Paul and Jesus

Paul uses a particular Aramaic word here (arrabon) translated as “guarantee.” Literally, it refers to a first installment—much like “earnest money” put down on a purchase.

Still standing in the water, the person administering the baptism would put his hands on the head of the candidate and ask God to confirm the presence of the Spirit openly as a witness to all present by giving the person his or her spiritual “gift.”¹⁷ These were specific manifestations of the Spirit given to those “baptized by one Spirit into one body” according to God’s choosing (1 Corinthians 12:4–13). Some would begin to speak ecstatically in languages (glossolalia) they had never learned, whether human or angelic; others would utter prophecies, demonstrating supernatural wisdom, knowledge, or insight; while others were given the power to work miracles or to perform healings.

As the candidate came up out of the water he or she would be clothed in a new white garment, picturing the new spiritual body they would receive at the resurrection. Each member of the group would then greet the newest member with a familial kiss on the mouth, referred to in several of Paul’s letters. He calls it “the kiss of holiness,” presumably to avoid any connotation of sexual impropriety or indecency.¹⁸

This imaginary attempt to sketch a scene of baptism in Paul’s churches is based on evidence that comes directly from Paul. These powerful and evocative Aramaic words—Maranatha, Abba, and Amen—are each attested as formulaic utterances in Paul’s letters. To Paul’s Greek-speaking converts these would have a foreign, magical sound. It is likely that baptisms were done in secret and at night, as we will see below, so the atmosphere of mystery and intrigue would have been all the more heightened. As vital as baptism was, it was initiatory and done only once for each new Christian, whereas the ongoing power of Christ’s Spirit was sustained by a mystical meal that Paul introduced to his churches as the “Lord’s Supper.”

EATING THE LORD’S SUPPER

Reading the New Testament backward could hardly be more critical than when it comes to examining the sacred meal that Paul calls the “Lord’s Supper.” This most central of all Christian rites, the Eucharist or Holy Communion, involving eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ, however understood, is at once as familiar as it is strange. Here is what Paul writes to the Corinthians around A.D. 54:

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is [broken] for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” (1 Corinthians 11:23–25)

Mark, our earliest gospel, written between A.D. 75 and 80, has the following scene of Jesus’ Last Supper:

And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” (Mark 14:22–24)

The precise verbal similarities between these two accounts are quite remarkable, considering that Paul’s version was written at least twenty years earlier than Mark’s. Where would Paul have gotten such a detailed description of what Jesus had said on the night he was betrayed? The common assumption has been that this core tradition, so central to the original Jesus movement, had circulated orally for decades in the various Christian communities. Paul could have received it directly from Peter or James, on his first visit to Jerusalem around A.D. 40, or learned it from the Christian congregation in Antioch, where, according to the book of Acts, he first established himself (Acts 11:26).

What Paul plainly says is easy to overlook: “For I received from the Lord what I handed on to you.” His language is clear and unequivocal. He is not saying, “I received it from one of the apostles, and thus indirectly it came from the Lord,” or “I learned it in Antioch, but they had gotten it by tradition from the Lord.” Paul uses precisely the same language to defend the revelation of his gospel and how it came to him. He says he did not receive it from any man, nor was he taught it, but swears with an oath, “I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:11–12). This means that what Paul passes on here regarding the Lord’s Supper, including the words of Jesus over the bread and the wine, comes to us from Paul and Paul alone!