A revelatory exploration of the Jewish roots of the Last Supper that seeks to understand exactly what happened at Jesus’ final Passover.
“Clear, profound and practical—you do not want to miss this book.”—Dr. Scott Hahn, author of The Lamb’s Supper and The Fourth Cup
Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist shines fresh light on the Last Supper by looking at it through Jewish eyes. Using his in-depth knowledge of the Bible and ancient Judaism, Dr. Brant Pitre answers questions such as: What was the Passover like at the time of Jesus? What were the Jewish hopes for the Messiah? What was Jesus’ purpose in instituting the Eucharist during the feast of Passover? And, most important of all, what did Jesus mean when he said, “This is my body… This is my blood”?
To answer these questions, Pitre explores ancient Jewish beliefs about the Passover of the Messiah, the miraculous Manna from heaven, and the mysterious Bread of the Presence. As he shows, these three keys—the Passover, the Manna, and the Bread of the Presence—have the power to unlock the original meaning of the Eucharistic words of Jesus. Along the way, Pitre also explains how Jesus united the Last Supper to his death on Good Friday and his Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Inspiring and informative, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist is a groundbreaking work that is sure to illuminate one of the greatest mysteries of the Christian faith: the mystery of Jesus’ presence in “the breaking of the bread.”
Pitre’s Goal: Seeing the Eucharist through 1st century Jewish eyes
The central aim of Pitre’s book is to explore the Eucharist through the lens of first-century Judaism. He sets out to answer a striking question: how could a faithful Jew—like Jesus, Paul, or the apostles—go from believing that drinking any blood (let alone human blood) was a grave abomination, to proclaiming that drinking the blood of Christ is essential for eternal life? As Jesus declares: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53).
To understand how such a radical shift in belief could occur, Pitre invites us to remove our modern assumptions and recover the worldview of ancient Jewish believers. By re-entering the world of first-century Jewish worship, expectation, and liturgy, he shows that the Eucharist is not a break from Judaism, but its astonishing fulfillment. The early Christians believed in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist precisely because of their deeply Jewish understanding of covenant, sacrifice, and divine worship.
Read more from this Book Review – https://prodigalcatholic.com/2023/12/12/summary-of-jesus-and-the-jewish-roots-of-the-eucharist-by-brant-pitre/
Buy – https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Jewish-Roots-Eucharist-Unlocking/dp/0385531842
