimated that this was His last Passover; and as the cup had become the most prominent thing in the Passover, there being four or five of them during the feast, it was to be expected that it should be that which He would speak of when intimating the break and the resumption; as He has done. The Lord accepted the Passover as He found it: for He never would have blessed or given thanks for the cup, and given it to His disciples, if He had not accepted it as part of the Passover-feast which He desired to eat with them before He suffered. There could have been no eating of the Passover without drinking of the wine; for thus then, and thus only, was it eaten. And it was of God's permission that the wine was on the table that the Lord's supper might be instituted. And as none can partake of the Lord's supper without drinking of the cup as well as eating of the bread, so none, in our Lord's day, could partake of the Passover supper without drinking of the wine as well as eating of the bread, and the lamb, etc. So the presumption is that the Lord drank of the cup, as the wording of the Evangelic narrative not obscurely indicates. He could commemorate the joyful deliverance of the nation from bondage with the righteous remnant; though He could not partake of the Lord's supper, which was only prospective and dependent on His death. I do not see anything against the Lord having drunk the last cup of the Passover after having instituted the Lord's supper. This fourth cup ended the Paschal supper.