Matthew 26:29

contains an express statement of the fact implied in the preceding actions, iz., that death is near. It is the last time I shall drink paschal (τούτου τ. γ., etc.) wine with you. I am to die at this passover. The second half of the sentence is not to be taken prosaically. It is the thought of meeting again, brought in to brighten the gloom of the leave-taking (“so tritt zu dem Lebewohl ein Gedanke an das Wiedersehen,” Holtz., H.C.). To disentangle figure from fact in this poetic utterance about the new wine is impossible. Hence such comments as those of Bengal and Meyer, to the effect that καινὸν points to a new kind of wine (“novitatem dicit plane singularem,” Beng.), serve no purpose. They turn poetry into prose, and pathos into bathos.

The remarkable transaction narrated in Matthew 26:26-29 was an acted parable proclaiming at once the fact and the epoch-making significance of the approaching passion. It sets in a striking light the personality of a Jesus; His originality, His tenderness, His mastery of the situation, His consciousness of being through His life and His death the inaugurator of a new era. Was Judas present? Who can tell? Lk.'s narrative seems to imply that he was. Mt. and Mk. give no sign. They cannot have regarded his absence as of vital importance.