The chapter
Simply Passover comes, Judas agrees a price, and a room is prepared. At the table Jesus hands round a cup, then bread, then a second cup, says one of them will betray him, and has to stop an argument about which of them is the greatest. In the garden he prays until he sweats, and an angel comes. He is arrested, and heals the man whose ear a disciple has just cut off. Peter denies him three times in a courtyard, and the chapter ends with a night of mockery and a hearing at daybreak.
Context This account of the supper has TWO cups and the other two have one. Verse 17 hands a cup round before the bread, with the instruction to divide it among themselves, and verse 20 gives a second cup after supper. Mark 14:23 and Matthew 26:27 both have a single cup, after the bread, and both can be opened here. Two famous places in this chapter were also checked in all thirteen offered editions and found identical: the angel and the sweat at verses 43 and 44 are in every one of them, and the long form of verses 19 and 20 is in every one of them. Where editions do diverge this app says so; here they do not.
Verses 14-23
Simply He sits down with the apostles and says he has wanted to eat this Passover with them before he suffers. He takes a cup, gives thanks, and tells them to take it and share it among themselves, and says he will not drink wine again until the Kingdom comes. Then he takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it and gives it to them, saying this is his body given for them and to do this in memory of him. After supper he gives the cup, saying it is the new covenant in his blood, poured out for them. Then he says the hand of the man who will hand him over is on the table.
Context The order here is cup, bread, cup, and the first cup carries an instruction the others do not: TAKE THIS AND DIVIDE IT AMONG YOURSELVES. It is handed to the table to be shared out rather than given to each in turn. Verse 21 is the other thing this account does differently: the betrayer is named as present AT THE TABLE, after the bread and the cup rather than before them, so in this telling the man who leaves has already eaten. This file does not resolve what that means; it reports where the sentence sits.
Tradition This is the scene the Western churches split over, and the four confessional documents in this app all speak to it directly. Westminster begins its chapter on the Lord's Supper with this night by name, saying our Lord Jesus, in the night wherein he was betrayed, instituted the sacrament of his body and blood, for the perpetual remembrance of the sacrifice of himself. The Council of Trent, in the second chapter of its thirteenth session, describes the same institution as made by a Saviour ABOUT TO DEPART OUT OF THIS WORLD, who commanded that his memory be venerated in it. Philaret's catechism quotes verse 19 by its reference when it says what those present at the Liturgy without communicating should do, remember him, because he expressly commanded us to do this in remembrance of him. On the cup of verse 17 two of them are explicit and pointed. The Thirty-Nine Articles state in one sentence that the cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the lay people, and that both parts of the sacrament ought to be given to all alike by Christ's own commandment. Westminster lists the denial of the cup to the people among the practices it calls contrary to the institution of Christ. Both paragraphs can be opened here in full, and so can the Roman chapters they are written against. This app reports what each document says and adopts none of them.
Verses 24-38
Simply An argument starts about which of them is the greatest. He says kings lord it over people and are called benefactors, and that they are to be the opposite: the greatest like the youngest, the leader like the servant, because he is among them as one who serves. He tells Simon that Satan has asked for them, that he has prayed for him, and that when he has turned back he should strengthen the others. Peter says he will go to prison and death, and is told he will deny him three times before the rooster crows. Then a strange exchange about purses and swords ends with two swords and the words that is enough.
Context The argument at verse 24 happens at the table, immediately after the bread and the cup, and the book does not move it somewhere more convenient. The answer at verse 27 makes the same reversal that 12:37 had made in a story: there the master came home and served the servants who stayed awake, and here he says I AM AMONG YOU AS ONE WHO SERVES. Verses 35 to 38 are only in this Gospel and they are hard to place. He reminds them that they lacked nothing when sent out with no purse at 10:4, then tells them to take a purse and buy a sword, and when they produce two he says IT IS ENOUGH. Twelve verses later a disciple uses one of them and is stopped. This file states the sequence and does not smooth it.
Verses 39-71
Simply On the Mount of Olives he tells them to pray and goes a stone's throw away to ask that the cup be taken from him, but not his will. An angel strengthens him, and in agony his sweat falls like drops of blood. He comes back and finds them asleep from grief. Judas arrives with a crowd and goes to kiss him. Someone cuts off the high priest's servant's right ear and Jesus touches it and heals it. In the courtyard Peter denies him three times, and as the rooster crows the Lord turns and looks at him, and Peter goes out and weeps. He is mocked and beaten through the night, and at daybreak the council asks whether he is the Christ.
Context Two details in this passage are in no other account, and both were checked by printing the parallels. The ear is cut off in all four Gospels, at Mark 14:47, Matthew 26:51 and John 18:10 as well as at verse 50, and only verse 51 has Jesus touch it and heal it. John alone names the servant, Malchus, and names Peter as the man with the sword; Luke and John both say it was the RIGHT ear. And at verse 61 THE LORD TURNED AND LOOKED AT PETER, which neither Mark 14:72 nor Matthew 26:75 reports: there Peter remembers the words on his own. Verse 45 also gives a reason for the sleeping that the others do not, that they were sleeping FROM GRIEF, which is the second time this book has them heavy with sleep at a decisive moment, after 9:32.