passion traditions reinterpreted ...Eucharistic Tradition Preceding Luke?Is it possible to trace the tradition about the Last Supper in theGospel
of the Ebionitesback even earlier, to the time preceding the composi-
tion of the Gospel of Luke? Although it is clear that the wording of the
Gospel of the Ebionitesdepends on the Gospel of Luke in its final form,
it is still possible that Luke used an earlier Eucharistic tradition when he
composed verses :–. Heinz Schürmann and Joachim Jeremias, for
instance, have argued in their detailed linguistic studies on the Eucharis-
tic tradition that, although Luke is clearly responsible for the details of
the description, he nevertheless based his description on a preexisting
Eucharistic tradition which was characterized by abstinence from wine
and meat until the coming of the kingdom of God.^30 Jeremias even thinks
that the first Christians could only have derived the practice from the his-
torical Jesus who actually abstained from eating meat and drinking wine
at his Last Supper with the disciples.
Nevertheless, it seems to me that Luke’s hand is so clear in verses :
– that, on linguistic grounds, it is not possible to reconstruct a
tradition that Luke might have used. If one adds Luke’s characteristic
diction together with the liturgical language he could have taken from
the Pauline tradition, nothing else is needed to explain the wording of
Luke :–.
In verse , the phrase “with desire I have desired” (πιυμ9α πε$-
μησα) seems to be from Luke’s pen. The structure of the phrase is Semitic
in flavor but it can be understood as a Septuagintism typical of Luke.
The wordπιυμ ωappearssixtimesinthecanonicalgospels,twicein
Matthew and four times in Luke. Luke’s first usage is in the story of the
Prodigal Son where the son desires to eat the food of pigs (:). The
second is in the story of Lazarus and the rich man where Lazarus desires
to eat what fell from the rich man’s table (:). Both these parables can
be found only in Luke’s gospel. The third occurrence can be found in the
introduction to the words about the coming of the Son of Man (:).
Luke has taken this eschatological section from Q and most likely penned
the introduction to it.
The idea of the necessity of Jesus’ suffering (:) is emphasized by
Luke in :, in a section based on Q, as well as at the end of the gospel,
on the road to Emmaus (Luke :,).
(^30) Schürmann , –, ; Jeremias , –.