Objectively speaking, no one knows what exactly went on between Jesus and his apostles at the last supper. But we do know that oddly, the bible tells us two completely different versions of the event! And of course, only one can be true.

But John’s Gospel gives a totally different account. In this last supper, Jesus only dips a piece of bread in the wine and hands it to Judas, pointing him out as the traitor (John 13:26-30).

Interestingly, the wine-and-bread ritual (the eucharist) wasn't new at the time Jesus lived. The Persians had been performing the ritual for about 4,000 years!

The eucharist was performed to honor the Persian sun god Mithra. At the time Jesus lived, it was a very popular ritual!

Mithra had many parallels with Jesus. And one of the most striking ones was the last supper. Mithra was also believed to have held a last supper with his (twelve!) apostles before dying and going to heaven. Mithra would have spoken:

"He who shall not eat of my body or drink of my blood, so that he may be one with me and I with him, shall not be saved."

So think about it for a while. Many centuries before Christ, Mithraists already held their own bread-and-wine ritual. They too ate bread and drank wine in remembrance of Mithra, with the wine symbolizing Mithra's blood and the bread symbolizing his body.

Christ's competitor
Mithras worshippers were already performing the Last Supper ritual for 4,000 years

So, what happened? How did the ritual end up in the New Testament?

That depends on your point of view. Some believe Jesus was re-enacting the Mithra Eucharist.

Other scholars believe that the last supper didn’t take place at all. Rather, the Mithra ritual was deliberately written into the bible later, these scholars think. After all, the Mithra eucharist had proven to be a success story. It would be a bit like a web designer adding rollover buttons to a web site: you just know that it attracts people.

At least, it would also explain why there are two completely different versions of the Last Supper in the bible.

Clearly, the first church fathers had some explaining to do. After all, everybody knew that Mithra worshippers had been performing Jesus’ last supper ritual for centuries!
The early church fathers Tertullian and Justin found a nifty way out. It was the devil’s doing, they said! According to the church fathers, the devil had copied Jesus’ eucharist many centuries before it really happened. The devil would have ‘foreseen’ Jesus’ last supper.